Bike Gurus: Bike power and weight loss/gain

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2014-08-02 6:21 AM

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Elite
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Subject: Bike Gurus: Bike power and weight loss/gain
I don't currently train with power but I plan to change that this off season (preseason) but I was wondering if there is some simple calculation or guesstimate that a particular athlete , if they gain a pound you lose X amount of power or visa versa.

I am not considered overweight for the average population but as a triathlete I know I could benefit from dropping up to 10 pounds and looking for additional motivation.

Thanks for any input or if you have any links to look at

Thanks

2014-08-02 6:36 AM
in reply to: FELTGood

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Subject: RE: Bike Gurus: Bike power and weight loss/gain
I've been half looking at this a bit recently, I found this link -

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/why-is-weight-so-importa...

It may help.
2014-08-02 6:42 AM
in reply to: FELTGood


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Subject: RE: Bike Gurus: Bike power and weight loss/gain

The powermeter will allow you to compute actual kcal burned per workout, with software like GoldenCheetah, and I think, Garmin Connect. 

The same principles of calories in < calories expended still apply.

IMO, the powermeter doesn't make it any easier to lose weight; even if you know you burned exactly 1800 calories in your last bike workout, you still have to control what you eat relative to hunger, so you'd likely have the same weight reduction by just tracking time spent on the bike even without power and trying to bump up bike time.

You can actually get close to powermeter estimates of calorie burn in running by just using online calculators where you plug in your body weight and distance run, since in running, it's pretty stable calories/mile regardless of pace. If doing something like that doesn't make a big difference in your weight loss, it's unlikely that having the powermeter calories burned number will.

2014-08-02 6:50 AM
in reply to: #5034049

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Subject: RE: Bike Gurus: Bike power and weight loss/gain
Sorry. ..maybe in wasn't clear. I am not getting power meter to lose weight, maybe I shouldn't have blurred my post throwing that info in. Getting the meter for the usual reasons.

Just wondering if I did shed a few pounds how that would equate to power numbers on the road....If even there is a calculation.

Will check out link above thanks
2014-08-02 7:03 AM
in reply to: FELTGood


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Subject: RE: Bike Gurus: Bike power and weight loss/gain
I was asking about weight on bike forums and someone posting the following video, pretty helpful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DRQwKREgvI

If you don't want to watch the whole thing, they came up with:
at 8/k/h 8% grade adding 5.73lbs pushed watts from 146 to 155 . . . . 6.2%
at 16/k/h 8% the watts went from 279 to 319 . . . 14%
2014-08-02 7:34 AM
in reply to: MikeD1

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Subject: RE: Bike Gurus: Bike power and weight loss/gain
Losing weight doesn't directly correlelate to gaining power.

But if you have extra weight to lose, by losing weight you will improve your power-to-weight ratio (which when understood properly is ultimately what translates to speed).

This link might help explain it:

http://wattbike.com/uk/guide/using_the_wattbike/power_to_weight_rat...

The calculation of power-to-weight ratio is simply power divided by weight in kilograms. So you improve that number either by increasing power or decreasing weight, but the number doesn't mean much on its own. You have to understand it the context of how you ride and know your own starting point and track improvement as you are also tracking speed.



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