Concept2 Forum

Having set myself the goal of a 06:49.9 at BIRC as a Lightweight (in 2013) I’m already planning the route.

I haven’t been 165 pounds for 30 years. I’m currently around 186 having spent much of the last 3 decades at just over 210.

I've lost or maintained weight with regular erging but I haven’t lost anything for a year and a half despite averaging around 200,000 meters per month and getting much fitter. My scales tell me I’m currently 22% fat although nobody would describe me as overweight.

So I’m looking for any tips and suggestions you may have to help me achieve lightweight status healthily over the next year or so whilst at the same time increasing my strength, improving my fitness and getting faster over 2K. I am entirely comfortable with my erging schedule which is a carefully considered slow burning Wolverine Plan.

I think my main concerns are about my diet (I am a total chocoholic) - whether I should be using weights or cross training and if so what would be beneficial and also whether it’s even practical for a 5’10” 52 year old who’s been erging regularly for 5 years to contemplate losing another 20+ pounds and get 10 seconds faster as well?

My wife thinks I’m crazy but she thought that when I said I would train 6 times per week to break 7 minutes. By the way - what does "mid life crisis" mean?

Any advice from the forum would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

KevJGK wrote:I think my main concerns are about my diet (I am a total chocoholic)

Start by eating dark chocolate and less of it.

This is a tough one to answer without your full history.

If you had points along the way where you had got back down to weight with exercise I would say yes you can do it again, however if your like me and you begin to Row, sure you begin to loose weight by reduced body fat but this begins to get offset by increased muscle mass and what you end up with in not a net loss you intended.

Unless your a lightweight by your body type I would say flag the idea and just row to the best of your ability and whatever your weight pans out to be after getting very serious on a training plan.

There are those here who shall remain nameless who have clearly demonstrated very recently that having to starve & dehydrate yourself to make weight completly stuffs your 2K time up, so while you will make one goal you will miss the other anyway.

Wouldn't take those scales too seriously on an absolute measurement, just use it as a reference measurement as you begin to loose weight. I was almost clinically obese on mine a year or so ago so they are a bit of a joke. Down to 25% BF now and even if they are a bit high you can see there is no point me even trying to be a lwt !

egads.. 20 more pounds to go, especially at our age when metabolism has slowed a bit..

probably have to get under 10% body fat? yikes...

you probably already know about this page: http://www.cbass.com/

good luck!

My current weight hovers around 185. A couple of seasons ago I dieted down to be a lightweight. Like you, I had been under 165 when young but that was a long time ago. I suspect that I am slightly smaller and slightly lighter than you. It took strict dieting, nothing mysterious. But getting to 165 and staying at 165 was hard. I don't think I could make 155 for example. I felt very lean 165 and it was definitely and obviously noticable. My profile says that I am a "once and future lightweight" and I do think about doing this again. So I think you can get there.

To me, the question is whether it was worth it. I would really like to be 175, and should just be happy to get there. But when you study the rankings, particularly the top 10% cut off, it barely made a difference, just a few secs at 5k. I got into the top 10% as a lightweight for several distances, but the bottom line is that the lightweights are still really fast. It would get you (or me) into top boats in the CTC challenge, but I just am not that motivated by that. So at this point, I would rather just be faster (I am long way right now from being even "as fast" as I was then).

Dieting definitely impacted my rowing. I rowed some of those nights with Chad, I am sure. Hunger impacts your motivation to row far and hard. It impacted my racing, particularly if I was unable to eat or drink in the morning until 2 hours before the row (strictly following the official rules for my races online with rowpro). I definitely didn't do anything to make lightweight the day of the race; that would have really messed me up. I generally got to 163 or so as my wake up weight and stayed there for the season.

Good luck.

Congratulations on your recent weight loss. It is not unreasonable for someone of your height to be at 165#, but those last few pounds are always the toughest to lose.

What ranger suggests isn't too far off, but I don't know about rowing six hours a day. That's rather extreme. Your dilemma is that you need to get stronger, but at the same time shed weight, some of which will be muscle mass, so incorporating some kind resistance training is essential to maintain your lean body mass, especially as you get older.

The other side of the equation is the diet. Nothing exotic--lots of fruits and vegetables, lean protein, whole grains, etc., but you will need to create a caloric deficit of about 500 kcal/day to safely and effectively lose the weight.

There are some good articles on the topic here: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss.

You will need to watch what you eat and exercise to burn the excess calories. You can only do this by expending more calories than you take in. I managed to lose weight because I am erging 20K a day and can't eat enough. You can do this but it will require discipline. Do you really want to go to this extreme for a 2k race?

