Weight loss and climbing

Cannonchick

Hey all. Who here has lost weight and noticed an improvement in climbing ability/speed?

AgileK9

I've actually gained weight in the last year from weightlifting and I've definitely noticed an increase in climbing ability in both road and mountain biking. I'm passing people on the mountain bike trail who are far better skilled bikers than I am but all those squats have helped my leg strength a ton.

TheBigYin

ok - time to unleash my data-geek...

I've had a quick look around my strava feed for reasonable length climbs local to me, and here's probably the best example I could find...

my BP on this particular segment:

https://www.strava.com/activities/120805619/segments/2692066058

1min45 seconds at an average of 241w - ridden on 15/3/2014 - weight at that time = 109.8kg


A second ride, that averaged 240w - ridden on 23/6/2016 - pretty much identical power output, on same hill, so as close a match as I can get...

https://www.strava.com/activities/618215977#15086917731

2min33 seconds - weight at this point = 128.4kg - or 18.6kg heavier.

so, that's 45.7% slower for a 16.9% weight gain. or 2.7% slower for a 1% weight gain.

One reason I've chosen this particular hill is that it's actually quite sheltered from the wind, so any effects of head/tail wind should be minimised. Okay, I also had to pick a hill that I ride regularly, that was longer than a minute or so to climb (tough around here, we have LOTS of short sharp hills, but not many longer draggy ones) - so that I'd have a good spread of wattage figures to work with, so I could pick 2 that (almost) matched...

But, yep, if you can lose weight purely as fat, while maintaining muscle mass, then you should see a pretty good improvement in climbing speed.

jjpptt2

Are you riding more as a part of your weight loss/health goals? If so, I suspect your improved performance is more closely tied to the increased riding than it is the weight loss.

TheBigYin

jjpptt2 wrote: »

Are you riding more as a part of your weight loss/health goals? If so, I suspect your improved performance is more closely tied to the increased riding than it is the weight loss.

in my post, the degree of fitness is immaterial... it's plain old physics. same power, same hill, different weight, different speed. Physics.

TheBigYin

So - I guess that as the OP disappeared the day after posting their question, I wasted my time trawling through my riding diary then... great, always nice when you piss time away for nothing.