ideal weight

[ianwoodi]

Hi
what would the best weight for a 5ft 7in male at the moment i am 11 stone if lose any more weight will it affect my performance on a road bike. Feeling fit at the moment but do not want to go to far

 

[ColinJ]

It is impossible to say whether you are overweight just from your height. You might have anything from a very heavy build to a very light one.

So, try an experiment .. (For the sake of modesty, let's assume that you have a pair of boxer shorts on ) ... Jump up in the air while looking at yourself in a full-length mirror and tense all your muscles. When you land, can you see anything wobble?

If the answer is 'no', then you probably don't need to lose much weight, unless you are one of those people who stores a lot of fat internally.

If the answer is 'yes' then you have surplus fat and could definitely lose some weight. Surplus fat doesn't help your performance so losing it wouldn't hurt your performance.

If you don't cycle up a lot of hills then a few pounds here or there isn't going to make that much difference, but if you do a lot of hills then every pound lost will help as long as you don't overdo it and lose power.

 

[ianwoodi]

hi i am small frame and there is a bit of wobble not short of hills so must get and train on the hills

 

[uclown2002]

If small frame then 10 stone probably good weight.

 

[ColinJ]

If small frame then 10 stone probably good weight.

Sounds more like it!

Losing a stone off 11 stone would make a significant difference to climbing. Not as much as getting really fit, mind you ...

 

[derrick]

Am 5ft 8ins am 11 stone at the moment need to get down to 10 stone or just obove, thats when i feel my best on the bike, am about a medium frame, but i think it's down to the individual, you will know when you feel good or not.

 

[Garz]

It is impossible to say whether you are overweight just from your height. You might have anything from a very heavy build to a very light one.

So, try an experiment .. (For the sake of modesty, let's assume that you have a pair of boxer shorts on ) ... Jump up in the air while looking at yourself in a full-length mirror and tense all your muscles. When you land, can you see anything wobble?

If the answer is 'no', then you probably don't need to lose much weight, unless you are one of those people..

I am one of those people Colin

 

[G3CWI]

Body Mass Index is one indicator. Not perfect but a widely used guide to weight. http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Healthyweightcalculator.aspx

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

I'm 5ft 7 and I'm 9st 4 (59kg) and I don't feel I'm lacking due to my weight

 

[Garz]

I am 5'6" and currently 12st 4, when I drop into the 11's you can see the ribs and abs. If I got into the 10s people would say I was chronically ill, so yes use the bmi as a 'rough' guide but its definitely not accurate - much like the HR training bpm formula people use.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

BMI is not accurate and basically worked to make the question fit the answer. BMI is a stupid formula which decides your weight by your height squared. It makes no consideration regarding how your body is constructed and your percentage of muscle mass. It treats muscle and fat the same.
Under BMI when Lennox Lewis was heavy weight world Champion he was obese, Slyvester Stallone, Will Smith and Kobe Bryant are considered overweight. Brad Pitt when he was preparing for the film Troy had a higher than ideal BMI.
I fail to understand why its still used so much.

 

[ianwoodi]

I would like to get down to 101/2 stone do around 30 miles a day on rollers sprinting and so on When weather gets a bit warmer i will be doing 30 miles on road with my new kuota carbon di2

 

[G3CWI]

I fail to understand why its still used so much.

...because it's easy to use and gives a rough indication of how appropriate a person's weight is. No simple index will ever be infallible. It provides a handy starting point, no more.

 

[Monsieur]

I'm the perfect weight - just 4 inches too short for that weight

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

...because it's easy to use and gives a rough indication of how appropriate a person's weight is. No simple index will ever be infallible. It provides a handy starting point, no more.

its not a rough indication imho, its a guess. It has no foundation in science and is no more an indication than looking in a mirror and yelling fatty.
according to Bradley Wiggins profile on Sky he has a BMI of 19 which means he will spend a vast amount of the season underweight.

http://www.teamsky.com/profile_news/0,27292,17578,00.html

Would you suggest that underweight people have the energy levels required to complete and win the TDF? -- BMI suggests this very thing.