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Home > Racing Weight Quick Start Guide
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Racing Weight Quick Start Guide
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By Matt Fitzgerald
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 (18 Reviews)
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List Price: $18.95
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Publisher:
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Velo Press
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Date:
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December 31, 1969 |
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Binding:
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Paperback
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Pages:
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240
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Most endurance athletes are concerned about their weight. They know that every extra pound slows them down. Yet normal dieting and fad weight-loss programs don?t work for athletes who need to fuel their training. Cyclists, runners, triathletes, and swimmers need Matt Fitzgerald?s Racing Weight Quick Start Guide, the first weight-loss training plan for endurance athletes. By applying all the principles of his best-selling book Racing Weight, endurance athletes will accelerate their season goals and race leaner and faster than ever before. Athletes will devote 4 to 8 weeks to starting a weight loss of 5, 10, or 20+ pounds. The weight will come off quickly by following a schedule of high-intensity workouts, strength training, and a menu of calorie-restricted, high-protein meals and snacks. Low-volume and high-volume training plans help athletes maintain fitness even while they focus on weight loss. With the Racing Weight Quick Start Guide, endurance athletes can lose weight quickly and get a jumpstart on reaching their performance goals.
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Customers' Reviews:
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 Good concepts - but it relies on a website that is missing info, February 12, 2011
By projektyle
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I can't comment on the effectiveness of the methodology outlined here. It makes good sense, basically how to increase fat burning to reduce your weight while still allowing for base training. However, the setup is for you to calculate your nutritional needs based on a calculated number of calories needed, using the workouts in the book. Supposedly you can go to racingweight.com and find calculators that will let you calculate, for your specific starting weight, the number of calories you will burn using the workouts in the book. Unfortunately, when you go to racingweight.com and search for calculators, you find exactly one article, which has a link to an offsite calculator that has absolutely no info about the training plans in the book. From that perspective, it's a complete fail. And since the entire plan is supposed to be based on a specific caloric deficit, of which this is the basis, it makes the whole effort futile...
14 of 16 people found this review helpful
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 Not as good as the original, but still helpful, May 9, 2011
By S. Pritchard (Brookline, MA)
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The original Racing Weight is a phenomenal book with an incredible amount of information backed up by hard data. This book starts off with a watered-down recap of Racing Weight, followed by a few meal plans and advice for losing weight. It is designed for the "off-season" which I did not know at the time of purchase, and is probably part of the reason I didn't find it too helpful. Additionally, I would have loved to see more vegetarian plans. The author admits to finding it difficult to get enough protein (30%) without overdoing calories in his one vegetarian plan; providing a bit more guidance would have been even more useful for me.
I'll probably go back to this book in the winter, when I'm not training quite as hard as I am now, and maybe it will help me even more than the original book already has. However, if you are thinking of purchasing this book and have not already read Racing Weight, I *highly* recommend buying that one before (or instead of) this one.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful
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 " Racing Weight Quick Start Guide" by Matt Fitzgerald, January 6, 2011
By levrier
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I just finished reading this book and I found it a great companion to his " Racing Weight ; How to Get Lean for Peak Performance", and a wonderful resource for endurance athletes who wants to lose weight before starting their race -focused training season and reaching their racing weight without effecting their performance quality or following common weight -loss diets which are designed for non- athletes . It is well written and like his other books all information are based on scientific studies not just his opinion.
7 of 10 people found this review helpful
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Long overdue book on this critical subject matter, March 15, 2011
By spassmeister (Del Mar, CA)
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This book's value cuts across many levels of athletic pursuit - from couch potato to elite amateurs. That is, if like many, you have been working out and doing 10k races or even half marathons, triathlons or more and become used to working out to stay trim and do some events with friends, and you really want to improve, you need to focus on dropping weight. Even if you live in San Diego (like I do) and can train through the winter, many people still over induldge in food during the "off season" and put some extra weight on. Then, you begin working out again in Feb/March and - like every year - believe you can train the extra pounds off.
