Book notes: Racing Weight

By Matt Fitzgerald

Takeaways:

1. “Most common training mistake endurance athletes make is insufficient intensity variation.”
2. Power to weight ratio… Can’t increase power and lose weight at the same time, have to do one or the other.
3. Folks that stick with something are the ones that believe it will work.
4. Every month measure race performance, weight, and body composition.
5. Refer to the 6 steps for eating: diet quality, control appetite, energy balance (i.e. keep eating carbs!), monitor, nutrient timing, train for racing weight.
6. Diet Quality Score (see the table).
7. Have 1 – 2 big event goals per year. Break the year into cycles with a “Quick Start” (1-2 months), “Performance training” to a big event (2-3 months), and an offseason (1 month).

Intro

So you think you’re fat? Well I ain’t down with that. 160 pound runner uses 6.5% more energy than 150 pound runner. Ultimately, leanest runners have the fastest times. Equipment “Alter-G” simulates being 10 pounds lighter or heavier while running and the difference feels dramatic! Mistakes athletes make when losing weight: carb-free diet, supplements, going hungry. “Most common training mistake endurance athletes make is insufficient intensity variation.” Book part 1: prep material. Part 2: 6 steps. Part 3: Put plan into action.

Get Leaner, Go faster

Athletes with lower body fat perform better, duh. Fat is “metabolically active”. “Athletes with more fat burn less fat & more carbs at submaximal exercise intensities.” Body compositions for different sports. “Your body is very intelligent, and it is perfectly capable of … becoming a lean, mean, racing machine if you are willing to bring your overall lifestyle into line with that goal.”

How Much Should You Weigh?

The only way to know for sure is get to your optimal performance and measure your weight. No “prescriptive” method. Weight and body composition should be considered together. “The only way to attain your optimal racing weight is to focus on performance.” Tables for realistic body composition goals, and method of calculating target weight. Mine is around 170 lbs.

Dieting vs Performance Weight Management

“Diet with a name”: Weight Watchers for calories, Atkins diet for no carbs. Effective at first, but few don’t attain goal and 80% of those don’t keep it off. These diets are “sabotage” for endurance athlete training. Hitting home that you need to focus on performance. Calories in, calories out is the only way to lose weight. Can’t increase power and lose weight at the same time, have to do one or the other. Large calorie deficits can cause muscle loss. Muscle is the “metabolic engine” that causes other weight loss. Lol describes recreational athletes as “age groupers”. The people that stick with weight loss systems are the ones that think it will work.

Step 1: Improving Your Diet Quality MQ: “Of course people who eat a lot of potato chips gain more weight over time! But the keys to effective weight management … have always been obvious. The reason so many of us struggle with weight management is that we don’t do the obvious.” Glycemic index is “a nearly useless tool”. Diet Quality Score (Page 62), points per serving of each food type.

Food type	1	2	3	4	5	6
Fruits	2	2	2	1	0	0
Vegetables	2	2	2	1	0	0
Lean means & fish	2	2	1	0	0	0
Nuts & seeds	2	2	1	0	0	-1
Whole grains	2	2	1	0	0	-1
Dairy	1	1	1	0	-1	-2
Refined grains	-1	-1	-2	-2	-2	-2
Sweets	-2	-2	-2	-2	-2	-2
Fried foods	-2	-2	-2	-2	-2	-2
Fatty proteins	-1	-1	-2	-2	-2	-2

“The effect of food on hunger is determined primarily by its volume.” Description of 10 categories, 6 high quality, 4 low quality, along with common sense serving sizes for each. Simplest is to substitute low quality food with high quality, then could do a 3-day food journal. Highest score possible is 32.

• Fruit. E.g. One banana, big handful of berries.
• Veggies. E.g. fist-sized solid veggie, ½ cup tomato sauce, medium-sized salad.
• Lean meats & fish. Open palm. (eggs count)
• Nuts & seeds: Palmful. Nut butters: heaping tablespoon
• Whole grains: Fist size of brown rice, medium size bowl of cereal, 2 slices of bread.
• Dairy: Glass of milk, bowl of cereal. Whole is just as good as skim.

Step 2: Managing your appetite It’s difficult to resist overeating with willpower alone. Counting calories is difficult in practice. Empty stomach and low blood glucose are triggers for hunger. “Head hunger” (eat for pleasure) vs “stomach hunger” (actual hunger). MQ: “The most powerful psychological determinant of how much we eat and how full we get is intent.” Two main reasons we overeat. 1. “unnaturally calorie-dense foods” (e.g. an 800-calorie cheeseburger). 2. Portion sizes. The average fast food restaurant portion size quadrupled since 1950s. Oh no, 8 ways to manage appetite.

