Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance Paperback – December 1, 2009

Hats OffHats off to weight off! I have a fairly good library of books on endurance sport and think that this book, Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance, is a good addition to my collection.I have read some comments here that pick-apart theory within the book, but funnily how the correction is one that rests on unresolved research, therefore; the ideas presented are still worth considering. I also think that Fitzgerald cites his resources well, better than most books on endurance sport (quite like Noakes) and offers cases and research case studies as informative bits for readers to ponder. I like to ponder the well written literature from Matt.I would welcome an invitation to read a better book from these critics, honestly so, as the field could use other books on this topic and fur sure, in due time, aspects will be refined. I think that the criticism are also welcome in that if indeed true a future version(s) can address these. So, I also appreciate reading what "issues" people see: but this does not make it a bad book. Not at all.If you are an academic with deep knowledge in nutrition and are able to adequately apply this knowledge into the arena of sport and endurance sport, this book may be a review for you. Any academic also knows that for every research study investigating a hypothesis there are probably other studies that offer variations of levels of significance, and variations of the general hypothesis. Matt presents both sides, I feel, quite well throughout the book and I highly recommend this to anyone wanting to learn more about weight and getting into peak performance shape: and you do as you are reading these reviews. I would quickly order this book if this is you.I had hesitated on this book for some time, but after finally ordering it found it quite interesting not only as "racing weight" reference, but as a general book as the reader is exposed to many studies, and short comments on some of the world's leading athletes out there (Tour de France riders to Marathoners).Since owning this book I have made several changes to my daily approach, directly from the book. Small changes that may be "common knowledge", especially for the well read, but the ideas "we know" become conscious and we can act - in sensible ways to try and make change.Bravo to a great book

I wish I had bought this book years and years ago. I would have saved myself a lot of time and effort in trying to eat like a bodybuilder, while exercising like an endurance athlete. Matt Fitzgerald is a nutritionist and this book is mainly a nutritional guide for endurance athletes, which he defines as someone who basically cycles, swims, rows, or runs for more than an hour a day multiple days a week. What I like best about this book is that is very readable. It has a nice combination of stories and nutrition science. What this book is not is a day-by-day, or minute-by-minute exercise guide, which is OK. Fitzgerald has done a good job at fitting a lot of useful information about nutrition including what to eat (carbs and lots of them), when to eat, how much to eat and why you should eat a lot of carbs for energy. In particular, he does a good job at illuminating and making good sense of the good carb, bad carb narrative, which is often puzzling. He also has a nice section about how to exercise for each of the main endurance sports.To sum up: It's a good book. You'll learn that carbs are an endurance athlete's friend and not their enemy. You'll learn how to better eat for endurance sports and you'll learn why you should let go of the bodybuilding nutritional paradigm, because it did not serve your energy needs the best. I was touched to read, early in the book, that the best thing to do if you are approaching endurance sports for weight loss is to do the sport that you enjoy the most. As he explains, if you enjoy it, you will keep it up, which will lead to better health, better performance and eventually becoming leaner. He's right. If you've ever felt guilty about letting your expensive health club membership expire after you only used it for a month or two, as I have, relax. It's all right. You didn't like it, thus you let it waft away. Grab your shoes and go outside...and enjoy yourself by running, cycling, (or all three as a Triathlete) rowing, or go to your local pool and swim, which will help you become leaner and you'll enjoy the journey a whole lot more, too.

I own a lot of books on training for bicycle races. Those books focus on periodization of training throughout the year and discipline-specific drills. Those are valuable if you are a newcomer to an endurance sport. If you've been racing for a while then re-reading those books has limited utility.Racing Weight addresses the fact that most amateur racers have a few extra pounds and these few extra pounds prevent them from maximizing their results in competition. This book outlines a system for figuring out how much energy is coming in via food and how much is going out via activity and how you can translate that into fat loss. It's simple and the author backs his system up well with lots of peer-reviewed research on diet and exercise physiology. It's a diet and lifestyle book, not a training book.The most important thing I did after reading was start a food journal. It's amazing how easy it is to pass on that late-night snack if you know you have to write it down. It's also really easy to use the web to figure out how many calories you are taking in throughout the day.It's tempting to share data on what 3 weeks following the Racing Weight system has done for me but that's not the point of my review. The point is if you are serious about improving your cycling, running, or triathalon performance and you don't currently have sub-10% body fat, this book will help you get there. Even if you simply want to improve your overall health this book is filled with tons of information on smart diet choices and the recipes rock. My wife is a professional chef and she loved all the recipes.So before you drop $5,000 on a superlight bike, buy this book and take a few pounds off the "engine."