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Racing Weight Quick Start Guide: A 4-Week Weight-Loss Plan for Endurance Athletes
Begin losing 5, 10, or 20+ pounds in 4, 6, or 8 weeks!
Matt Fitzgerald's Racing Weight Quick Start Guide applies all the principles of his best-selling book Racing Weight in a detailed set of weight-loss training plans. You will devote 4 to 8 weeks to starting a weight loss of 5, 10, or 20+ pounds.
Lose weight quickly by following a schedule of high-intensity workouts and strength training as well as a menu of calorie-restricted, high-protein meals and snacks. Low-volume and high-volume plans make it possible for cyclists, runners, and triathletes with a wide range of experience to maintain their training levels. Replace fat with muscle while keeping your appetite in check.
Once you've hit your quick start weight-loss goals, you will continue drop ping unwanted pounds using the proven strategies of the Racing Weight program. Zero in on your racing weight through improved diet quality, bal anced macronutrient levels, proper timing of meals and snacks, appetite management, and training for lean body composition.
The Racing Weight Quick Start Guide will accelerate your season goals so you'll be racing leaner and faster than ever before.
Matt Fitzgerald's Racing Weight Quick Start Guide applies all the principles of his best-selling book Racing Weight in a detailed set of weight-loss training plans. You will devote 4 to 8 weeks to starting a weight loss of 5, 10, or 20+ pounds.
Lose weight quickly by following a schedule of high-intensity workouts and strength training as well as a menu of calorie-restricted, high-protein meals and snacks. Low-volume and high-volume plans make it possible for cyclists, runners, and triathletes with a wide range of experience to maintain their training levels. Replace fat with muscle while keeping your appetite in check.
Once you've hit your quick start weight-loss goals, you will continue drop ping unwanted pounds using the proven strategies of the Racing Weight program. Zero in on your racing weight through improved diet quality, bal anced macronutrient levels, proper timing of meals and snacks, appetite management, and training for lean body composition.
The Racing Weight Quick Start Guide will accelerate your season goals so you'll be racing leaner and faster than ever before.
- GenresNonfictionSports
408 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2011
About the author
Matt Fitzgerald
88 books432 followersMatt Fitzgerald is the author of numerous books on sports history and endurance sports. He has enjoyed unprecedented access to professional endurance athletes over the course of his career. His best-sellers include Racing Weight and Brain Training for Runners. He has also written extensively for Triathlete, Men's Fitness, Men's Health, Outside, Runner's World, Bicycling, Competitor, and countless other sports and fitness publications.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
March 13, 2017
I got some really good food for thought with this book, though I think to follow this truly would be borderline unhealthy for me. The workouts affirmed that I seem to be doing everything I need to get stronger and healthier. So persistence is the key to me. I don't think I need to be a size 0 to do it.
July 20, 2019
This book explain the importance of reducing fat and having an optimal weight to improve performance in endurance sports.
Before starting your training for a particular competition, it's best to first reach (as much as you can), your optimal racing weight. Fitzgerald recommends a 4-week to 8-week weight loss program based on protein-rich diet and workouts (especially high-intensity intervals and strength exercises).
The book explains in detail how to determine your optimal racing weight (if you don't know it), how to plan you diet and how to plan your workouts. It offers ready-made weekly diet plans and workouts you can customize to your liking.
Before starting your training for a particular competition, it's best to first reach (as much as you can), your optimal racing weight. Fitzgerald recommends a 4-week to 8-week weight loss program based on protein-rich diet and workouts (especially high-intensity intervals and strength exercises).
The book explains in detail how to determine your optimal racing weight (if you don't know it), how to plan you diet and how to plan your workouts. It offers ready-made weekly diet plans and workouts you can customize to your liking.
April 25, 2019
2.8/5 interesting ideas
May 31, 2018
a not-hysterical, not-extreme, reasonable-sounding look at determining a safe, healthy racing weight, getting there sustainably, with a bunch of exercises and training schedules for runners, cyclists, and triathletes.
this is the action plan. the how-to/philosophical underpinning is presented in Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance, which i've also reviewed.
fitzgerald eschews online food trackers and macronutrient calculations, which, fair enough, can be exhausting and crazy making. instead, he suggests a framework that adds and subtracts points for food groups and variety eaten in a day. instead of relying on kitchen scales and measuring cups, fitzgerald asks us to use our common sense in determining what's a portion and which condiments even need to be tracked. that said, i can't say i find his method to be super easily implemented (that is, it's still tracking, and that will always be crazy making, so i don't think he's completely solved the problem he's identified). i do think his tracking plan is an excellent option for folks overwhelmed by My Fitness Pal's niggling specificity and more interested in curating a general awareness of the variety of their diet. and i hypothesize that his method could help people begin to break away from a black-and-white diet mentality toward a more intuitive eating style that prioritizes satiety and pleasure.