1. Learn the difference between head hunger and belly hunger. Adjust meal sizes so you have hunger symptoms within 1 hour of next meal. Try for 2 days.
2. Clean junk food out of your kitchen and never buy it in the first place.
3. Use smaller dishes.
4. Spoil your appetite. E.g. with water.
5. Keep healthy foods around. E.g. dried fruit, nuts, jerky.
6. Plan for temptation. E.g. just a taste of unexpected food.
7. Avoid distracted eating.
8. Limit variety.

Step 3: Balancing Your Energy Sources Endurance athletes need to eat carbohydrates. Table of carb needs…

• 7-10 hours/week, ~3.5 g/lb. That would be 600g for me.
• 11-14 hours/week, ~3.85 g/lb. That would be 650g for me. Table of carbs in a food item:
• Whole wheat bagel: 57g
• Banana: 25g
• Whole wheat bread: 36g
• Breakfast cereal: 45g
• Brown rice: 45g
• Lentils: 40g
• Oatmeal: 25g
• Yogurt: 50g Whoa, last 3 paragraphs really nail it! No “magic ratio” for carb, protein, fat. Don’t worry about balancing your energy sources or counting calories. “You will be assured of consuming the right amount of energy if you eat according to your appetite while maintaining high diet quality and appetite management techniques.” Fat requirements are met by good diet quality and 2 fish servings a week (or supplement). Protein 1.2 g/kg of body weight (204 for me). “That’s all there is to it.”

Step 4: Monitoring Yourself Constantly monitor your body composition, weight, and performance. Bummer. Weigh yourself often, but consistently, same time of day. Use a scale for body composition. Body composition is stronger indicator of performance than weight. Monthly performance monitoring. Table of test performance time, body weight, and fat percentage. Running performance test is a 10k at 95% effort. “What gets measured gets managed.”

Step 5: Nutrient Timing Timing can determine if a nutrient becomes fat, muscle, or energy. The goal is to “pair your intake of calories to your body’s usage of calories throughout the day.” Boiled down to a few rules:

1. Eat early.
2. Eat carbs early and protein late.
3. Eat on a consistent schedule. It’s ok to snack more if on a tougher part of schedule.
4. Eat 2-4 hours before exercise.
5. Eat during exercise, but only longer/challenging workouts. ~30-60g carbs/hour. E.g. sports drink, gels.
6. Eat after exercise.
7. Minimize eating after dark. One athlete suggested going to bed “mildly hungry”

Step 6: Training for Racing Weight Chronic Training Load of 120 – 140 for elite athletes, with high volume, low-intensity training. Aerobic capacity (VO2 Max) will increase with high intensity, low volume or the other way around. High volume, low intensity allows for longer workouts, more calories, and more movements to practice efficiency. 80/20 rule… 80% of training should be below lactate threshold, 20% at and above. Have to mix in a little bit of high intensity work. Do strength training with heavy weights and stability 20-40 minutes 2-3 times per week. Sport-specific power training, for runners 6-10 reps of 8-10 second sprints up a steep hill once a week.

Fine Tune Your Strategy

The “Racing Weight” system is 6 steps for when you need to find your racing weight. I.e. not a diet you do for a short while, and not a lifestyle you adopt indefinitely. Table 10.1 “Planing Your Racing Weight Cycle.” Two-cycles in a year: 2 months of quick start, 3 months of performance, 1 month of offseason. Three cycles in a year: 1 months of quick start, 2 months of performance, 1 month of offseason. It’s normal to gain weight in the offseason, try to limit to 8% of optimal racing weight. “Quick Start” is for burning off some of the fat at a faster rate before fine-tuning with Racing Weight. 4 weeks for < 10 lbs, 6 weeks for 10-20 lbs, 8 weeks for >20 lbs. Steps:

1. 300 – 500 daily calories deficit.
2. Strength Training. Helps with fat burn and otherwise you lose muscle as well.
3. Increase protein intake. Up to 30% of calories.
4. Fasting workout. Once a week a long, moderate intensity workout in a fasting state.
5. Power intervals. 20 x 20 all-out exercise. Once a week. Advertises another book that puts this together: Racing Weight Quick Start Guide. Endurance athletes that stick with it do it for fun and how it makes them feel. Choose a sport you like. Set a big goal.

Racing Weight Foods

Twenty-six food staples that are constantly found in elite athlete food journals.

• Vegetables: beets, vegetable soup, spinach, sweet potato, heirloom tomato, avocado.
• Fruits: apples, bananas, cherries, oranges, grapes
• Lean meats: farmed trout, grass-fed beef, tuna, turkey breast, salmon
• Nuts and seeds: chia & hemp seeds, peanut butter, roasted cashews
• Whole grains: barley, oats, brown rice, whole wheat
• Dairy: feta cheese, plain yogurt, whole milk

What the Pros Eat

A collection of food journal entries from elite athletes.

Racing Weight and You

A collection of specific questions (how to lose muscle, gluten-free, vegetarian, etc) that don’t relate to me, so I skipped.

Appendix: Weight exercises for endurance athletes