Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance

by Matt Fitzgerald

Overview

If you're like most endurance athletes, you're concerned about your weight. You know that every extra pound you carry costs time, wastes energy, stresses your joints, and affects your performance.

Racing weight is the first book to explain how endurance athletes-runners, cyclists, triathletes, cross-country skiers, rowers, swimmers-should lose weight. Using sound scientific principles gleaned from the latest sports research, Matt Fitzgerald lays out five easy steps to get lean for races and events. His guidelines will help you hit your target numbers for weight, body composition, and performance while maintaining your strength and conditioning.

Fitzgerald makes good nutrition simple with great recipes from pro triathlete and dietitian Pip Taylor and a look at the diets of 14 elite professional athletes. He explains how to avoid the most common mistakes in training and how to embark on a strength training program that works.

The Racing Weight plan will help you close in on your performance goals while feeling-and looking-great.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781934030516
Publisher:	VeloPress
Publication date:	12/01/2009
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Matt Fitzgerald is a certified sports nutritionist and the author of numerous books on running, triathlon, nutrition, and weight loss. His most recent books are Racing Weight Cookbook , Racing Weight Quick Start Guide , RUN: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel , Racing Weight , Brain Training for Runners, and The Runner's Diary. Matt is a regular contributor to Men's Fitness, Men's Health, Outside, Runner's World, Bicycling, Running Times, Women's Running, and other sports and fitness publications. Fitzgerald is a featured coach on TrainingPeaks, Pear Sports, and Active.com. He is a certified sports nutritionist (CISSN) licensed by the International Society of Sports Nutrition. He lives and trains near San Francisco, California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

1 Body weight, body Fat, and Endurance Performance 9

2 How to Determine Your Optimal Performance Weight 21

3 Tracking Your Progress 39

4 Seasonal Considerations 53

5 Sport-Specific Racing Weight Considerations 69

6 Guidelines for Beginners 83

7 Improving Your Diet Quality 93

8 Balancing Your Energy Sources 111

9 Nutrient Timing 131

10 Managing Your Appetite 147

11 Training for Racing Weight 165

12 What the Pros Eat 185

13 Endurance Fuel 203

14 The Role of Supplements 235

Appendix: Recommended Strength Exercises for Endurance Athletes 249

References 271

Index 279

About the author 288

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“I highly recommend reading Racing Weight even if you don't need to lose any excess poundage. You'll come away with a better understanding of your physiology and also of food.” — Joe Friel, founder of TrainingBible Coaching and author of The Triathlete's Training Bible and The Cyclist's Training Bible

“Even if you are already a lean machine, you'll likely still learn something from Racing Weight. From how to determine your optimum weight, to improving your diet and training around it, to controlling your appetite and making your own fuel—it's all in this book.” — BikeRadar.com

“The mysteries of weight and its relationship to performance are unlocked in Matt Fitzgerald’s Racing Weight. If you've got a basic handle on both training and nutrition, this book offers the means to improve both your diet and athletic performance.” — DailyPeloton.com

“Fitzgerald is going to go down as one of the most competent and prolific authors of books for serious runners covering just about every legitimate aspect of the all-important runner's lifestyle.” — Letsrun.com

“It’s not too hard to convince cyclists that they can improve their performance if they drop their weight to an optimum level. However, that’s generally as useful as a physician telling a client they need to lose weight and then sending them out the office door. There are endless diet or nutrition books out there, but very few specifically catering to the endurance athlete. Into this void comes Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald.” — Pezcyclingnews.com

“Racing Weight answers the difficult questions athletes often have about dieting, including how to handle the off-season. The book gives readers a scientifically backed system to discover your optimum race weight, as well as five steps to achieve it.” — Triathlete magazine

“Reaching an ideal weight for endurance sports is important, but doing it the right way is even more important. Matt Fitzgerald provides scientific and sound advice for anyone trying to achieve their racing weight.” — Scott Jurek, 7-time winner of the Western States Endurance Run and 2-time winner of the Badwater Ultramarathon

“Racing Weight is the first book written exclusively about an issue that is very important to runners—eating and training properly to get to the start line of the peak race with the right body composition for running fast.” — Letsrun.com

“Racing Weight offers endurance athletes a simple approach to dietary quality. The Diet Quality Score system is worth the price of the book alone. It’s easy to follow and makes sense. Amateur to professional athletes can optimize their potential with this book.” — BikeWorldNews.com

“Every now and then someone writes the giant-killer text, the volume that becomes the bible of a subject. Ten years from now most of us will be wondering how we managed before Racing Weight came along.” — RedKitePrayer.com

Editorial Reviews

"I highly recommend reading Racing Weight even if you don't need to lose any excess poundage. You'll come away with a better understanding of your physiology and also of food." — Joe Friel, founder of TrainingBible Coaching and author of The Triathlete's Training Bible and The Cyclist's Training Bible

"Racing Weight is the first book written exclusively about an issue that is very important to runners—eating and training properly to get to the start line of the peak race with the right body composition for running fast." — Letsrun.com

"Reaching an ideal weight for endurance sports is important, but doing it the right way is even more important. Matt Fitzgerald provides scientific and sound advice for anyone trying to achieve their racing weight." — Scott Jurek, 7-time winner of the Western States Endurance Run and 2-time winner of the Badwater Ultramarathon

"Fitzgerald is a fountain of information on current research studies and findings from the sciences of healthy nutrition and exercise performance." — Ultrarunning magazine

"Sports nutritionist Matt Fitzgerald lets us in on his no-diet secrets that can help endurance athletes get leaner, stronger, and faster." — Men’s Fitness

"Fitzgerald is going to go down as one of the most competent and prolific authors of books for serious runners covering just about every legitimate aspect of the all-important runner’s lifestyle." — Letsrun.com

"Racing Weight answers the difficult questions athletes often have about dieting, including how to handle the off-season. The book gives readers a scientifically backed system to discover your optimum race weight, as well as five steps to achieve it." — Triathlete magazine

"A crash course on how endurance athletes should think about food." — LAVA magazine

"Even if you are already a lean machine, you'll likely still learn something from Racing Weight. From how to determine your optimum weight, to improving your diet and training around it, to controlling your appetite and making your own fuel—it's all in this book." — BikeRadar

From the Publisher