What is it about athletes and food; or about endurance athletes and their weight, to be more specific? There seems to be an unhealthy obsession in some sporting quarters about the direct relationship between weight loss and athletic performance. The sport of elite cycling is at the forefront of the advent of “athletic anorexia”. Granted, the lighter you are the faster you may be able to cycle uphill, in theory at least.
Restricting
one’s calorie intake for the sake of a better power-to-weight ratio is not only
harmful to optimum health, but it can also lead to an obsession with one’s
appearance leading to further mental stress.
In the wake
of the recent doping scandals surrounding professional cycling, several
confessions by former riders have awakened the mainstream media and population
to the harsh realities of elite sports. While the recurring topic is the use of
performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), other idiosyncrasies of the closed world of
pro-cycling have emerged into the public domain, including the obsession with race weight.
Tyler
Hamilton as touched on the subject of weight loss and caloric restriction in
his important autobiography, The
Secret Race, destined to become a classic amongst cycling aficionados and
mainstream fans alike. Going for a six hour training ride, returning home and
drinking a bottle of carbonated water whilst swallowing three sleeping pills so
you sleep through dinner sounds almost comical, but is certainly not out of the
ordinary in terms of cyclists chasing their elusive “form”.
The problem,
however, comes when an aspiring pro or weekend warrior is confronted with this
phenomenon - and other old wives tales or urban legends - in books or magazines and follows these
details to the letter. Maybe he or she will get that contract or improve their race
performance etc. But the long term side effects and health risks of toying with
their natural metabolism in the quest for numbers on a scale far outweigh any
benefits that may occur in the short term.
Professional
cyclists, and endurance athletes as a whole, are overly skinny. A body fat
percentage of 5 or even 7 percent is simply not practical or healthy to the normal
person, no matter at what their level of fitness. Your immune system suffers
tremendous strain, with common colds hovering around every corner.
I distinctly remember
the emergence of meal replacement drinks in the mid-1990s. Several brands had “herbal”
connotations, where a simple few glasses of these “mixes” allegedly provided
the user with all the nutrients found in real food, with the added bonus of
guaranteed weight loss. No need for proper meals anymore; just mix a few spoons
of the “magic powder” with water and your daily sustenance was complete.
This craze
extended quickly into the sport of triathlon, which I was competing in
extensively at the time. Remember that back then, the sport was shrugging of
its pioneering phase where it was often dominated by slightly overweight – in athletic
terms at least – lifesaver built athletes and “Slim Jims” alike. Over the
course of only one season, I remember several well-built triathletes suddenly
evolve into lean, mean racing machines, with the topic after races being that
of weight loss instead of comparing times over a beer or ten. Unsurprisingly, they
were soon injured, with the then revolutionary knee-taping techniques prominent
at the mid to late season events.
Athletes of
all levels who are conscious about their weight should consider the following
parameter: a minimum body weight limit. This means that once you can accurately
determine the lightest body weight that is both practical AND healthy for you,
then this becomes your cutoff of point. If you get lighter than this particular
weight, it is time to scale back your training and concentrate on getting more
sleep and better nutrition.
Similarly, a
limited weight gain during the off-season is actually beneficial for several
reasons. Injuries are able heal quicker and illness is often averted with a
reasonable increase in weight amongst endurance athletes. The body’s immune
system is strengthened due to less activity, similar to the hibernation period
of many animal types. Limited weight gain means 5-6kg; not 10-15kg though.
Take a look
at this article
by Jonas Colting on the subject of athletes and weight. While the piece is
written in his native Swedish, it is readable in English using Google Translate.
