Lowest healthy weight
Kind of a random question, but I'm curious about how you guys know when you've found your weight "floor". I'm 5'8" 135#, 34yo M. I tend to stay that weight (+- ~3 lbs) year round regardless of training. I've ended this OS with my FTP at 3.7 w/kg, but I've always wanted to hit four. That means either getting my FTP from 227 watts to 244 (tough since OS is over) or dropping my weight down to ~125#. And, there is nothing magical about 4 w/kg, just using that as a point of reference.
So the question is how do you guys know when you've reached your weight floor that's safe and allows you to train like you want?
BTW, I'm racing IMMT so that's why I'm thinking about weight so much.
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Short answer, when you get weaker and slower rather than fitter or faster you have lost too much weight. Also if you start to feel overly fatigued or catch more frequent colds, etc. Have you read Fitzgerald's book Racing Weight?
Bottom line is you probably can work it from both directions.
So hoping somewhat might be able to answer this question- this seemed like as an appropriate place to ask it as any of the other forum threads.............
I often read about "weight gain" as a sign/sympton associated with overtraining (in addition to other signs as well)....but was curious if any understood/knew what was going on physically, physciologically, metabolically with overtaining that resulted in this? My thought was always muscle fatigue,damage causing inflammation...leading to water retention...etc.
Any thoughts?
Look into adrenal depletion. A classic symptom is weight gain, especially around the middle.
Classic overtraining occurs when the athlete's workload is so high, they can no longer recover from it. Most literature references talk about athletes doing really high volumes (25-30+ hours), hitting the point where, no matter how much they rest, they cannot recover. Very few of us have this problem.
However, many of us bump up against the max workload our lifestyle allows, given jobs, family, stressors, etc. For me, this frequently happens during prolonged VO2 focus periods, though this year I've finally seemed to manage it without hitting the proverbial wall.
When you are chronically underrested, there's lots of hormonal stuff that goes on that's acutally similar to chronic sleep deprivation or other chronic stressor exposure. Your ability to regulate leptin/ghrelin is affected, tending to make you hungrier. Your body starts to conserve its nervous energy (sitting at your desk, finding that your leg is bouncing for no apparent reason), downregulating your basal metabolic rate, thus affecting your energy balance. Plus, emotional/reward eating tends to kick in (ie. I feel like crap, maybe this tub of ice cream will help!). All of those tend to contribute to a positive energy balance when underrested.
Bottom line: a) get your sleep!!!, and b) don't train more than you can recover from.