Have a word with Rocket Roy, current M55 LW world record holder, he did it well.
Please dont let us have another Ranger thread, the other has almost dried up!

Steve

Eat healthier, eat just a little less particularly in the evening. Control your environment to eliminate temptations--keep the sweets out of the house. Get a copy of Micheal Pollan's "Food Rules" (it is under $10) and adopt as many as you can. Don't be neurotic about food but just slowly loose weight. Eating well is actually rewarding your body.

It would be good to really know what your percent body fat is, but that requires testing somewhere that can do it accurately. Safer to slowly loose weight (less then a lbs a week is good and wouldn't be much of a sacrifice). If your wife starts too complain about you looking too skinny then you have lost too much. You will first see a six pack and then you start to get a hollow look on your face (like the professional bike racers). If this happens at 180 lbs don't even consider racing light weight--it won't be worth it. If it happens at 170 you won't have much problem loosing a bit of water to make lightweight. The trick is really maintaining weight. If you eat too much one day, just eat less then next.

You are averaging about 8K per day. You could do a bit more. Since you are doing the WP plan you should already know to increase the distance very slowly.

What got me from ~165 and 20-25%BF down to the low 130s and no more than 10%BF was the following, mind you I was 17 and had not much else to do:

Nothing with added sugar (i.e. no cake, pie, cookies, soda). I still don't drink soda, but everything else has reappeared. Suppose it doesn't matter with my increased activity level.

Bowl of cereal for breakfast, salad with no dressing and chicken for lunch, lots of water, very little if anything for dinner.

Lots of intervals. I did mine running, but rowing would probably work better for you. Once you get close to being 'at weight', then you can add some food back in and return to the distance work.

What you are doing isn't unreasonable. It will be much more difficult due to your slowed metabolism, but the hardest part is making one big cut at the start in terms of energy input . But if you never tell yourself OK right now I'm manning up and not eating half of what I used to, you'll never be able to incrementally cut it away. Most elite LWs walk around for OTW races at 160-165 and then the few days before the race will drop to 155. You could essentially do the same for the erg, get down to 170 and then lose the next few pounds the week before the race.

In regard to muscle mass loss or gain, for rowing it makes a lot of difference as to which muscles are involved. Elite rowers generally have massive quads and lats, but are lean in the shoulders. Any one who wants to make lightweight for rowing can afford to lose muscle mass in the pectorals, deltoids, and triceps. They are not heavily involved in rowing. It is a matter of sport-specific training.

Bob S.

Thanks very much for all of your replies.

I’m not sure what my body type is, I’m reasonably well muscled but certainly not big - I think I’d look OK as a lwt although others may disagree.

I find the idea of getting to 10% body fat inspiring but I know it’ll be a long tough road - that’s what makes it fun!

Michaelb, your reply was very interesting. Your question to yourself “was it worth it” is a great one. The thing is - I believe I have a shot at a lwt 06:50 in 3 years and I really want a BIRC medal. I know a hwt 06:50 has zero chance so my only option is the lwt route. I want to get to and stay at weight for a good year or more beforehand so I need to act now.

Nosmo – I have taken your advice fully on board.

Bob S. wrote:Elite rowers generally have massive quads...

One thing that has really surprised me is that my quads have shrunk considerably since I start regular erging. Maybe they had a bit of fat on them before but I don't think so? I guess the elite big guys do a lot of heavy weight work as well as tons of rowing?

KevJGK wrote:

Bob S. wrote:Elite rowers generally have massive quads...

One thing that has really surprised me is that my quads have shrunk considerably since I start regular erging. Maybe they had a bit of fat on them before but I don't think so? I guess the elite big guys do a lot of heavy weight work as well as tons of rowing?

It's a relative thing. They certainly don't have body-builder or weight-lifter builds, not even in the quads, but they have noticeably heavier (and more well defined) quads than average.

Bob S.

KevJGK wrote: The thing is - I believe I have a shot at a lwt 06:50 in 3 years and I really want a BIRC medal. I know a hwt 06:50 has zero chance so my only option is the lwt route. I want to get to and stay at weight for a good year or more beforehand so I need to act now.

If you think you have a shot at a medal at BIRC that sounds like fun and well worth it. Rocket Roy's story was inspiring. I don't think you need to get to weight though a year in advance. It may make sense to make weight more than a month out, since that will let you focus on training and stabilize, but any longer than that may just prolong the pain.

At least for me, going off the diet was way more fun then going on it.