so, good stuff here.
this is the action plan. the how-to/philosophical underpinning is presented in Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance, which i've also reviewed.
fitzgerald eschews online food trackers and macronutrient calculations, which, fair enough, can be exhausting and crazy making. instead, he suggests a framework that adds and subtracts points for food groups and variety eaten in a day. instead of relying on kitchen scales and measuring cups, fitzgerald asks us to use our common sense in determining what's a portion and which condiments even need to be tracked. that said, i can't say i find his method to be super easily implemented (that is, it's still tracking, and that will always be crazy making, so i don't think he's completely solved the problem he's identified). i do think his tracking plan is an excellent option for folks overwhelmed by My Fitness Pal's niggling specificity and more interested in curating a general awareness of the variety of their diet. and i hypothesize that his method could help people begin to break away from a black-and-white diet mentality toward a more intuitive eating style that prioritizes satiety and pleasure.
so, good stuff here.
April 13, 2026
Human Written Review:
The book was excellent and provided a lot of very powerful ideas, however, parts of it were poorly cited and would reference statistics it didn't back up with studies or in a bibliography. On a personal note, I have been trying to loose weight my whole life and following this book I have gotten leaner - in a healthy way - for the first time in my life.
Thank You Matt Fitzgerald!
-------------------------------------
My Review Refined with AI:
The book was excellent and packed with genuinely powerful ideas. That said, some sections felt a bit loosely cited, with statistics that weren’t always clearly backed by studies or a bibliography.
On a personal level, this book made a meaningful difference for me. I didn’t grow up in a particularly athletic family, so building consistent exercise habits never came naturally. What this book did especially well was provide simple, practical frameworks that made getting started feel manageable rather than overwhelming.
One concept that stood out was the meal scoring system—rating foods based on their natural, healthy components while assigning negative points to highly processed or hyper-palatable items. That approach felt far more intuitive and sustainable than strict calorie counting or trying to follow a specific named diet like keto, paleo, or vegan. It shifted my thinking from restriction to quality.
Equally impactful was the emphasis on having a performance-oriented goal. Instead of exercising “just to lose weight,” the book helped me understand the value of finding a sport or activity I can engage with competitively—even if it’s just competing against myself, like trying to improve my running times. That mindset shift made staying active much more motivating and enjoyable, even though weight loss is still one of my primary goals.
After following the guidance in this book, I’ve gotten leaner in a healthy, sustainable way for the first time in my life.
Thank you, Matt Fitzgerald.
The book was excellent and provided a lot of very powerful ideas, however, parts of it were poorly cited and would reference statistics it didn't back up with studies or in a bibliography. On a personal note, I have been trying to loose weight my whole life and following this book I have gotten leaner - in a healthy way - for the first time in my life.
Thank You Matt Fitzgerald!
-------------------------------------
My Review Refined with AI:
The book was excellent and packed with genuinely powerful ideas. That said, some sections felt a bit loosely cited, with statistics that weren’t always clearly backed by studies or a bibliography.
On a personal level, this book made a meaningful difference for me. I didn’t grow up in a particularly athletic family, so building consistent exercise habits never came naturally. What this book did especially well was provide simple, practical frameworks that made getting started feel manageable rather than overwhelming.
One concept that stood out was the meal scoring system—rating foods based on their natural, healthy components while assigning negative points to highly processed or hyper-palatable items. That approach felt far more intuitive and sustainable than strict calorie counting or trying to follow a specific named diet like keto, paleo, or vegan. It shifted my thinking from restriction to quality.
Equally impactful was the emphasis on having a performance-oriented goal. Instead of exercising “just to lose weight,” the book helped me understand the value of finding a sport or activity I can engage with competitively—even if it’s just competing against myself, like trying to improve my running times. That mindset shift made staying active much more motivating and enjoyable, even though weight loss is still one of my primary goals.
After following the guidance in this book, I’ve gotten leaner in a healthy, sustainable way for the first time in my life.
Thank you, Matt Fitzgerald.
May 16, 2023
The companion volume to Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance. After a summary of the other book, the bulk of the content is taken up by sample menus (with more uninspired recipes and over-reliance on off-the-shelf packaged foods, and only a passing thought given to vegans.
It's best for competitive endurance athletes who work out many hours per week and only need to shave off a few pounds to shed their winter weight and get back down to their fighting weight.
