Cycling UK Forum

For a long time I have sought the answer this question: Would losing a certain amount of body weight (eg. 10lbs) assuming no loss in muscle strength, have the same result in performance as reducing a fully loaded touring bike by the same (eg.10lbs) amount?

In other words would losing 10lb in weight be the same as reducing my camping tour load by 10lb. I don’t think it would what are your thoughts?

Up to now I have asked 3 Doctors and 2 Fitness trainers with differing answers.

In that case does taking 5 lbs out of my saddlebag and putting it in my jersey pocket improve my performance

It doesn't matter where you lose the weight in real terms, however it may be easier to notice off the kit.

Gut feeling would be better to lose body weight.Possibly, your physiology might be more efficient without having to service extra living cells.Also,when honking out of the saddle,your legs will be supporting less weight,therefore working more efficiently.I don,t reckon you can apply simple physics to both living and non living system at the same time.

Remember - you will carry the body weight around ALL your waking hours, not just when you are in the saddle.....

bikepacker wrote:In other words would losing 10lb in weight be the same as reducing my camping tour load by 10lb. I don’t think it would what are your thoughts?.

If you just lost weight by diet (eating less) and assuming you still ate a healthy diet and continued to exercise as usual, then it would make little or no difference compared with taking the weight off the loaded bike.

However, if you lost the weight by burning more calories from increasing the intensity of your cycling then you have the advantage that you are able to put out more power. Doing something like a 20 minute interval (cycling as hard as you can) a couple of times a week in addition to your usual riding will burn calories, increase your heart stroke volume and the density of mitochondria in your muscles, which will increase your power output.

If you lost the weight this way you not only have less weight to lug around you have also increased your physical endurance.

Body weight is living weight and so needs maintaining as it needs blood flow,etc.
Weight as cargo is dead weight and needs no maintenance if packed in the optimum place on the bike where it effects handling least.
IMO least desirable is body weight

Virenque was once asked how much weight he lost over the course of the TdF. His reply was none: if you had excess weight to lose then you hadn't been training. By the same token, getting fit enough for a long trip necessarily involves losing excess weight.

That apart, cycling kit plus a flobby gut looks disgusting. I can say that because I too have a mirror.

In my continuing recovery from a health enforced lay off i've now lost 18kg. Whilst I am somewhat more svelte and certainly fitter - I don't feel any different, any difference in performance would easily be excused by improved fitness. I don't feel any lighter but lob a bag with a lock etc on the bike and it immediately feels heavier.

And in terms of reality - losing that body weight has been a long grind, lots of low calorie intake rides etc. OTOH, I could make a more noticeable difference by removing weight from the bike and see immediate results (okay I could swap the bike from the 9kg machine to the 7kg one) a much smaller saving but more noticeable than the weight I am used to walking around with! I think that sort of makes sense but don't quote me!

At the start of the year after watching a documnetary, I decided I'd try going meat and dairy free for a while.
The food I've been eating has mainly consisted of lots of fruit (dried & fresh), veg, beans, pulses, lentils, Huel, nuts etc
I love meat and dairy and have no reason for doing this other than intrigue.
So far, with minimal time for me spent in the saddle, whilst still consuming the same amount of daily calories, I've lost 7lbs.
I'm not sure i'll stick with it as I like my meat and cheese too much, but the weight loss is certainly of interest to me.

Thanks for the replies, some are very helpful. The question posed arose during a discussion with a cycling GP while waiting to catch a ferry at Dublin last June. We were discussing my excess weight which a prescription drug had played a large part. He remarked that I seemed to have a lot of camping gear, to some I may but I have my reasons. He then said if I reduced the weight of the load it was the same as losing weight. At the time I didn’t say anything but started to research and ask others. So far I have had very conflicting answers.

Some background to me putting on the weight: Twelve months earlier I began to suffer with PMR it was not fully diagnosed until August 2016. My doctor then put me on a course of Corticosteroids. After a few months I had tremendous weight gain and other unusual symptoms, I began to do some research and found the side effects of the drugs could be worse than the PMR. All medical advice said a slow weaning off process needed to be followed. This I did and was on a small dose at the time of my trip over to Ireland to meet up with forum member ‘jags’ in May 2017. By December 2107 I had completely stopped taking the drug and since then begun a plan to slowly lose the stone in weight I had gained.