Has your weight changed over the years?

Mike Willcox

My weight when I was racing in my prime ranged from 172/175 lbs and during the off season went no higher than 182 lbs.

It's now 185 lbs and I can't see how it is possible to lose another 10 lbs.

Is this an age thing? Just interested in how other riders' weight varies over time.

shockedsoshocked

Yes.

A couple of years ago I was 5 stone heavier

Bronzie

Yep - I used to weigh about 14 stone 10 years ago (and thought I was pretty fit) - now I'm just under 11.1/2 stone (and know I'm nowhere near fit, but a lot better than I was when I was 14 stone)

ChrisLS

...over the years I have lost about 4 stone and 6 inches on my waist...

inseine

When I started racing at 17 I was 52kgs, now 28 years later I'm 58kgs and still racing. I can't imagine being 6kgs lighter, but the thing I don't think i was any better then.

Jeff Jones

I started at 71kg about 20 years ago, and that's where I am at now.

There was a five year period when I was 65kg (which in itself didn't help my form) and I went from that up to 75kg when I stopped racing for a bit. Now I'm probably eating less than I did when I was 17, but not much less.

ColinJ

[Oops - I got carried away answering your question! I'll leave the long version below the short one :oops: ]

The short answer - I don't really find my age to be a factor. I'm 52 and I can easily gain 3-4 pounds a week or lose 2-3 pounds a week and I keep on proving it! I seem to have a finely-balanced metabolism. If I tip one way I pile the weight on, if I go the other way, it drops off me.

The long answer I'm nearly 6' 2" tall and I reckon a good healthy weight for me when I'm fit is what you were in your prime i.e. 172-175 pounds (12 st 4 lbs - 12 st 7 lbs). However, my weight has been up and down like a yoyo for 25 years now. It's all stress-related...

I was a student from age 27 to age 30, I'd dropped out of my first degree course when I was younger, having spent too much time partying and not enough time working. Second time round I didn't want to make the same mistake so I gave up alcohol while I was at university ( :shock: !). I also gave up eating meat. I did about 30 miles a week of brisk walking to, from and about the campus. My weight gradually dropped over the 3 years from about 187 pounds (13 st 5 lbs) to a near-skeletal 150 pounds (10 st 10 lbs). My ribs stuck out, I looked gaunt. I could get a large roll of sellotape over my wrist and all the way up to my armpit!

After I graduated, I had a stressful office job. I got a lift to work, so no more walking for me. I started drinking alcohol again (lots of it) and started over-eating. By the age of 33 my weight had ballooned to 229 pounds (16 st 5 lbs). Then something great happened...

I staggered in from work on a July evening in 1989 and switched on the TV. Uk's Channel 4 were showing highlights of that day's stage of the Tour de France. I was hooked. Lemond's narrow victory over Fignon really excited me. I wanted to start cycling again. I'd enjoyed it as a child, but stopped when my bicycle was stolen.

So... in 1989 I went out and bought a bike. I cut down on the beer, ate more sensibly and did a moderate amount of cycling (less than 1,000 miles). One year later I was back down to 187 pounds (13 st 5 lbs) and felt alive again.

Since then I've started hill walking and do much more cycling. Unfortunately I still have the same habit of binge-drinking when I feel stressed. My weight tracks my beer intake!

I've been back up 225 pounds (16 st 1 lb) and back down to 164 pounds (11 st 10 lbs) a couple of times.

I weighed 215 pounds (15st 5 lbs) at the end of 2007 and I'm currently at 204 pounds (14 st 8 lbs).

Sorry, this is a long-winded way of saying that it isn't an age-thing for me! Lots of beer = fat; moderate beer intake = slim; no beer = scrawny.

