Body Imagery and Cycling ...

[Heisenberg]

i went off the anorexia deep end when i was racing on continental teams. body not making hormones, hct dropping almost in half kind of deep end.

but i'm also the product of a former ballerina. seems body dysmorphia runs in the family. when i was at 2% bf i still thought i was a chonk.

my experience is probably quite limited. most people i know who ride recreationally don't much care. they eat whatever. there are some - usually those who have more normal american body compositions - who tend to get a bit self-conscious, but it's usually not enough to engage in destructive behaviors.

i still struggle.

[fa63]

Originally Posted by dem

I am around 6'1" and 158. But I do tend toward the gaunt/ectomorphic side. However, I still have a good inch of fat on my gut, I'm probably around 10% body fat. I could drop down to 150ish and not be "unhealthy"

A dirty secret is men can go very low on body fat and not be unhealthy - it is very difficult to maintain an "unhealthy" body fat level for a man.

I go with the earlier theory in this thread: americans are just fat, so if you're on the lower end, you will stand out. I see a huge (ha) difference just going from CA to.. say.. arizona/texas.. much less the southeast.

It is funny how different people carry their weight. When I was in grad school, I rode my bike 10,000 miles a year and weighed 175 lbs at just a hair over 6' tall. Our school's clinic had calipers for measuring body fat, so I went and got measured at 6%. I couldn't imagine weighing 150 lbs and what that would look like...

[GOTHBROOKS]

im 6'4, 185lbs , and an aquarius. i think rim brakes are superior and i prefer my burritos without sour cream or guac.

[enr1co]

Would love to fit into size Medium jerseys and shorts again but metabolism slows down quite a bit after 58 years.

Also doesn't help the cause by eating way more than riding these days. When documenting my bucketlist Alps trip last year, preferred only "out of the saddle pics in attempt to not look like Barney Rubble on bike

Thank goodness for bib shorts and compression tech materials.

Body image issues? No way!

[azrider]

..........

[beeatnik]

How many of you cats doing Intermittent Fasting?

[denapista]

Originally Posted by mcteague

According to the BMI, 6’1” @ 140 lbs puts you at the low end of normal. So, not too nuts.

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/edu...MI/bmicalc.htm

Tim

I guess we're going to ignore the part where the BMI for that is categorized as "Underweight"? 6'1 140 is abnormal weight.

[Ronsonic]

Originally Posted by fiamme red

He finished the Giro a good number of times. Is the Giro less unhealthy than the Tour?

It was when he raced it. They left out a lot of otherwise decisive mountain stages. Cippo would've had to lose a fair amount of muscle to contend in a Tour.

The Tour has evolved such that only a climber has a shot at the GC and yeah, it's worse.

Dope used to level the field a bit. But then you got freaks like Rasmussen.

[pasadena]

Froome is about 70kg - that's around 155?

Originally Posted by denapista

6'1 140lbs is straight nuts! I'm 6'2 and I can't even fathom weighing 140lbs (Chris Froome).

Agree with benb, in terms of cycling "problems" this is really for the racers and a problem that is not just cycling specific. It is something that happens in many other sports. But still, as benb said, very few people. It's a serious issue, but very small %.

Also, the body difference between Americans and the rest of the world is pretty drastic.
The cut of American clothing is drastically larger than the rest of the world. It's not height, it's girth.

Endurance athletes tend to be skinny with low body fat. That is a different body type than "fitness" gym rats w/ low body fat but muscular.

Seeing endurance athletes in street clothes just looks like a fit, skinny person.
Most Americans are carrying 25+% body fat. Yes, healthy cyclists can look anorexic in that context.

Originally Posted by benb

This is a really really really small problem.

First off we're talking about a really small # of people.

I usually consider myself someone who really notices how huge people are, partly cause I know I've kept a healthy weight and yet I've frequently had people question whether I was healthy. But when I was in Europe this summer I was still very very shocked at how much skinnier everyone is. I look average in Europe, not skinny.

If you're eating really weird trying to keep getting skinnier than maybe there's an issue.. but eating healthy/not restricting your diet like crazy and you're still in the healthy BMI range and you're light cause you ride a lot... probably not a problem at all.

I find the blog about staying overweight despite big backpacking trips more odd.

[pasadena]

I think you're more like Los Angeles Luis Leon Sanchez
You seem to do alright around the group rides!

Originally Posted by beeatnik

5'11", 165# and 31" waist but a belly breather. I'm the fat guy (for LA) in this flicka. Call me a thicc Alejandro Valverde.



I always wonder what the other cats look like in human threads.

[Clean39T]

Originally Posted by Davist

I remember a TV show called "frontier house" or something on PBS, where people would basically reenact the sodbuster/homesteader days. Putting in rail fences, clearing 20 acres with a horse, etc. Just coffee, fat back, beans and what you could hunt. One guy was dropping weight like crazy, was down to 135 at 6'1" when he started 6 weeks earlier at nearly 200. The medical folks out of concern checked the civil war Army records, and sure enough, around that time, pretty normal weight. So, I think our perspectives have changed significantly.

Yep. Humans are meant to be a bit of muscle, some fat to tide us over, and that's about it.....

