Nutrition
Five Ways to Limit Offseason Weight Gain
By Matt Fitzgerald F
or many, another triathlon season has ended; another offseason has begun. That means you’re probably gaining weight as you read this. A certain amount of weight gain is unavoidable for many triathletes in the reduced-training fall and winter months. But what you want to avoid is the common problem of gaining entirely too much body fat at this time of year, which will sabotage your efforts to take your racing performance to a new level next year.
The following five tips will help you avoid excessive weight gain this offseason.
SET A WEIGHT-GAIN LIMIT You probably will gain less body fat during the offseason if you replace a vague intention to stay lean with a definite goal — specifically, a maximum weight limit. Use the 8 percent rule to calculate your limit.
Every triathlete has an optimal racing weight, and most triathletes have a good idea what that weight is. The 8 percent rule dictates that you should avoid gaining more than 8 percent of your ideal racing weight during the offseason.
For example, suppose your racing weight is 150 pounds. Eight percent of 150 is about 12 pounds. So in this case you’ll want to set a goal not to exceed 162 pounds. Once your weight limit is established, weigh yourself once a week to track any movement toward it and make changes as necessary (e.g., lay off the eggnog) if you find yourself getting too close, too quickly. Eight percent may sound like a lot, but it includes an allowance for muscle mass gain, which is recommended at this time of year (see the next section).
Also note that if you are already above your optimal racing weight at the start of the offseason, you still must limit your weight gain to 8 percent above your optimal racing weight, not your current weight. Not sure what your optimal racing weight is? Refer to my book, “Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance,” for help in determining it.
74 USA TRIATHLON FALL 2011
GAIN MUSCLE INSTEAD OF FAT The offseason is a good time to focus on strength training. Functional strength is important for triathlon performance, but for most triathletes the development of functional strength necessarily takes a back seat to race-focused endurance training during periods of peak training. When the offseason arrives, you can take advantage of the time freed up by your reduced emphasis on endurance training to increase your commitment to functional strength development and create a reserve of strength that will carry you through the next competitive season. A side benefit of this tactic is that it will add muscle mass to your body and thereby reduce offseason fat accumulation.
Gaining muscle mass reduces fat accumulation in a couple of ways. Building muscle requires calories, and as more of your food calories are channeled into making muscle, fewer are left over to be channeled into your fat stores. Also, a lot of energy is required to maintain muscle tissue once it’s been created. It takes 30 to 50 calories a day to maintain a pound of muscle, compared to only two calories per day for a pound of fat. So if you gain two pounds of muscle during the offseason, there will be 60 to 100 fewer food calories available for storage as body fat.
BE CONSISTENT The thing that really throws triathletes off track during the
offseason is reducing their exercise frequency — going from working out every day to working out just a few times per week. It’s okay to take a week or two off training after a peak race for physical and mental regeneration, but after that you should return to daily exercise. Returning to daily exercise need not equal returning to progressive, race-focused training. If you have some time before you need to begin your next formal training cycle, and you still need a break from hard training, you can train lightly or in non-sport-specific ways with a focus on fun, but you need to do something at least six days a week or you’re likely to experience a damaging offseason weight gain.
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