How to Calculate BMI & Ideal Body Weight for Mountain Biking

Written by: LindaKennedy

Mountain biking is an endurance sport where your performance is strongly influenced by your VO2 max, which is an indicator of the volume of oxygen consumed each minute. The greater the VO2 max, the faster you can ride all other things being equal. There are two primary ways to increase your VO2 max. The first is to specifically train to increase the amount of oxygen you can consume during exercise. The second way is to lose weight. Since your VO2 max is determined by body weight, the less you weigh, the higher your VO2 max will be. Therefore, if you are carrying any extra body weight, any degree of weight loss will improve your performance on the bike.

There are, of course, limits to the amount of weight you can lose without causing fatigue or an injury. A quick and easy way to determine your ideal body weight for mountain biking is to calculate your body mass index, or BMI. The BMI is a general indicator of body fatness and is calculated as follows:

body weight (lbs) x 703 / height (in) / height (in)

For example, a person who weighs 180 pounds and is 5'8" tall would have a BMI of 27 (180*703/68/68).

The result of this math exercise will provide you with a number that can be used to help determine if you are at your ideal weight in relation to your height. The BMI scale can be interpreted like this:

* 18 or under: underweight
* 18-25: ideal
* 25-30: overweight
* 30 or more: obese

Competitive mountain bikers should shoot for a BMI of 21 to 23 in order to achieve a perfect blend of leanness without sacrificing strength. If your BMI is 25 or greater, you need to lose some weight. In addition to the significant health benefits of a low BMI, you will cycle faster too. In fact, for every 10 pounds of excess weight that you lose, you will be able to cycle 1 mile per hour faster with no other changes in your training program.

There are three components of any effective weight loss program: aerobic exercise, strength training, and diet. No matter what type of training program you use and no matter what kind of diet you eat, you must eat fewer calories than you burn to lose weight. High fiber low calorie foods rich in natural vitamins such as fruits and vegetables can certainly go a long way in helping you feel full at a meal.

Mountain biking burns 500 to 1000 calories each hour, depending on how hard you are riding. This is a significant amount of calories. In fact, even if you kept your diet the same, mountain biking for an hour a day, 5 times a week for 1 year would result in weight loss of about 30 pounds.

It is always a good idea to continue weight training when losing weight since some of the weight lost during dieting comes from muscle tissue being burned for fuel. Weight training helps maintain muscle mass while fat stores are burnt for energy.

Probably the most important component of a weight loss program is diet. You see finding time to exercise is hard enough, but watching your diet requires attention 24 hours a day, everyday. It is a myth to say that people who exercise can eat anything they want. The 750 calories that you burned during your ride means little if you eat 4 slices of pizza and a couple of beers afterwards (which, by the way, contains about 1300 calories). So you see, it's much easier to overeat and gain weight than it is to lose weight. However, with a consistent regimen of mountain biking, strength training, and a clean diet, meaningful weight loss can occur.

Try to avoid vitamin supplements and get your nutrition from whole foods. It is whole food and natural vitamins the body thrives upon. Concentrated natural supplements such as aloe vera juice are great in a protein power smoothie. The jury is in. It is natural nutrition that keeps a body healthy.

Overall, everyone has an ideal weight range between which performance is optimized. By using BMI as a tool to determine your ideal weight, you can enjoy great health benefits and superior cycling performances.

Contributed by:
Dr. Linda Kennedy MS SLP ND

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