Now, should anyone feel less-than, unworthy, hate themselves, get depressed, etc. because they are not that - no, emphatically no.

Everything in our modern world is designed to get us to eat more, and move less.

Food is fun. Drinks are fun. Salt, sugar, and fat. Yum!

Being anything other than obese in this culture is putting your shoulder to the wheel. It's choosing to be different. An uphill battle. Sisyphus.

But I like climbing, so it's one I've taken on to greater and lesser extents in my life - and at different times.

Right now, I'm not fighting that fight very hard. I'm cycling my normal amount - 6-10hrs/wk, mostly on the trainer - and not really doing any cross-training. And I'm eating and drinking and enjoying myself. Like I said, food is fun. I'm cooking a lot, eating out a lot, enjoying Portland for all its foodie opportunities.

When I do that, I float up to 190lbs or so pretty easily. I'm moderately fat right now - and I carry it as subcutaneous adipose tissue, meaning I don't have a belly, I have handles and big legs. It is what it is. Probably not all that unhealthy, but also not that fun. It's like carrying a backpack around. And my pants and bibs get tight.

My problem is that I've been fat before. I was pushing 240lbs at one point. I'm 6'4", so I didn't look huge even at that weight, but I felt it. And all those fat cells are still there, waiting to be inflated at the slightest prodding.

And I know what the answer is if I want to be down where I feel best - in the 170lbs range that I haven't seen for going on two years.. It's eating plant-based, no booze, no fried crap, eating my meals at home, no late night bowls of cereal, cross-training in equal proportions to my riding (trail running does it for me), and getting in a good 8-12hrs on the bike. I absolutely love what it feels like to be in that shape, for my clothes to fit and look great, etc.

But do I love it enough to not go try the new BBQ taco truck that's all the rage? Or to deny myself a split scoop of coconut lemon saffron and chocolate AF ice-cream at my favorite local parlor? Meh. Not sure. Here I am though, so the balance hasn't been tipped just yet.

I guess what I'm saying is, we make our choices, and we live with them. Skinny, fat, slow, fast, whatever - you're a cyclist, and that's enough for me (you don't have to be a cyclist either, just, here we are together...).

But let's not kid ourselves about which is healthier, or which feels better when you're out on two wheels. Sure, the extreme of Rasmussen is too far - that's like maybe 0.1% of all recreational cyclists though. The vast majority could lose 10-20lbs, or more. If they want to - if they have the free time to do so - if they care to push that rock up the hill...

And if they don't? If they have other priorities? If there are psychological and trauma-based reasons for not wanting to push in that direction?

Fine by me.

Let's use the power of two wheels to roll together, and regroup at the top.

[Clean39T]

Originally Posted by enr1co

Would love to fit into size Medium jerseys and shorts again but metabolism slows down quite a bit after 58 years.

Also doesn't help the cause by eating way more than riding these days. When documenting my bucketlist Alps trip last year, preferred only "out of the saddle pics in attempt to not look like Barney Rubble on bike

Thank goodness for bib shorts and compression tech materials.

Body image issues? No way!

Can we talk about that Lapierre? I've been ogling one on Merlin...

Whaddidya think of it?

[pasadena]

Yeah that's about it

Originally Posted by Clean39T

Skinny, fat, slow, fast, whatever - you're a cyclist, and that's enough for me (you don't have to be a cyclist either, just, here we are together...).

But let's not kid ourselves about which is healthier, or which feels better when you're out on two wheels. Sure, the extreme of Rasmussen is too far - that's like maybe 0.1% of all recreational cyclists though. The vast majority could lose 10-20lbs, or more. If they want to - if they have the free time to do so - if they care to push that rock up the hill...

And if they don't? If they have other priorities? If there are psychological and trauma-based reasons for not wanting to push in that direction?

Fine by me.

Let's use the power of two wheels to roll together, and regroup at the top.

[fiamme red]

Originally Posted by Ronsonic

It was when he raced it. They left out a lot of otherwise decisive mountain stages. Cippo would've had to lose a fair amount of muscle to contend in a Tour.

The Tour has evolved such that only a climber has a shot at the GC and yeah, it's worse.

Dope used to level the field a bit. But then you got freaks like Rasmussen.

Cipollini never contended for the GC in any hilly stage race. He'd take it easy on the mountain stages and finish within the time limit. He never stuck it out through an entire Tour because his fans and sponsors were mostly Italians, who wanted to see him win every sprint stage at the Giro but didn't care so much to see him win on Champs-Élysées.

[enr1co]

Originally Posted by Clean39T

Can we talk about that Lapierre? I've been ogling one on Merlin...

Whaddidya think of it?

Really liked it! Its a gran fondo geo (extra headtube) so very comfortable yet still lively. The bike felt solid and responsive on the long descent of the Ventoux summit. This was my first experience w/ disc brakes and was sold on them.
The curvy frame top tube/triangle design can take some getting used but I also poked around for one from the Merlin site after experiencing how nicely it rode.

Heres a link to the Pulsium that I rented from Ventoux bikes:

https://www.ventoux-bikes.fr/fr/prod...pr199_85d7.htm

Were you looking at the Xelius? The paint on the 70th anniversry edition looks really cool!