Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Joining the Discussion

No, I'm not jumping on board the 'power numbers' band (or chuck) wagon. Instead, I'll join the weight loss fray. I think I found the easy answer to weight loss...stop training. That's right, take a lazy winter with infrequent workouts and watch the pounds drop faster than Christophe Moreau off the back of the peleton during stage 14 of last year's Tour.

Ignoring the confusion about whether fat or muscle weighs more (a pound of balsa wood weighs the same as a pound of Brazilian mahogany, right?), the equation for me is pretty simple. In the warm months, I race and train more. My leg muscles get larger. There's no doubting that. I've got 'summer' and 'winter' jeans to handle bigger or smaller seasonal quads. I'm a bit freakish that way. In any case, I easily weigh more during the height of the season because I've packed on plenty of extra leg muscle. In the winter, my legs shrink and I lose that mass. The result? The scale spits lower numbers in the cold months.

Case in point...this morning I weighed in at my lowest since the Smithsburg RR in July 2007. That day, I lost 8 pounds out on course. Started the day at 135 and finished at 127. Yipes! Needless to say, this morning found me hovering just above that low mark.

Just goes to show you...the body works in strange ways. For me, being lazy and skipping the riding results in lower weight. Don't worry, though. One thing remains constant year-round. I always eat like I'm 6'-2" and 240 lbs. And on that note, my next few posts MUST be about food, not cycling. (Might be tough, as I just took delivery of my new Cannondale with Rival parts. I anticipate offering some blog-thoughts about the SRAM stuff. More to come.)

2 comments:

Chuck Wagon said...

3 things -
1. Damn - smack down!!!
2. A pound of ipe is actually heavier than a pound of any other wood. I've measured.
3. I forgot.

Our women figured out who each other are at yoga recently.

Bryan Vaughan said...

127??? Does the scale even register when you step on it? I guess I can add you to my list of guys (like Rayman) that, when they talk about wieght loss and gain, are talking about a couple of goo shot's worth. I think that there should be a cycling blog rule that "weight related issues may only be discussed by guys over 170lbs" or something like that. It's especially disconcerting to hear about losing weight by doing nothing. I can hear crying out there in the ranks ;)