La cucaracha

Back when I did the odd bit of swimming - 9st
Quit swimming - 10st
Illness - 6st 9lbs
Cycling regulary - 7st 9lbs to 8st 3lbs
Hibernating over winter - 7st 5lbs (frustratingly my % body fat goes up and clothes fit just the same, indicating that I lose a lot of muscle when I'm off the bike for a while)

Blonde

Weight hasn't changed much since I was 16. Of course I have had brief spells of ultra leanness, usually due to, or immediately followed by, ill health, but otherwise my weight has been pretty stable at 68-70kg for the past 14 years. I have changed shape though, quite significantly. The bottom half is now very definitely bigger than top (different bra and clothing sizes) whereas it used to be completely the other way around - I used to be very top-heavy. I can now see ribs where I couldn't before, but can no longer see hip bones. I have no idea if this is due to aging, hormonal changes, cycling, or a combination of all three.

Incidentally, I now drink hardly any alcohol at all (maybe one glass of wine every two or three months - if my parents are staying with us) and eat good quality produce, but weigh the same as I did (admittedly when I was 10 years younger) when I was doing no exercise, (other than dancing in nightclubs), drinking large amounts every day and eating poor quality foods - the student life!

popette

I could bicep curl you lot!

DaveyL

Not me!

J2R2

I am 5'11". I think the heaviest I have been was about 5 or 6 years ago when I hit 84kg. I decided to start going to the gym and lost some weight but got bored with that.

I started cycling in late 2004 and got into time trialling. When I started riding I was 78kg. After about a year I went down to 68kg.

Around 2006 I was 72kg. Now I am a fairly steady 75kg. I am certainly not getting any fatter - my trousers and belt tell me that. My legs have really bulked up over the past 2 or 3 years, particularly as I do quite a bit of work on them in the gym. It is strange though that after three and a half years of riding I am pretty much back where I started in terms of weight!

mm1

Sadly, I am about 3 stone heavier than I was 30 years ago. Last season I finallly beat my 10 pb which was set when I was 17 (toe clips and drop bars only in those days). Still planning to do some road racing this season, before its too late...hope that helps shift my gut!

redvee

Fat Bloke Alert

Around 2 years ago my weight had gradually increased to the wrong side of 16.5 stone, now nearly 2 years down the line my weight has dropped to 15 stone through a combination of a better diet and different insulin regime which now means the clothes I was on the verge of donating to charity through shrinking have now enlarged, specially my jeans The number of miles has dropped mainly cause I've got t'internet at home, before I used cyber cafes. With summer spproaching the miles should increase.

popette

redvee, I could just about bench press you.
Actually, I'm exaggerating - about 10 years ago I would have bench pressed you. Not anymore, I'm a weed now. A heavy weed.

DaveyL

I'm 6' 4 1/2 (the half's important...) and about 16.5 stone. Five or six years ago I was 22 stone though! Would like to get down to about 15, so a bit more still to go!

simon74

I was 8st 7lbs when I was 19 then took up weight training went up as heavy as 12st 10 lbs, gave that up now back down to just 11 stone

redvee

Further to my earlier reply, according to the medos etc I need to be another 21cm taller for the ideal BMI. Think losing weight is gonna be easier, though losing 20kg is pushing things :shock:

Alex_Simmons/RST

In general I lost weight (although having not ridden for nearly a year now it has unfortunately all gone back on).

As a young man I was fairly heavy, sort of a rugby forward build but over the years of cycling and racing, while my weight would fluctuate each year, overall I trimmed down gradually to be 15kg lighter than when I started.

hambones

Up until I was 21 I weighed a steady 13st. Once I left Uni and stopped doing so much of the typical student things my weight rose to around 15st where it stayed for around 10 years despite unhealthy eating and smoking 50 a day. A period of stress saw it drop to 13 again - I looked seriously ill. Then there followed a gradual increase in weight as I gave up on all forms of sport and exercise and I peaked at 17st 6lbs before discovering cycling 3 years ago. 18 months later, thanks to a combination of strict diet and serious bike injury my weight dropped to 14st 4lbs - although again there were serious concerns amongst friends and relatives about my gaunt, hollow appearance. I'm now 15st 2lbs (8lbs lighter than I was at Christmas) and although I'd like to lose a stone I'm never going to get to my so-called 'ideal' weight which is 12st 2lbs!!!!!