The one nice thing is that he provides plans incorporating both diet as well as training during the 4-8 week weight-loss programmes. There are both low and high volume plans for runners, cyclists, and triathletes, which take up most of the space in the book. They include resistance strength training, but restricted to bodyweight, dumbbell, and cable exercises. Some of the movements are quite advanced, anything to avoid touching a barbell I guess. It's very much a calisthenics circuit-training approach rather than one geared towards strength/hypertrophy, which seems like it would be more effective in achieving the stated objectives.
He's also a big fan of both HIIT training and lengthy fasted cardio sessions, overstating the benefits of both. Maybe highly-trained athletes can handle the level of stress incurred, but most normal people would burn out on these plans, and would be better served with a more conventional approach of lifting heavier and focusing on building a good aerobic base without the flashy and painful gimmicks.
Most of all, this book is largely unnecessary. The plans could easily have been abbreviated (they are extremely repetitive and take up a lot of pages) and tacked on to Racing Weight as an appendix, there is no good reason to break it out to a separate volume.
It's best for competitive endurance athletes who work out many hours per week and only need to shave off a few pounds to shed their winter weight and get back down to their fighting weight.
The one nice thing is that he provides plans incorporating both diet as well as training during the 4-8 week weight-loss programmes. There are both low and high volume plans for runners, cyclists, and triathletes, which take up most of the space in the book. They include resistance strength training, but restricted to bodyweight, dumbbell, and cable exercises. Some of the movements are quite advanced, anything to avoid touching a barbell I guess. It's very much a calisthenics circuit-training approach rather than one geared towards strength/hypertrophy, which seems like it would be more effective in achieving the stated objectives.
He's also a big fan of both HIIT training and lengthy fasted cardio sessions, overstating the benefits of both. Maybe highly-trained athletes can handle the level of stress incurred, but most normal people would burn out on these plans, and would be better served with a more conventional approach of lifting heavier and focusing on building a good aerobic base without the flashy and painful gimmicks.
Most of all, this book is largely unnecessary. The plans could easily have been abbreviated (they are extremely repetitive and take up a lot of pages) and tacked on to Racing Weight as an appendix, there is no good reason to break it out to a separate volume.
January 3, 2024
Pretty accessible guide to runners (or cyclists too apparently) looking to improve their diet and do some pre-season injury prevention via a short pre-season weight reduction phases that support (rather than threaten) performance for a target race or season. It's a tricky balance to strike, and it seems like it would be a good guide for a way to approach that strategy.
That said, it's maybe an advanced topic and more suited to someone who is on a tight high performance schedule of racing. If you're not a pro, you probably have more flexibility to treat a weight loss phase as separate entirely from anything more than just baseline maintenance training, and that might be a better strategy for losing weight without drastically increasing your injury risk during training. So, for me, I think this isn't as useful given that I don't have a tightly packed race schedule or carefully constructed training seasons; but if you tend to crowd your calendar with races all year long that you take quite seriously, this could be useful to you.
There was a good section on strength exercises, at least!
That said, it's maybe an advanced topic and more suited to someone who is on a tight high performance schedule of racing. If you're not a pro, you probably have more flexibility to treat a weight loss phase as separate entirely from anything more than just baseline maintenance training, and that might be a better strategy for losing weight without drastically increasing your injury risk during training. So, for me, I think this isn't as useful given that I don't have a tightly packed race schedule or carefully constructed training seasons; but if you tend to crowd your calendar with races all year long that you take quite seriously, this could be useful to you.
There was a good section on strength exercises, at least!
April 29, 2024
I purchased this book thinking it would answer some of the questions I was left with after reading Racing Weight, but in fact, the Quick Start Guide was written prior to the more recent editions of Racing Weight and the differences make it difficult to actually track nutrition using his Diet Quality Scoring system. I ended up buying the app for $2.19 and it has been much more helpful.
A large portion of the Quick Start Guide book is taken up with examples of simple strength training exercises that anyone with an internet connection will find unnecessary. The meal plans are simple and uninspired. The training plans are perplexing... it would seem that most athletes picking up this book are already on their own training plan and would find this section unhelpful. What would have been more helpful would have been 100 pages of FAQs from readers of Racing Weight.
I do not recommend this book. Racing Weight might be worth a read, and you can purchase the app if you're looking to clean up your diet, but don't waste your time or money on the Quick Start Guide.
A large portion of the Quick Start Guide book is taken up with examples of simple strength training exercises that anyone with an internet connection will find unnecessary. The meal plans are simple and uninspired. The training plans are perplexing... it would seem that most athletes picking up this book are already on their own training plan and would find this section unhelpful. What would have been more helpful would have been 100 pages of FAQs from readers of Racing Weight.
