Having to lose six kilos of weight, and perhaps even doing it in a short time. A similar case, which serves as a starting point, occurred some time ago. Thomas Pesenti. His sporting director, Roberto Miodini, he had told us how, once he had identified the problem, which by the way was not simply linked to being overweight or to a lack of seriousness on the part of the boy, he had set to work to resolve the issue.
Doctor Andrea Giorgi, doctor of the Green Project Bardiani CSF, among other things also a doctor of the Beltrami Tsa di Pesenti, explains to us how to work in these cases.
So, Dr. Giorgi, the rider must lose weight, a good amount of weight. It goes without saying that he must eat less, so how is it done?
First of all A body composition assessment is performed, which is how you're made. This means how your weight is composed: amount of fat, muscle, water, bone... And it's best to do it at the end of the season, when the riders are still reasonably fit. This is a measurement I prefer to simple body fat percentage.
Why?
Why Body fat percentage alone is a limited and inappropriate assessment for athletes. These are percentages created for normal people, but for athletes it's different. And that's why I like to work with a more Anglo-Saxon system, that is, the sum of the millimeters of the folds in various parts of the body. So by adding the millimeters of the skinfold on the abdomen, on the calf, on the thigh... one rider has a total of 45 millimeters – these are random numbers – and another 30. These are objective data, with references in the professional cycling population that we can also compare during the season.
How is the muscular part measured?
With bioimpedance analysis or DEXA. And this is an important piece of data because it's the metabolically active mass that primarily influences performance. If an athlete is overweight and needs to lose 4-5 kilos, they have a significant task ahead of them. In fact, I remember that To lose one pound of fat, you need an energy deficit of 7.000 calories. But burning 7.000 means creating a very large calorie deficit over the course of a day or week.
But that doesn't mean that if I burn 7.000 calories, perhaps with a super-long workout, I'll burn a kilo of fat, because there are other nutrients too, right?
Exactly. That's why it's so difficult. All diets, from the minestrone diet to the carrot diet, have the common denominator of a calorie deficit, but you have to find the right balance between macronutrients, vitamins... depending on what you need to do. This is why it is very important to lose weight in winter and not at the height of the season. By December, you should be ready. Also, because when it comes to winter, there's not that much time. Many riders have... a month and a half since they're already running in mid-January.
Tell us better ...
If they are in the middle of the season or even in the middle of the preparation, how do you take food away from them? To train well, even at high intensities, you need to eat, and eat carbohydrates. If you don't eat, you don't train hard, you promote catabolism (muscle loss, ed.) and you also overtrain.
So how do you do it? How do you lose 5-6 pounds without losing muscle?
Especially from this time of year onward, when you're not competing or training heavily, you need to reduce your calorie intake throughout the day. During this time, people tend to do long, low-intensity workouts, where the energy demand from sugars is limited in favor of fats. There are dietary techniques where you eat protein as an energy source during low intensity training. and long-lasting, so as to preserve muscle mass and promote fat loss. A five-hour workout with protein is certainly better than five hours without eating anything. It is very important to do all of this under medical supervision. Fat produces hormones and by changing its quantity, new metabolic balances are created.
Given that there are so many variables, such as the amount of weight to lose, the subject, the age... but is it possible to give an estimate of the speed of weight loss without losing watts, i.e. muscles?
I'd say a kilo a week at most, If you want to stay healthy and exercise well, then three to four kilos a month.
How you do it?
For example, eat carbohydrates especially after training or at breakfast, before going out. Avoid blood sugar spikes and, of course, monitor your carbohydrate intake. Drastic reductions are possible, but only for a very limited period and under medical supervision. Today, however, the opposite problem exists. When running, especially top team athletes, are used to eating large amounts of carbohydrates. There are those who have exceeded 120 grams per hour. But it is necessary. This is why I repeat that it is important, very important, to arrive at the start of the season already at the right weight, Because it's very difficult to lose weight and properly train your gut to process certain amounts of sugar. If you consume all those carbs every hour, even two kilos become a problem.
