Q: I'm a 40-year-old-male, 5'10", 172-pound bike rider who rides 150 to 170 miles per week and competes. I've reached a plateau in my performance and am looking for another route to performance gains. My Body Mass Index says I'm on the heavy side and I'm working on losing 17 pounds. I know that losing the weight decreases my weight-to-power ratio and will improve my hill climbing ability. But will it impact my level road performance? - N.B., Ft. Benning, GA

A: You're right that losing weight may be beneficial for climbing hills, since the major limiting factor when resisting gravity is weight. As weight goes down, you will climb hills faster with the same power output.

While weight-to-power ratio is the greatest limiter for climbing, when it comes to riding on a flat road, frontal area-to-power is the biggest limiter (frontal area is the amount of body surface exposed to the wind). Your frontal area will not change appreciably; the difference in frontal area between a 172-pound and a 155-pound rider is so small that it won't matter. The only other issue with weight on a flat road is how much the tire-road contact patch expands and how much pressure is placed on the wheels' ball bearings. Since these are both minute with a 17-pound shift in body weight, the benefit will not be apparent.

But on the other hand, as weight goes down, aerobic capacity rises. And since aerobic capacity is one of the three major determiners of performance in endurance events, losing weight may make you a stronger and faster rider on the flats as well as the hills. To accomplish this gain in performance, you need to make sure that you don't lose any power, especially in the cycling muscles, when body weight is dropping. One way to do that is to lift weights and ride in the hills, especially in a seated position, while weight is being lost.

Source: fitlinxx.com