After years of doing this you realize - " hey - what if I simply focused on losing weight up front....then the training would be more effective and more fun" by April/May time frame. That is, you can do those longer and more difficult workouts earlier in your training season and prepare to have some great events during the middle of the year. Whether or not you have thought that, if you plan to do competitive events and are truly interested in improving your performance you should read this book. It outlines the relationship between racing weight and performance, and makes that point that you are at your best at nearly your lightest weight. That should be motivation enough to read the rest of the book and follow the "quick start" guide including:
- goal setting
- proper race weight determination
- tips on eating using Fitzgerald's DQS (Diet Quality Score): a quick/easy way to track caloric consumption from a quality perspective
- what, how much and when to eat with meal planning and lot of samples
- the value/benefit of intense exercise at weight loss throughout the day
- programs for runners, cyclists and triathletes
One issue I have that is not well covered in the book is the relationship between optimal racing weight and the quantity of muscle mass that may not promote, say, a sub-3 hour marathon (my goal). If you have done enough weight training that you've built up some muscle mass that won't be of any help cycling up palomar or running on the track, you need to shed those dense pounds as much as fat pounds.
Couple last thoughts on this book. First, if you ever read "body for life" and saw the 12-week challenge that Bill Phillips started and read about the "biggest losers" who won that competition they all said the same thing - it was about 75% diet and about 25% weight lifting to get the body they wanted. That is, you cannot train your way past a bad diet. This book focuses on athletic performance, not how you look in the mirror, but the message and philiosphy are the same. And when you recduce your body fat you benefit in both ways. Finally, be careful when you do the anaerobic/intense exercises recommended. This is how many - including me - have injured ourselves. For me it was that last 200M sprint in 33 seconds that tweaked my hamstring two years ago and it's never fully recovered - so warm up A LOT prior to these.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
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Lose Weight... let me save you some time, January 4, 2011
By Peter W. Brush Jr. (New York, New York USA)
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Honestly, didn't get a lot out of this book. Almost everyone is above 8% body fat. So, lose weight, and save the time reading this book in the gym.
5 of 23 people found this review helpful
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Coffee For The Brain Reviews, July 23, 2011
By Coffeechug (Iowa)
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As I train for my first marathon I decided to give this a read. I posted several posts last year about the first version of this concept of Racing Weight. I found this book to be very helpful. As I read the Quick Start Guide I found much of it to be very similar to the Racing Weight: How To Get Lean for Peak Performance. That is not to say that it is a bad book, but for being a quick start it was still crammed with information. A lot of good information. I performed the calculations and I understood everything.
This book did help me gain the perspective needed to lose the necessary weight. I did not go to any of the websites and I did not follow the plan perfectly. However, I learned some very useful tips and ideas to help maintain my weight and how to shed a few unwanted pounds. I still have a ways to go, but this book is a great read to learning about the steps needed. I cannot say I learned tons of new information from the previous book, but by this book coming out I did refresh my memory on many things that I had forgotten about. If you have not read the previous book, then this will be a great resource for you. If you have already read the previous book, then I would check it out from the library and read through it for the new things added.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
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Great practical companion to Racing Weight, March 6, 2012
By J. Moffitt (Iowa City, IA)
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I purchased and read racing weight and then this book, which I believe is more of a companion and not a stand alone product. If you want to get the most out of this book, read Racing Weight first. Racing weight provides a very sound evidenced-based rationale for how and why shedding extra pounds can help improve performance. The quick start guide provides very concrete steps for how to put that into action. Since I already had a fairly high level of cardiovascular fitness, I followed a hybrid version between the low and high volume plans for runners for 8 weeks and had excellent results. Since I am a runner and I only really closely read and followed the plan for runners, my review will focus on that aspect. I will also mention that I am an exercise physiologist and am reviewing this from not only that perspective but that as a consumer, since as a runner, I'm always looking for new ways to augment my training and have struggled to loose the weight I have expected to while training. Nutrition is also not my area of expertise, so I am always looking for good resources in this area.
