Roadcycling.com
Racing Weight Book Review
By Bobbie Schauer
Jul 10, 2010 - 3:22:31 AM

Racing Weight - How To Get Lean For Peak Performance book review

Do you want to be a more efficient and effective athlete? How would it feel to move with less effort along the road? Matt Fitzgerald's Racing Weight, How To Get Lean For Peak Performance will teach you how to do just that. Given my education in nutrition and exercise physiology and my experience as an emergency department physician and prior aerobics instructor, I am rather wary of many diet and exercise books regarding their scientific soundness. I was pleasantly surprised and delighted to the extent Matt Fitzgerald composed this book addressing optimizing racing weight and body composition for peak performance in endurance athletes.

This is not a book about fads and get thin quick. As Matt states in his introduction, "In the following pages, you will find all of the information you need to set appropriate body-weight and body-composition goals and to achieve them safely and easily through scientifically grounded dietary and training practices." To this, Matt Fitzgerald has indeed delivered and succeeded.

Matt begins discussing body weight and body composition and its relationship to endurance performance. He then proceeds to instruct on determining optimal performance weight and tracking progress performance. The next sections of the book discuss sport-specific racing weight considerations. Then the real meat of the book begins, the five-step plan to obtain optimal endurance weight. This is where Matt shines, basing each step on current weight management research and scientific knowledge.

Step 1: Improve your Diet Quality should be required reading for anyone entering a McDonalds or graduating second grade! If everyone read at least this one chapter, much of what I see in the ER could be prevented. We are what we eat folks! He does a great job of presenting nutrition in a factual, yet easy to understand and apply to your life manner.

Next he discusses Steps 2-5: Balance Your Energy Sources, Time Your Nutrition, Manage Your Appetite and Train Right. The latest research and scientific knowledge is presented for each of these areas.

Next actual food journals from prominent endurance athletes are listed. Then, there is a recipe section created by a professional triathlete and dietician. Finally he discusses supplements. In his words, "most nutritional supplements are useless." Sorry GNC.

Matt Fitzgerald has pooled existing resources of scientific knowledge in nutrition and exercise physiology and presented this information concisely and collectively in an entertaining and easy read fashion. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in obtaining peak performance in endurance sports. Of course, I'd recommend his nutritional information to anyone living, eating, or breathing in America! Way to go Matt!

Click here to buy the Racing Weight, How To Get Lean For Peak Performance book now.


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