Is The Off Season The Best Time For Weight Loss?

Our performance as cyclists is influenced by many factors, from our technical abilities, race tactics and psychology to overall physiology and nutrition. With many cycling disciplines often requiring athletes to battle against gravity, body composition can have an influence on performance through its impact on work efficiency and power-to-weight ratio. 

Whilst many cyclists potentially overestimate the impact that improving body composition will have on performance, compared to more important aspects of performance like consistent quality training. There can potentially be benefits to reducing fat mass if an athlete has fat mass that can be lost and can do so in a way that doesn’t negatively impact their health or performance.   

One of the common challenges with fat loss, is how best to schedule it to limit it’s impact on key periods of training or competition, given the negative impacts that it can potentially have on both health and performance.  As we approach the end of the 2024 competitive season, many athletes may now be considering if the ‘off-season’ and early phases of next seasons training is an appropriate time to implement weight loss strategies.

In the below section, we'll take take a look at some of the positives and negatives of trying to make improvements to body composition during a cyclists off season. 
 

Why Might The Off Season/Base Phase Be A Good Time To Consider Weight Loss? 

Pursuing fat loss during the off-season has potential benefits, which I’ve detailed below…

1. Less Performance Focus – This time of year, there is less competition; therefore, an athlete’s day-to-day performance potentially matters less compared to during the competitive season. Since weight loss requires an energy deficit and can put an athlete into a state of low energy availability, which can negatively impact an athlete’s performance, particularly in high-intensity cycling, the off-season may be a better time to implement weight loss, as overall performance matters less. 
2. Fewer High-Intensity Workouts—For many cyclists, the off-season typically focuses on lower-intensity, higher-volume training. These types of workouts can often be performed to a high level/high quality even when fatigued, which may mean that being in an energy deficit is less likely to negatively impact overall training quality compared to during the race season when there is more focus on quality and intensity.
3. Resistance Training – Many athletes look to introduce some structured resistance exercise into their training programs over the off-season. A common issue with weight loss is that the low energy availability required for weight loss can lead to the loss of muscle mass, which is essential for performance. By combining an adequate protein intake with a resistance training stimulus, we can help maintain muscle mass and drive weight loss from fat mass. 
4. Less Travel – With less competition, there is often less travel, meaning the athlete spends more time at home and less time on the road. This can give the athlete more consistency and control over their food environment, which can ultimately help make it easier to implement a weight loss diet. More time can also give an athlete the head space to focus on this aspect of performance.
5. Motivation – After an off-season break, many athletes are refreshed and motivated to build towards the next season; utilising this motivation can help bring about the behaviour change needed to achieve weight loss.

Why The Off Season/Base Phase Isn’t A Good Time To Consider Weight Loss? 

While weight loss in the off-season can have benefits, there are also reasons it might not be a good idea. 

1. Training consistency – A key focus in the off-season period is to accumulate high-quality training to drive adaptations and arrive at the next competitive phase, gaining as much performance as possible. Many adaptations to training can be negatively influenced by not eating sufficient energy. For example, muscle protein synthesis can be reduced by as much as 30% and training quality can also be negatively impacted. Being in an energy deficit may, therefore, negatively impact your training progress. 
2. Illness and Infection—Consuming a diet without sufficient energy can increase the risk of micronutrient deficiencies and the chance of picking up an illness or infection. Combine this with the increased exposure to infection at this time of year, and it has the potential to mean an athlete is more exposed to illness. Any training time lost to this can negatively impact your chance of achieving goals during the subsequent season. 
3. Maintenance—This one is going to be very specific to the individual athletes, their current body composition, genetics, and athletic ability. For many high-level athletes, their optimal body composition for performance is not one they can maintain throughout the year, and as such, trying to achieve this in the off-season and maintain it through to the competitive season may not be realistic. 
4. Psychological Break – For higher-level/competitive athletes, the off-season can be a key time to switch off from the demands of racing and performance. Adding in a focus on weight loss may not be conducive to this.

Bringing It All Together

Ultimately, the answer isn’t clear cut, and as we’ve outlined above, the argument can be made for both sides and will be very specific to your individual circumstances.

There will always be challenges and negative aspects to pursuing weight loss, and these have to be carefully considered before doing so.  

The time of year that is best suited to weight loss will depend on the individual athlete and their unique physiology, schedule and challenges. From the degree of weight loss they are looking to achieve to how they typically respond to weight loss to their individual circumstances and challenges.

Our advice would always be to call upon the support of an experience professional who can objectively determine when might be best to pursue weight loss, ensure that it isn't a strategy that will cause an harm and help you implement it in a way that will enhance performance and not detract from it. 

Coach Ben 

References 

Mathisen, T. F., Ackland, T., Burke, L. M., Constantini, N., Haudum, J., Macnaughton, L. S., Meyer, N. L., Mountjoy, M., Slater, G., & Sundgot-Borgen, J. (2023). Best practice recommendations for body composition considerations in sport to reduce health and performance risks: a critical review, original survey and expert opinion by a subgroup of the IOC consensus on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs). British journal of sports medicine, 57(17), 1148–1158. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2023-106812