I modified the plan to fit my needs but I really followed it very closely. As stated in the book it was VERY hard to get 30% of my intake in protein every day - I mostly hit the 20-25% mark, however. I also did not give up diet soda. I drew the line there! I did follow just about every other aspect very closely. I never did actually calculate my DQS, but rather shot to get the prescribed kcal with the correct protein% and take in as many high-quality foods as I could each day. Had I followed that part more religiously, I likely could have lost a bit more weight, but I struggle with carbohydrate cravings so I was still thrilled with the results. In the end over 8 weeks, I lost 10 lb of pure body fat and my running performance has dramatically improved. I don't think it can be overstated the importance of just focusing on weight loss rather than performance and implementing this plan during an off-season training cycle.
Among the stand out aspects of the book are promoting what I call "strength intervals" or doing hill work rather than speed work to build strength without risking injury and fasted long runs. Although I'm not sure it really helps you loose weight per-se, I think it helps boost beta-oxidation capacity and promote glycogen sparing when you do hit your performance training cycle. Also doing some high intensity work on the cycle as a cross-training tool is an excellent, excellent tool to boost high-intensity training volume without putting yourself and increased risk of injury.
My primary criticisms and where I didn't give this book 5 stars is that Mr. Fitzgerald failed to mention all the other physiologic and metabolic factors that will work against one loosing weight and the pitfalls of that (compensatory lower spontaneous activity etc.) and failed to provide any strategies for overcoming these factors. Its not just a simple math formula (kcal in - kcal out) as he would leave one to believe however infinitely more complicated! In addition some of the exercises described did not make sense in the progression he provided and have no gender specificity. For instance there is a leg curl exercise and inverted pushups exercise that I still cannot do nor can anyone that I've asked to perform these exercises, and they were introduced in week 1 of the program! I'm wondering if he did any test cases of these exercises with recreational athletes?
That being said if you are a runner or other endurance athlete and you've been struggling to loose weight, thinking it will just come off as you increase your mileage, STOP, read Racing Weight and follow this guide and you will have some very positive results. Going through this process will also help shape your thinking moving forward about nutritional choices beyond the weight loss cycle.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
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Disappointed, October 16, 2011
By TriGirl
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I like Matt Fitzgerald's nutrition pieces in Triathlete and other sports publications, and think Racing Weight the original book is very much worth reading. He obviously knows his stuff. But I was disappointed in the quick start guide.
The first 42 pages are an overview of everything in the original book. The next section is the actual 4-week plan where he gives you the meals and snacks to eat. I was just kind off put off by how basic and bland everything was. I mean, 'PB and J' and 'celery with PB'...? That's fine I guess, but kind of toddler-ish. And one of the dinners is: roasted turkey, quinoa, and boiled brussel sprouts. No spices, not the tiniest bit of oil or cooking spray. I think cardboard is sounding pretty good at this point. I get that this 4 weeks is about cutting fat and getting lean, but I think he could have just spent a little more effort on making the food appealing. Food can be low fat, healthy and taste good and there are some great cook books out there that do just that. Try Ellie Krieger's 'Food You Crave'. She gives all the nutrition info so you can stick to the calorie recommendations from the racing weight book. I swear I have nothing to gain from that! I'm just a foodie and athlete that likes my food to taste good and be healthy.
And finally, the whole second half of the guide has nothing to do with nutrition....it's all weight training and sport specific workouts. The weight training exercises and plans are great, but I think most of you athletes out there probably already have half a dozen books about these topics or already have coaches and training programs. I only looked at the triathlon section, but the first few weeks of the program consisted of a grand total of 3-4 hours A WEEK of swimming, biking, and running. So unless you are a true beginner, and I mean starting from literally zero training, I think this is way too easy. I'm a pretty average age grouper and I train 10-15 hours a week.