I do not recommend this book. Racing Weight might be worth a read, and you can purchase the app if you're looking to clean up your diet, but don't waste your time or money on the Quick Start Guide.
November 19, 2020
6.0
So I know a good bit about nutrition from strength training and wasn't really looking for a practical plan for weight loss. I was more curious about the science and how nutrition and training for weight loss differs for a runner vs a powerlifter or bodybuilder. Although the science was present, it wasn't as in depth as I'd hoped.
The focus of this book is more for practical weight loss advice, which is expected. The advice is solid and the bits of science were illuminating.
So I know a good bit about nutrition from strength training and wasn't really looking for a practical plan for weight loss. I was more curious about the science and how nutrition and training for weight loss differs for a runner vs a powerlifter or bodybuilder. Although the science was present, it wasn't as in depth as I'd hoped.
The focus of this book is more for practical weight loss advice, which is expected. The advice is solid and the bits of science were illuminating.
February 21, 2022
Good and fnormative book, if a bit unclear and the workout plan *is not* beginner friendly.
The way he explains to calculate the TDEE is really complicated, same with the BMR. For the same results you could go to the TDEE calculator and get the same results a bit easier.
He references some tools on his homepage which don't exist, that's annoying.
otherwise a good read and you will lose weight if you follow the principles (if not the trainings plan). :)
The way he explains to calculate the TDEE is really complicated, same with the BMR. For the same results you could go to the TDEE calculator and get the same results a bit easier.
He references some tools on his homepage which don't exist, that's annoying.
otherwise a good read and you will lose weight if you follow the principles (if not the trainings plan). :)
June 24, 2017
Simple to follow
Looking forward to getting started tomorrow. There are no tricks, no weird or expensive foods, and plenty of flexibility to accommodate vegetation or other diets. It's all based on straightforward math and has the endurance athlete's needs in mind.
Looking forward to getting started tomorrow. There are no tricks, no weird or expensive foods, and plenty of flexibility to accommodate vegetation or other diets. It's all based on straightforward math and has the endurance athlete's needs in mind.
November 14, 2019
We'll see how this goes...
May 10, 2020
Perfect companion to Racing Weight.
May 22, 2020
Good book. Gets very detailed with the plans.
August 27, 2020
Great insights to fine tune the last few pounds of weight loss while still maintaining fitness. Love the formulas and the food scoring system.
June 30, 2022
solid stuff
Good overview of the approach with a well prepared set of workouts and menus. Everything you need to implement the program.
Good overview of the approach with a well prepared set of workouts and menus. Everything you need to implement the program.
July 31, 2023
It's a great companion to Racing Weight, with very specific details about the training and nutrition needed for the quick start cycle.
August 12, 2025
Good on nutrition, but weight loss specific exercises don’t apply in my situation. Also, nutrition sections have a lot of filler content.
February 19, 2026
Not for anyone except very hard-core athletes. The rest of us, even serious amateurs, won't really be able to follow or do. To the author's credit, he is up front about the self discipline required.
March 4, 2024
A good program for accelerated, but healthy, weight loss ahead of an endurance sports season. I have implemented this system to good effect, and it also includes a good off-season training program that fits the temporary reduced calorie intake from the program.
June 5, 2017
The book was very useful for me coming out of GM diet. I wanted a diet which is basically the best for runners. Good that i landed up in this.
The one drawback i found was the (diet) products recommended were those available in the US. Most of these are not available in India. So, i have to prepare my own diet chart keeping in mind the calorie intake per day and taking into consideration the calories present in each diet which is quite difficult to calculate because in most of the foods in India we don't get to see the Calorie breakup chart.
The one drawback i found was the (diet) products recommended were those available in the US. Most of these are not available in India. So, i have to prepare my own diet chart keeping in mind the calorie intake per day and taking into consideration the calories present in each diet which is quite difficult to calculate because in most of the foods in India we don't get to see the Calorie breakup chart.
November 21, 2016
Excellent coverage of how endurance athletes can drop weight quickly without sacrificing performance. The training plans are very realistic and the food plans are as well. The only downside is that the companion site (www.racingweight.com) no longer has the calculations to help you compute your calories used while exercising. Still a great read regardless.
December 18, 2015
Fitzgerald presented a healthy and helpful approach to weight loss for athletes. No surprising or crazy diet ideas. Lots of realistic ideas and the plans (both meal plans and training plans) were well organized and easy to follow!
March 2, 2016
Got some good training insights and good tips on a diet to lose weight for upcoming endurance events.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews