Racing Weight: The best way to Get Lean for Peak Efficiency (The Racing Weight Collection)

And that is how it’s done!
I was blown away by this book. I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about nutrition, but I found a whole lot of useful information here about things to tweak in my eating patterns to improve my sports performance and to get leaner. Before I go into the details let me pose a few questions for you:1)Do you think the lowest weight you can achieve should be your target weight to maximize racing performance?2)Do you agree with low-carb diets being the best way to lose weight and keep it off?3)In your opinion, is calorie-counting essential when trying to achieve your optimal race weight?4)Do you think that the timing during the day of your intake of different food sources (protein, fats, carbs) has no impact on weight loss?If the answer to most of these questions is “No”, this is the books for you. Actually, even if you answer “Yes” to the questions, you may be swayed to change your opinion after reading Fitzgerald’s clear and insightful explanations.It all starts with finding a target for racing weight, and this is not based on height or BMI, it is based on % of body fat. You will have to estimate this in some shape or form, the easiest one being a scale that provides this measurement. The target is an approximation, because a low body fat per se is not beneficial unless it’s associated with better sports performances. Therefore, during this process you will monitor your performance at different weights / body fat % combinations to determine what your optimal situations is.One of the main aspects I liked about the book is the philosophy about balanced nutrition. I am one of those people that is completely against low-carb diets, since when I have tried this is in the past, I have felt awful. The author presents us with a “scoring system” for our eating during the day in which healthy foods provide you with a positive score but these points diminish as you eat more servings during the day. Unhealthy foods have a negative score, and you goal is to score as high as possible within reason. Since I was eating healthy, I did not drastically change my eating habits, however, one of the elements that are important is timing of nutrition, with more carbs early in the day and relatively more protein later. Also, the author makes you aware of some foods that hide sugar in them and that should be avoided when possible. These simple changes have made me leaner than I ever was.Like I mentioned before, the book does not focus on counting calories (unless you are in the off season and not training much and need to jump start your weight loss), but there are some recommendations about how to manage hunger. This does not mean that you are severely going to limit your food intake, but instead that you should focus on eating the right portions and combinations of nutrients to deliver your needs without overeating.There is a section about strength training and high intensity training which were the portions of the book that I did not pay that much attention to. I already have a training plan that works and I do not want to mess with that at this point. This may be helpful to others though, so just be aware that it’s there too.Overall, this is a truly excellent book, with a lot of information and explanations on why the author recommends the course of action he presents to us. It is so good in fact that I have decided to read pretty much any other book he has written, hopefully with the same results. I recommend this book to all endurance athletes without reservations. As I mention that, I should point out that there is even a section dealing with athletes that are vegetarian and with those that have gluten intolerance.

Wish I could give this 10 stars!
I’m a 46 yo female cyclist, 5 ft 3 and had 15 lbs to shed. I wanted to get back into amateur bike racing after 3 years off due to job changes and a series of knee injuries. I kept coming back to this book because of the positive reviews. I’m glad I did! Excellent program and I have already recommended to several of my biking friends.After 4 weeks on the program I have dropped 10 pounds and feel MUCH stronger on the bike. I’ve also lost most of my desire for sweets and other junk food – the eating plan the author lays out is very satisfying and easy to follow (besides being super-healthy). It turned out I was seriously undercutting my calorie and carb needs as a lot of women do – I was training 10 hours a week on the bike and eating 1300 calories/day (with few carbs) and not losing weight. And I was getting seriously tired and frustrated. I decided to follow the Racing Weight plan (and the high-volume cyclist training plan in the Quick Start guide) since nothing else seemed to be working. I cleaned up my eating, added in another ~600 cal a day (mostly high quality carbs), and trained a little differently (added HIIT but kept hours on the bike the same). Wow, what a difference and after only 4 weeks!I’m going to follow the plan through week 6 (at least) and possibly week 8 to see where that takes my weight. As the author states in the book, my best racing weight may actually be a bit lower than what I had thought.My only wish – that the author would create additional training plans for cyclists as he has for runners. His Quick Start plan has worked so well that I’d like to continue using one of his plans after my 8 week weight loss cycle!

Matt has done the extensive research and shares the best practices, debunks some myths. A must-read for anyone serious in endurance sports.

This is a great book!Heavily backed by scientific studies. Gives deep insight into what to eat and how to eat the right amount. Understand which weight you need for racing. Lots of real-life examples of pro’s who work on their weight. This is like the bible of weight management for athletes.I found it has lots of biking references, (me being a biker) is really good.I made lots and lots of notes as I read this.I now use the DQS app on my android and lost around 2 pounds. Good stuff, reccomend.