So all that said, I just want to repeat, the original book 'Racing Weight' by this author is excellent and will give you a great idea of how to lose weight as an athlete. I just think this quick start guide is unnecessary. You'd be better off getting the calorie level you need from the book, then finding a great cook book that is healthy and gives the nutrition info so you can stay within your calorie prescription.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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To basic, August 21, 2011
By MAS (CA)
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I purchased this book in hopes for a guide on proper nutrition and endurance training for the cyclist. I am not a beginner cyclist and ride approx 150 miles a week and have spent most of my life in the gym. This book is weight training and cycling quick start guide however, it does not address training or diet for 2-7hrs while in the saddle. I do have to say that the weight training portion is beneficial but only being on the bike for 1hr a day is not enough for me. My other option would be to take a look at his other book Racing Weight which may have more of what I am looking for. I find I can get more information from Hammer Nutrition than I could from this book.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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 Missing vital information, April 18, 2011
By jseely5
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I am very, VERY disappointed that I eagerly read this book, computed all my numbers, scheduled workouts, etc., and then was left hanging by the website the book relies on. The book very clearly and simply expains how to calculate all the figures you'll need to lay out a plan for yourself, then directs you to [...] to find calories burned for the workouts found specifically in the book. This was such a relief to me; I hate spending time searching online for reliable calorie calculators, especially for random strength-training exercises. It was the last number I needed to plug into my plan and....not there. There is nothing on the site about calories burned! For as specific as this book is about numbers, I am shocked that this important element is missing. Terribly disappointing. I had recommended this book to other long-distance runners in my area; I am rescinding that recommendation.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful
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Racing Weight, January 30, 2011
By T-Bird
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This book is a great training tool. As long as you like to do calculations you will be fine. If not, you can still get some great nuggetts of great information to get you going.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful
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A Solid Nutritional Approach, December 9, 2011
By Tri_not_du
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I am a fan of the Racing Weight nutritional approach, and the quick start guide is solid as well. Matt Fitzgerald isn't proposing starvation or no effort required. It's a balanced method for feeding your body what it needs to work out but still lose weight.
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Great read, October 28, 2011
By ennui23
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I enjoyed reading this book. It helped me learn about nutrition and my proper racing weight. I can't say I've followed the book properly, but I do like the ideas. I've not used any of the meal plans or workout plans, but I imagine if you followed them exactly, you would get to your racing weight.
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Great information, August 5, 2011
By Jessica
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This book is definitely for a more intense endurance athlete than myself, but the information contained in it translated pretty easily into something I could use. There are meal plans, workout plans, etc that I will definitely be using. Good, quick read
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Awesome book, July 25, 2011
By Benski (NoVA)
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I'm a long distance runner/cyclist and struggle with weight loss. While I am not overweight, I do find it difficult to lose weight while maintaining high mileage(who doesn't want to be as light as possible for better performance?). This book is great. While I understand what I need to do to lose and how to balance my nutritional needs, this guy tells you EXACTLY what to do in this book- no thinking required. You can just follow a selected meal plan and training regimen and bada bing: weight loss while maintaining fitness. I love it. I've already lost 4 pounds after two weeks. I'm following the plan to the letter. If I could give this book 6 stars I would. The only thing I would recommend is adding a section for duathletes. But I was able to create a hybrid training regimen from the book's high volume cycling and high volume running chapters and it is working great. Thanks so much for writing this companion to the other Racing Weight book.
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I now have my answer!, April 18, 2011
By Catherine (Sandy, UT, United States)
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Being new to running, I have had a struggle with what do I eat and how much? I couldn't find a good source of information to help me with how to balance losing weight with needing enough energy to meet my running goals (distance and speed). This book solved the mystery for me. It has helped me determine a realistic goal weight as a runner and what to do to get there while still doing what I love most, to run. The plan has worked. I have recommended this book to several other people who have just begun their running life. Thank you, Matt!
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An "A" for Racing Weight, March 21, 2011
By Rxbow
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This book does what it says and backs it up with a couple good studies. Questions are answered in this book that get asked EVERYday by TONS on athletes. Well worth the price. As a Holistic Health Counselor and age group athlete, this was a solid book.
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 Could be better, May 14, 2012
By George Amberson
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This book does not really give any information that is useful. It is hard to read and the content could be better. Wouldn't recommend to others.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful
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