I'm 6'3"

popette

hambones, I know just what you mean about getting to the "so-called ideal weight".
I'm 6ft, my ideal weight ranges from about 11stone to 13 stone according to the charts. I aim for 13stone because I'm a big build - yes, I really do have heavy bones! 4 years ago I was 12st 7lb and people started to make comments about me eating enough and not to lose more weight etc. I'm now 13st 12lb, aiming for 13 stone. I see pictures of me from around that lighter time and I do think that my face looks very gaunt but that is supposedly my ideal weight. The thing that the charts don't factor in is that I've got size 12 feet, hands bigger than my 6ft 4 inch husband 8)

Ric_Stern/RST

my mass is less now at 38 y old, than when i was 11 y old. i'm also 23 cm taller....

ColinJ

popette wrote:

I really do have heavy bones!

I didn't believe the 'heavy bones' thing until I went swimming with a workmate a few years back. He wasn't particularly unfit but seemed to be getting knackered after only about 15 minutes of easy swimming. He put it down to his heavy bones making it harder work for him. I thought that was absolute nonsense and set out to prove it. We swam to the deep end of the pool and I told him to take a deep breath and stop swimming. He did that and promptly sank to the bottom of the pool while I bobbed about above him... :shock: !

ColinJ

BTW - I think there should be a 4th option for the poll - 'Weight yoyos'.

guinea

I used to weigh about 18-19 stone from the age of 18-25 when I played rugby. As a fit prop this weight was ideal. I ate and drank lots but trained very hard too keep the weight the same.

Then I got a desk jon in London. I stopped the rugby, but kept the eating and drinking.

7 years later I was 24.5 stone. After a year of hard dieting and exercise I've made it to ~13 stones and am very happy with my current weight. I don't know what my ideal fighting weight will be as it hasn't settled yet, but my cycling is coming on in leaps and bounds.

AntLockyer

Until I was 24 I weighed about 11.5 stone, then I shot up to 16.5 in a couple of years. Now I'm 87.5kg which is about 13.75 I think (too lazy to do the maths).

Captain Fagor

It's the same for me - 75kgs.

I still fit the Fagor cycling gear I bought when I was 15 (~20 years ago).

SteveR_100Milers

Age 21 15 stone
Age 23 13.5 stone
Age 40 17.5 stone
Age 42 just under 15st.

guess when the beer n fags periods were... :roll:

ut_och_cykla

My weight increased when I was pregnant and in the first two years afterwards, then it went down a bit (but not all the way back). Thankfully its been stable the last ten years or so but if I could lose 5kg I'd prbabaly feel a bit better, 10 kg would make me look ridiculous I suspect as I am 1.70 m tall,already have littlel bosom and size 42 feet! So if I can stay were I am adn enjoy cycling that will do for me.

bahzob

I took up cycling to lose weight and lost 3 stone to hover in a zone 11 1/2 to 12 stone.

Doing a lot of climbing this year so want to lose a few more pounds and get down to 11 stone. Tried same last year and with zero success so started using using the Fitday program download http://www.fitday.com/ a month or so ago.

Now at lowest weight in 30 years and sure I will be at target 11 stone by end April. So would recommend to other geeks who want to keep control of weight. It has its drawbacks, main ones being its American (so its food db is helpful but you have to add a lot of UK foods yoursefl) and it does not have a field for body fat %.

But its cheap and even if you only use it for a few weeks it may give a valuable insight into exactly why your weight is what it is and why it is (or is not) coming down if that's what you want.

lateralus

Another one in the "could be bench pressed" camp. Always been pretty skinny - 6 foot 4, 73kg at 18. When I was at university, got into gym work, reached a peak of 83kg which required lots of weights and lots of protein shakes. Gave it up, continued to eat a lot, drink beer, do little exercise, but went back down to about 78. Took up cycling, down to 74. Now about 77, where it pretty much stays regardless of how much I ride or how much I eat.