Managing the Risks of Mid-Season Weight Loss: Protecting Your Power and Health with Energy Availability (EA)

Coach’s Opening: The Athlete Who Crashed Trying to Get “Lighter”

Every March and April, the same sentence pops up in my training group: “Coach, I want to drop two more kilos before the KOM stage. I heard riders get much faster on climbs for every kilo they lose.”

That statement isn’t wrong, but it hides a trap I’ve seen for fifteen years—one that makes me frown every time.

I once coached an athlete—let’s call him A-Kai. A-Kai was the kind of serious, obedient trainee whose problem was that he was too obedient. He read an article saying FTP divided by body weight (i.e., power-to-weight ratio, W/kg) determines climbing performance, so he cut his daily food intake in half on his own—breakfast was just an egg and black coffee—while still training twelve hours a week. Three weeks later, he had indeed lost nearly three kilos, and his W/kg looked much better on paper.

And then? Then, during a simulated Wuling climb, he completely “ran out of gas” near Cingjing—not cramping, not cardiovascular failure, but an indescribable emptiness: legs had no power, yet his heart rate was abnormally high. Blood tests came back showing low ferritin, sleep quality was a mess, and his resting heart rate was 6 to 8 bpm higher than usual for two straight weeks. That season, not only did he not get faster, he lost a full month of training to repeated minor colds and fatigue.

What A-Kai fell into is the star of this article: low energy availability. He thought he was “cutting weight,” but what he was actually doing was “pushing his body toward the cliff of an energy deficit.”

In this article, I want to have a proper talk with you: Can you lose weight during the season? Yes, you can—but it’s an exercise in risk management, not a numbers game on the scale. Losing a kilo of fat to make climbing easier is an asset; losing a kilo of muscle plus endocrine disruption is a liability. What we want is to gain only assets and take on no liabilities.

Let me say this upfront: this article isn’t meant to scare you or tell you “never touch weight loss mid-season.” Quite the opposite—I want to give you a framework you can operate safely within. Because saying “absolutely no cutting” is easy, but in practice, many people have legitimate weight-loss needs—they gained weight over winter, want to optimize body composition for climbing races, or have body fat that’s genuinely too high and affecting health. Avoiding that need only drives people to cut recklessly on their own, using more dangerous methods. Rather than forbidding it, it’s better to teach you how to minimize the risk. That’s been my consistent stance over fifteen years of coaching: it’s not about not doing it—it’s about doing it right.

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Conceptual Foundation: What Is Energy Availability (EA)?

Many people focus on “caloric deficit” when losing weight, but that’s not precise enough. The metric sports science cares more about is called Energy Availability (EA).

Its definition is straightforward:

EA = (Daily energy intake − Exercise energy expenditure) ÷ Fat-free mass (FFM)

In plain terms: of the energy you consume, after subtracting what’s “burned by training,” how much is left for your body to maintain basic functions—repairing muscle, sustaining immunity, endocrine function, bone metabolism, temperature regulation, and brain function. That “leftover amount” is the fuel your body can actually use.

The unit is kcal / kg fat-free mass / day (kcal/kg FFM/day). Fat-free mass is your body weight minus fat—muscle, bone, organs, and water all count.

Why Look at EA Instead of Total Calories?

The key lies in the “subtract exercise first” step.

Here’s an example: two athletes weighing 60 kg with 50 kg of fat-free mass both eat 2400 kcal.

• Athlete A rests today, burning only 100 kcal from exercise → EA = (2400 − 100) ÷ 50 = 46 kcal/kg FFM, plenty.
• Athlete B rides a four-hour hard session, burning 2000 kcal → EA = (2400 − 2000) ÷ 50 = 8 kcal/kg FFM, severely insufficient.

See that? Both ate 2400 kcal—one is healthy, one is in danger. The difference is training load. That’s why an athlete who says “but I eat a lot” can still fall into energy deficiency—because they burn even more through exercise, leaving almost nothing for the body to actually use.

Three Key Thresholds (Ranges, Not Precision Instruments)

According to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) 2018 consensus statement on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S), EA can be roughly divided into zones. I’m presenting these as ranges because individual variation is huge—don’t treat any single number as an absolute “pass/fail” line:

EA Zone	Approximate Value (kcal/kg FFM/day)	Body State
Optimal	~45 and above	Good training adaptation, stable weight, normal endocrine function
Mild deficit (controlled weight-loss zone)	~30–45	Cautious weight loss possible, most functions maintained
Low Energy Availability (LEA)	Below ~30	Multiple body systems begin to be disrupted; long-term RED-S risk

For female athletes, long-term values below ~30 kcal/kg FFM are commonly used as a reference threshold for LEA; the threshold for males is less defined, with the literature spanning a wider range and no consensus yet. Treat 30 as a “warning line,” not a “precision scale.”

This is why I keep reminding my athletes: weight loss is fine, but do it deliberately within the “mild deficit zone”—don’t unknowingly fall into the LEA zone while smugly celebrating how fast the weight is dropping.

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RED-S: What the Body Does When Energy Is Chronically Insufficient

The term people used to know was the “Female Athlete Triad” (energy deficiency, menstrual dysfunction, and low bone mass). The IOC later expanded the concept and renamed it RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport), because those affected are by no means only women, and it’s not limited to those three issues.

When EA stays low over time, the body activates “energy-saving mode”—it doesn’t know you’re cutting weight for the KOM stage; it only knows “energy coming in isn’t enough, I need to conserve.” So it sacrifices functions that aren’t “immediately essential for survival”:

Possible Physiological Changes

• Endocrine: Testosterone, estrogen, and thyroid hormones drop; women may experience menstrual cycle disruption or even amenorrhea.
• Bone: Bone formation decreases, raising long-term risk of stress fractures (especially important for triathletes who constantly run on hard asphalt and jump).
• Immune: Recurrent minor colds, slower wound healing, more frequent upper respiratory infections (that’s what happened to A-Kai).
• Metabolic: Resting metabolic rate downshifts, the body becomes “fuel-efficient,” making further weight loss harder—a vicious cycle.
• Iron and blood production: Low ferritin, tendency toward anemia, reduced oxygen-carrying capacity.

What You’ll Feel on the Performance Side

• Power won’t go up; the same heart rate only produces lower watts.
• “Running out of gas” late in endurance sessions—your lungs aren’t at their limit, but your legs give out first.
• Slower recovery after training; muscle soreness lingers longer.
• Elevated resting heart rate, decreased heart rate variability (HRV), worse sleep, low mood and irritability.
• Deterioration in sport-specific skills (swimming feel for the water, running economy).

I often tell my athletes: the most insidious thing about RED-S is that it doesn’t announce itself “in the moment” like a cramp does. It’s the frog in boiling water—you think you’re just “a bit more tired lately,” and by the time a stress fracture or a season collapse hits, you realize the foundation was hollowed out long ago.

Why “Lighter” Doesn’t Equal “Faster” — The W/kg Myth

I want to help break down a widely circulated but often misused concept: power-to-weight ratio (W/kg). Climbing is indeed highly correlated with W/kg, and that’s correct. The problem is that many people interpret it simply as “the smaller the denominator, the better,” so they desperately try to shed body weight.

But W/kg is a fraction: the numerator is the watts you can produce, and the denominator is your body weight. What happens when you push the denominator down so hard that you fall into an energy deficit?

• Muscle gets broken down for fuel → your power factory shrinks → the numerator drops.
• You can’t push through hard training sessions → training adaptations are compromised → the numerator stagnates or even regresses.
• Chronic fatigue, recurring illness → missed sessions, inability to accumulate training stimulus → the numerator suffers long-term.

The result: you lower the denominator by 5%, but you might simultaneously drop the numerator by 8%, and your W/kg doesn’t rise—it falls. This is exactly A-Kai’s story—the number on the scale looked good, but he was actually slower on climbs. Genuine, healthy W/kg improvements come about 80% from training the numerator up; fat loss is just the final few percent of icing on the cake.

Remember this priority: first ensure training stimulus and recovery are on point (build the numerator), then talk about losing “excess” fat (trim the denominator)—don’t put the cart before the horse by trading your health for a number on the scale.

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A Reasonable Rate of Weight Loss: Preserving Muscle Is the Key to Winning This Game

Okay, concepts are done—let’s talk practicalities. Suppose you really do need to lose a bit of weight during the season—say you gained some over the winter holidays, or you want to optimize body composition before a key climbing race—rate is the most important dial.

The Golden Rate: 0.5%–1% of Body Weight Per Week

The professional consensus in sports nutrition and athletic training generally falls within this range: control your weekly weight loss rate to 0.5%–1% of body weight, and it’s not recommended to exceed 1.5%. Anything beyond that is often not fat, but water and muscle.

The National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) position statement on safe weight loss also indicates that weight loss goals should be approximately 0.5–0.9 kg per week and should not exceed 1.5% of body weight; exceeding that usually indicates dehydration or unhealthy methods that harm performance and health. Research comparing different weight loss rates tends to show: losing 0.5 kg per week preserves lean body mass and athletic performance better than losing 1 kg per week. The lower your body fat, the more you should lean toward the lower end of the range.

Here’s the conversion into practical numbers:

Body Weight	0.5%/week (Conservative)	1%/week (Aggressive Upper Limit)	Recommendation
55 kg	~0.28 kg	~0.55 kg	Those with already low body fat should use the lower end
65 kg	~0.33 kg	~0.65 kg	Suitable for most people mid-season
75 kg	~0.38 kg	~0.75 kg	Those starting with higher body fat can use the mid-to-upper end
85 kg	~0.43 kg	~0.85 kg	More room to lose, but still don’t exceed 1.5%

See those numbers? Even for a 75 kg person, a safe weekly loss is just 0.4 to 0.75 kg. Those “lose five kilos in a month” plans are mathematically guaranteed to be burning your muscle and endocrine system.

Why Is Slow Better Than Fast?

Three reasons:

1. Preserve muscle: A moderate deficit gives your body time to prioritize using fat; a rapid deficit forces the body to break down muscle for fuel. Muscle is your power factory—burning it is like crippling yourself.
2. Maintain training quality: With enough energy, you can push through hard sessions and finish long rides, so training adaptations don’t suffer.
3. Protect endocrine function and metabolism: Staying in a moderate deficit zone (EA around 30–45) keeps you away from the LEA cliff and minimizes RED-S risk.

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Practical Methods: How to Lose Weight Safely Mid-Season

Step 1: Calculate Your EA First—Don’t Go by Feel

Many people lose weight by “eating less based on feel,” which is dangerous. Spend a week doing a rough estimate:

1. Use a body fat scale or InBody to find your fat-free mass (FFM) (e.g., 65 kg at 15% body fat → FFM ≈ 55 kg).
2. Log your total caloric intake for three to four days (use an app with photo logging—be honest).
3. Estimate exercise energy expenditure using a power meter or sports watch.
4. Apply the formula: EA = (Intake − Exercise Expenditure) ÷ FFM.

If the result is already below 35, then you shouldn’t be cutting at all—what you need to do is “eat back.” Only if it’s above 40 do you have room for moderate weight loss.

Step 2: Keep the Deficit “Small” and “Smartly Distributed”

A reasonable daily deficit should be 250–500 kcal—no more. And distribution is key:

• Don’t over-restrict on training days: Especially on hard session days and interval days, carbs must be sufficient. Shift the deficit to rest days or easy days to create it. This is called “periodizing energy around training”—eat more on high-intensity days, trim slightly on low-intensity days.
• Increase protein: During a cutting phase, protein intake should be raised to 1.6–2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight to help preserve muscle and increase satiety. A 65 kg person needs roughly 105–145 grams of protein per day.
• Don’t skimp on energy “before, during, and after training”: The pre-, mid-, and post-ride windows are the last places you should cut energy. Saving calories there directly pushes your EA down and harms training quality.

Step 3: A Four-Week Executable Weight Loss Example

Take an amateur triathlete weighing 68 kg at about 16% body fat who wants to lose weight moderately mid-season (numbers are illustrative; adjust individually in practice):

Week	Daily Deficit Target	Key Actions	Monitoring Metrics
Week 1	~250 kcal	Only adjust dinner portions on rest days; eat normally on training days	Morning resting heart rate, body weight
Week 2	~300–400 kcal	Increase protein to one palm per meal; reduce late-night snacks and sugary drinks	HRV, sleep quality, training power
Week 3	~300–400 kcal	Maintain if weight and performance are stable; if resting heart rate rises two days in a row, refeed	Weekly loss ≤ 0.7 kg
Week 4	Back to ~0 deficit	“Maintenance week”—let metabolism and endocrine function catch their breath	Overall fatigue, appetite, mood

Note the “maintenance week” in Week 4. I almost never let athletes cut for more than three to four consecutive weeks; you must schedule a refeeding maintenance period to avoid metabolic downregulation and excessive physical and mental stress. Weight loss is done in phases, not by charging all the way through.

Step 4: Practical Adjustments for Taiwan’s Eating-Out Environment

The biggest challenge for Taiwanese athletes isn’t understanding the theory—it’s eating out. Here are some down-to-earth suggestions:

• Buffet-style restaurants are your friend: Two to three vegetables, one serving of whole-protein (skinless braised chicken leg, steamed fish, tofu), and control your own rice portion—easier to adjust than a fixed bento box.
• Noodle shop ordering: Plain noodles (yangchun noodles) with a side of blanched greens, a braised egg, and a portion of pork cheek or chicken—healthier than dry noodles loaded with fried shallots and a bowl of fish ball soup.
• Convenience store rescue: Tea eggs, unsweetened soy milk, chicken breast, sweet potatoes, and salad are a stable combo when you’re rushing to training.
• Bubble tea: This is the most overlooked hidden calorie source. A full-sugar pearl milk tea easily hits 500–600 kcal—that’s like undoing your deficit. If you must drink it, go unsweetened, no ice, and cut the frequency.
• Summer hydration—don’t turn it into sugar: Taiwan’s summers are hot and humid, and you really want to chug sports drinks after training. Replenishing electrolytes after long sessions is fine, but don’t treat it as a reward to guzzle after short sessions—that sugar will eat straight into your deficit.

Step 5: Fit Weight Loss into the “Right” Training Cycle

This is a step many people miss, but I consider it the most critical one. Weight loss isn’t something you do “whenever you feel like it”; it must be placed within your annual training cycle. Putting it in the wrong place is asking for trouble.

Let me state a major principle upfront: An energy deficit and high-intensity training adaptations are fundamentally at odds with each other. In a deficit, your body is in a catabolic state, while the training progress you want requires an anabolic state for repair and getting stronger. Forcing both into the same period often results in losing on both fronts—power doesn’t improve, and weight stalls due to metabolic downregulation.

So when I plan annual programs for athletes, this is how I allocate it:

Cycle Phase	Suitable for Weight Loss?	Rationale & Approach
Base Phase (Winter, Dec–Feb)	Most suitable	Low intensity, moderate volume; a mild deficit has minimal impact on training. This is the golden window for losing excess fat.
Build Phase (Intensity increases)	Be cautious; energy must be sufficient	High-intensity intervals need a full tank. At most, a slight deficit here; prioritize training quality.
Peak/Taper Phase	Absolutely not	This is the time for carb-loading, rest, and arriving at the start line fully fueled. Losing weight here is sabotage.
Transition/Recovery Phase (Post-season)	Maintenance only	Let your mind, body, and endocrine system fully recover. Don’t rush back into a deficit.

Once you understand this table, you’ll see why many people in Taiwan get the timing of weight loss wrong. People often start aggressively cutting in April and May when the weather warms up and races pile up (which coincides with the Build phase into the racing season)—exactly when they shouldn’t be. The real window for losing weight, the winter Base phase, is instead spent indulging due to Lunar New Year, year-end banquets, and the cold weather making it hard to get moving. Reversed timing is one of the biggest common pitfalls in body composition management for Taiwanese amateur athletes.

Step 6: Factor in Taiwan’s Race Calendar

Taiwan has races year-round: marathons and early spring cycling races in March, the triathlon season starting in May (like the various 113 half-Ironman and Olympic-distance races), the iconic King of the Mountain (KOM) challenge and Wuling-related events in autumn, and the city marathon peak season at the end of the year.

This means Taiwanese athletes rarely have a “completely open window” with no target races. My advice is:

• Lock in 1–2 A-priority target races; treat the rest as training races (B/C priority).
• Only schedule weight loss during the preparatory Base phase leading into your A-priority race, leaving at least 6–8 weeks of buffer before the race so your weight, metabolism, and form can stabilize before entering pre-race adjustments.
• Never force weight loss between two closely spaced races. That only leads to racing back-to-back fatigued and on an empty tank, skyrocketing your risk of injury and illness.

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How to Monitor: Turning Subjective Feelings into an Objective Dashboard

The biggest fear in weight loss is “feeling good about yourself.” When you’re in an energy deficit, your judgment also declines, making it easy to fool yourself into thinking “I’m fine.” So I require athletes to quantify their body’s signals into a dashboard they can check daily.

These metrics are low-cost and can be done at home, yet they can catch the early signs of LEA weeks in advance:

• Morning resting heart rate: Measure every day upon waking, after using the bathroom, before coffee. If it’s more than 5 bpm above your personal baseline for 2–3 consecutive days, that’s a clear red flag.
• Heart rate variability (HRV): Many watches and apps can measure this. A downward trend, especially accompanied by fatigue, indicates recovery isn’t keeping up and energy may be insufficient.
• Morning weight trend: Don’t look at single-day readings; look at the 7-day moving average. Daily fluctuations are mostly water; the trend is the truth. Also, confirm the rate of loss doesn’t exceed 1% per week.
• Sleep quality: Energy deficiency often comes with difficulty falling asleep and waking up during the night. Once sleep collapses, recovery collapses.
• Relationship between training power/pace and heart rate: Is your heart rate abnormally high at the same power or pace? Or is the wattage you can produce at the same heart rate dropping? This is the most direct signal of declining performance.
• Subjective indicators: Abnormal appetite (hyperphagia or complete loss of appetite), low mood or irritability, decreased concentration, decreased libido—these are all signs your endocrine system is protesting.
• (For women) Menstrual regularity: This is the most important health dashboard for female athletes. A longer, irregular, or absent cycle means EA is already compromised. You must review immediately and seek professional help—don’t delay.

The analogy I often use: These metrics are like the dashboard in your car. You wouldn’t keep driving if the engine temperature light came on. Weight loss is the same—when the light comes on, you refuel, rather than toughing it out on willpower alone.

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Common Mistakes and Corrections

These are the landmines I’ve seen repeatedly over the years. Check if you’ve stepped on any:

Mistake 1: Keeping Training Volume the Same While Halving Your Food Intake

This was A-Kai’s original sin. Training twelve hours as usual, but cutting intake in half—EA plummets off a cliff.

Correction: During a weight-loss phase, you should actually “look at training first, then set the diet.” Eat normally or even more on big training days, and create the deficit on easy days. You’re managing “total weekly energy,” not “every single meal.”

Mistake 2: Only Watching the Scale, Not Body Composition

Weight drops, so you’re happy—but you don’t know if you lost muscle or fat. Losing muscle during weight loss looks good on the W/kg paper, but your actual power declines.

Correction: Get an InBody scan or body fat measurement every 2–4 weeks, and watch whether fat-free mass is holding steady. If weight is down and fat-free mass is also down, you’re losing weight the wrong way.

Mistake 3: Crash Dieting the Week Before a Race

Many people don’t manage their weight all year, then panic-diet the week before a race. What you lose then is almost entirely glycogen and water—you’re showing up with an empty tank.

Correction: The week before a race is for carb-loading and rest, not weight loss. Weight loss is homework done slowly before the season, not during the non-critical period, not a pre-race sprint.

Mistake 4: Ignoring Recovery Signals and Pushing Through

Elevated resting heart rate, dropping HRV, poor sleep, irritability, abnormal appetite—these are all your body shouting “not enough energy.” Many athletes dismiss these as “lack of willpower” and suppress them.

Correction: Treat these signals as warning lights on your dashboard. If your resting heart rate is more than 5 bpm above baseline for 2–3 consecutive days, or HRV drops significantly, it’s time to refuel and reduce volume, not add more.

Mistake 5: Treating “Being Light” as the Only Goal

It’s true that climbing is about W/kg, but that’s a ratio of the denominator (weight) and the numerator (power). Blindly suppressing the denominator while sacrificing the numerator won’t improve the ratio.

Correction: Remember there are two paths to a better W/kg—increase your power, or lose excess fat. The healthy path is “preserve power, lose excess fat,” not “ignore power, force the weight down.”

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Actionable Advice for Athletes at Different Levels

First-time Triathletes / Beginner Riders

Honestly, at this stage, weight loss shouldn’t be your focus at all. 99% of your performance improvement comes from training stimulus and technique, not body weight. Getting into an energy deficit now will only make you unable to train, recover poorly, get injured easily, and eventually quit altogether.

• First, nail down “eat enough, train well, sleep plenty.”
• If your body fat is genuinely high, consistent training plus cutting sugary drinks and late-night snacks will naturally bring your weight down slowly. You don’t need to deliberately create a deficit.
• Learn to recognize satiety and hunger cues, and build a healthy relationship with food. This is a hundred times more important than losing a few kilos.

Advanced Age-Group Athletes

You already have a training foundation. Weight loss can be an optimization tool, but it requires discipline.

• Execute a mild weight loss (0.5%–0.75% per week) during the non-key racing season when training volume is moderate.
• Schedule a maintenance week every 3–4 weeks.
• Use the EA concept to check yourself; don’t let it drop below 35.
• Monitor fat-free mass, resting heart rate, HRV, sleep, and power. If any one of them flashes red, refuel.

PB-Chasing / High-Level Competitive Athletes

Your body fat is usually already quite low, which ironically makes you the highest-risk group, because there’s little room to go lower and a high chance of falling into LEA.

• The lower your body fat, the more conservative your deficit should be—lean toward the low end of 0.5% per week.
• Strongly recommend working with a professional sports nutritionist and getting regular blood work (ferritin, hormones, vitamin D).
• Female athletes must treat menstrual regularity as a core health indicator; once it becomes irregular, it means EA is already compromised, and you should review immediately.
• “Peak race weight” is a short-term optimization, not a year-round norm. Don’t live in an energy deficit all year long.

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Coach’s Mailbag: Most Frequently Asked Questions from Athletes

These are the questions I’ve been asked so often over my years of coaching that I could recite them in my sleep. I’ve compiled them for you to save you from going down the wrong path.

Q1: Can I lose weight and increase FTP at the same time?

It’s very hard to maximize both, but you can “preserve power while losing fat.” For those with limited training experience and higher body fat, the body has the capacity to make small progress on both fronts under a small deficit. But for lean, experienced athletes, the two are almost a tug-of-war—in that case, I’d recommend “doing them separately”: moderate fat loss during non-key periods, and full energy intake to push power during key periods. Trying to push both to the extreme simultaneously usually means both end up compromised.

Q2: Is fasting or keto suitable for in-season weight loss?

For cyclists and runners who need high-intensity output, I generally don’t recommend severely restricting carbohydrates during the season. High-intensity exercise relies heavily on muscle glycogen; once carbs are cut, interval sessions and race-day explosive output will suffer. Low-carb or fasting isn’t completely off the table, but it requires very careful planning and an adaptation period—the risk is too high and the cost-benefit ratio too low mid-season. Instead of going down that path, it’s better to honestly do “a moderate deficit + adequate protein + fueling carbs on training days.”

Q3: My weight is stuck. Should I cut calories even more?

This is precisely the most dangerous gut reaction. A weight plateau may mean your metabolism has already downshifted (your body has become more fuel-efficient), or you’re already on the edge of LEA. Cutting calories further at this point will only push you deeper. The right move is often the opposite—schedule a maintenance phase or even a slight refeed first, letting your metabolism stabilize and your endocrine system catch its breath, so your body has the headroom to move again afterward. Weight loss is a two-steps-forward, one-step-back rhythm, not a relentless slash-and-burn.

Q4: Is it okay to drink black coffee and add more aerobic work to create a deficit?

Caffeine can certainly serve as a pre-training pick-me-up, but don’t make “more exercise” your primary weight-loss tool. Remember the EA equation—every extra calorie you burn through exercise directly pulls the numerator (available energy) down. Ramping up aerobic volume not only pushes EA toward the cliff edge, it also increases the risk of injury and overtraining. The main battleground for weight loss is “moderate adjustments on the intake side,” not “unlimited escalation on the expenditure side.”

Q5: Since training volume is low in winter, is that a good time to cut aggressively?

The direction is right, but don’t overdo it. Winter’s base phase is indeed a golden window for fat loss—intensity is low and the impact on training is minimal. But “low training volume” doesn’t equal “license for a big deficit.” Keep the same rate of 0.5%–1% per week, still prioritize protein, and still schedule maintenance weeks. Taiwan’s winter also has a practical issue: with the cold weather and the Lunar New Year, many people don’t lose too much—they eat too much and move too little. So for most people, the real winter challenge is “don’t regain the weight,” not “seize the chance to cut hard.”

Q6: Can I manage EA without a power meter or InBody?

Yes, just with less precision. You can use your sports watch’s calorie estimate as a reference, estimate fat-free mass roughly with “body weight × body fat percentage,” and use morning resting heart rate and subjective feel as monitoring tools. The point isn’t to calculate EA to the decimal point, but to build the habit of “look at training first, then decide on food; keep the deficit small; refeed when the warning lights come on.” You can lose weight safely without expensive equipment, as long as you’re honest and disciplined.

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Wrapping Up with a Real Scenario: What Happened to A-Kai

Back to A-Kai. We completely reversed course: he spent the first month “eating back up,” pulling his EA above 45 and letting his ferritin, sleep, and resting heart rate slowly return to normal. He was anxious for a while, because his weight crept back up by over a kilo and he felt he’d “lost all his progress.”

I told him: “That kilo was never meant to be lost. Now your body has fuel again—let’s build your power up and improve your W/kg from the numerator side.”

Over the next two months, he could push harder in training, recovered faster, and stopped catching colds. Only at the next non-key period did we slowly optimize body composition at a rate of 0.5% per week, with maintenance weeks built in. By the end of that season, his Wuling climb time had improved—and it improved fast and healthy, not as a fake number scared out of him by a scale.

This is the core idea I want to leave you with:

Losing weight mid-season isn’t taboo, but it is risk management. What you’re after is “excess fat”; what you must protect is “muscle, endocrine function, immunity, and bone.” Slower, steadier, and smarter—that’s how you get both lighter and stronger, not lighter and broken.

Keep energy availability in mind, and keep the scale where it belongs—a reference tool, not your master.

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This article is educational content and does not replace individual assessment by a physician, physical therapist, or dietitian. If you have menstrual irregularities, suspected stress fractures, chronic fatigue, or signs of disordered eating, please seek professional medical help.

References

• International Olympic Committee (IOC) Consensus Statement on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S): 2018 Update — https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/Athletes/Medical-Scientific/Consensus-Statements/REDs/IOC-consensus-statement-Relative-Energy-Deficiency-in-Sport-2018.pdf
• National Athletic Trainers’ Association Position Statement: Safe Weight Loss and Maintenance Practices in Sport and Exercise — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3419563/
• Effect of Two Different Weight-Loss Rates on Body Composition and Strength and Power-Related Performance in Elite Athletes — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21558571/

Related Reading

• Weight Loss and Body Composition Management: The Science of Fat Loss for Athletes—Energy Deficit, Muscle Preservation, and Timing
• The Weight-to-Power Ratio Trap: Cut the Wrong Way and You’ll Sell the Engine Too
• Dietary Health for Cyclists: The Art of Balancing Weight Management and Performance
• The Off-Season Is Not a Free-for-All: Weight and Nutrition Management for Athletes in the Off-Season—Maintain and Rebuild Simultaneously