How important is Racing weight?

Lol. Conditioning and heart strength matter far, far, far more than weight ever will. This is why you will get fat men blowing by skinny teenagers in a local 5k.

Put some weight on, toughen up and do some hard workouts son.

Sara Hall on it:
https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a20864045/racing-2-marathons-in-5-weeks-sara-hall-is-not-afraid-to-test-her-limits/

“[The scale] doesn’t tell me anything because I’m not trying to be a certain weight,” she said. “I focus on my energy levels and figure when I’m fueling well and not eating a lot of junk, my body finds where it needs to be.”

Weight is very important. There are no heavy professional runners.

This pic represents time penalty (x-axis) for each extra kg as a function of marathon time (y-axis) for different runner weight.

For example, for a 110 pound runner (aka 50 kg) w/ 2h30 marathon time 1 extra pound will cost roughly 2 mins.

Src: http://www.vo2max.com.fr/physio_poids.html

That graph is very difficult to read and the proposition is greatly exaggerated.

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loose_my_weight wrote:

This pic represents time penalty (x-axis) for each extra kg as a function of marathon time (y-axis) for different runner weight.

For example, for a 110 pound runner (aka 50 kg) w/ 2h30 marathon time 1 extra pound will cost roughly 2 mins.

Src: http://www.vo2max.com.fr/physio_poids.html

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Your ideal wait is about 30 seconds before you eat a cheeseburger, fries, and a shake. C'mon, you're BMI is under 18. Stop obsessing about abs and weight and go eat something. You're probably already at the point of diminishing returns.

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Primo Numero Uno wrote:

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loose_my_weight wrote:

This pic represents time penalty (x-axis) for each extra kg as a function of marathon time (y-axis) for different runner weight.

For example, for a 110 pound runner (aka 50 kg) w/ 2h30 marathon time 1 extra pound will cost roughly 2 mins.

Src: http://www.vo2max.com.fr/physio_poids.html

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Ideal racing weight is more a range and not a fixed number. I feel for me it's probably a 3-4 lb range. If I'm somewhere in that range It shouldn't be a concern. You shouldn't have to take special action or weigh yourself constantly to find that range. Just eat healthily, put in the work and it should take care of itself.

If you're 10lbs off that range then performance will probably suffer.

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Racing weight wrote:
so I am 5'6 and 110 pounds which would make me underweight, but I don't have my lower abs showing and could probably lose about 4-5 pounds.

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5K and below' being a little heavier because of muscle isn't super detrimental compared to if the same person tried to get super skinny, but above that distance it starts to be a bigger handicap to carry weight. Many distance runners get slower at sprints up to 400M when they are in long race shape ,compared to being more buffed out.

"Just eat healthy and the body will take care of itself" This works for the same people that the advice "Just go out and run, don't worry about the time or distance and only go hard when you feel good" works for.

I'm usually 10-15 lbs over my racing weight if I just eat healthy and don't pay attention to it. I can eat 4500 healthy calories just as easily as 3000 calories, my body doesn't tell me I'm full at 3000. Yet, if I only eat 3000 for a couple months I will be faster (I know from experience).

It's just not popular to talk about it right now, to tell people to lose weight. Do it though and you will be faster.

My question is how much does the kind of weight matter? Let's say I am 6' tall and weigh 180. Another guy is 6' tall and 180. His body fat percentage is 15 while mine is five. Does the fact that more of my weight is muscle help me or is extra weight just extra weight?

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Like Really Bro wrote:

"Just eat healthy and the body will take care of itself" This works for the same people that the advice "Just go out and run, don't worry about the time or distance and only go hard when you feel good" works for.

I'm usually 10-15 lbs over my racing weight if I just eat healthy and don't pay attention to it. I can eat 4500 healthy calories just as easily as 3000 calories, my body doesn't tell me I'm full at 3000. Yet, if I only eat 3000 for a couple months I will be faster (I know from experience).

It's just not popular to talk about it right now, to tell people to lose weight. Do it though and you will be faster.

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just throwing this out there wrote:

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Racing weight wrote:
so I am 5'6 and 110 pounds which would make me underweight, but I don't have my lower abs showing and could probably lose about 4-5 pounds.

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BMI Is 17.8(under 18.5 is classified as under weight)

So what you don't have lower abs, that's more genetic base.

Here's one of the fastest runners over 10k/XC currently, should he lose weight?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhsbImglt4C/

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LateRunnerPhil wrote:

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just throwing this out there wrote:

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Racing weight wrote:
so I am 5'6 and 110 pounds which would make me underweight, but I don't have my lower abs showing and could probably lose about 4-5 pounds.

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BMI Is 17.8(under 18.5 is classified as under weight)

So what you don't have lower abs, that's more genetic base.

Here's one of the fastest runners over 10k/XC currently, should he lose weight?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhsbImglt4C/

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BMI is NOT a good measure for what's underweight/overweight. It's based on average people, but athletes in general are way more muscular than average population with lower body fat %, so an athlete with 17 BMI and lots of strength/muscles but low BF% may be considered normal whereas a 18 BMI skinny fat model with not a single muscle on her body (ok I'm exaggerating but you get the point) would be considered anorexic and extremely underweight. Also, BMI doesn't differentiate between men and women, or between a 5% BF guy and a 20% BF guy.

The runner you showed is also not a great example - he weighs 52 kg/114 pounds, and his BMI is 18.6. He can afford to have a bit more muscle, because he is so small he is still very light anyway.

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Yeah yeah same old stuff on BMI wrote:
Source for his height and weight?

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The point I was making about Joshua Cheptegei was that he doesn't have rock hard shredded 6 pack.

The diminishing returns are when you deplete your nutrients, electrolytes, B12, Fat Soluble Vitamins, Iron, and you start to leach energy from your muscles and bones. if you want to lose weight, keep your electrolytes up and eat Liver.

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MuscleMan wrote:

My question is how much does the kind of weight matter? Let's say I am 6' tall and weigh 180. Another guy is 6' tall and 180. His body fat percentage is 15 while mine is five. Does the fact that more of my weight is muscle help me or is extra weight just extra weight?

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