But maybe Im just thinking like a lady its hard for me to imagine a lady voluntarily gaining weight, even virtual weight. nothing more. Yes, but hopefully the system would be designed so, if drop a category then begin doing well, you get upgraded again! Id never do this as my Zwift Power is an accurate log of weight and power but it does make me wonder how much easier itd be to be bigger. As long as people are using reasonable weight/height and arent cheating or changing it drastically all the time (my scales autoupdate my weight, so mine changes once a day, but by small increments), Im much more interested in being able to see the weight of my teammates so I can properly plan my TTT lineup than I am the weight of my competitors. Your voice is important to us. I dont really race so I am OK and any workouts are harder this way. Last week we announced Zwifts plans to remove rider height and weight from ZwiftPower, among other changes (read the full post here). Wow, cheating !! Updating Your Public Profile Zwift takes your physical measurements into account for things like leaderboards, speed, and your avatar's physical appea. While most Zwifters seemed to understand and even appreciate the intent behind the change, there was concern that removing this information would result in increased height/weight doping. I am about to hit the four year mark on Zwift. It does not stop cheating at all. However, I have a lighter and faster son that smokes me head to head. But youre training and racing and getting stronger, and eventually your FTP improves to 260 watts, which is 3.25 w/kg. angels stadium covid rules. And this is why reverse weight doping is a thing. Im a heavy rider at 102kgs and 193cm tall I once reverse doped my weight at the top of the radio tower to try and achieve the 100km/HR badge It had the opposite effect in that I was actually slower than when descending at my actual weight lol I dont race other than against myself so Ive never weight doped as such My observations recently however have created an awareness of how many stick insects ride bikes on zwift . My power to weight is decent at about 4w/kg. You should do much better at your actual weight in that case. I guess I could play the same game and pretend to be 65kgs (350/65 = an impressive 5.38w/kg), This is where Zwifts scaling of CdA on height and weight gets out of whack with reality. All rights reserved. I currently use the Garmin Smart Scale so I may invest in the Withings scale. In fact, if in a long ride your weight could change by more than 1kg over the course of that one ride!!! A strict w/kg classification isnt perfect. Their hr should also correspond, which they often dont. This clearly shows the power of the Zwift blob it impacts more than just drafting. What anyone wants in any game or competition is to feel its fair, and as they look to make changes going forward, I hope people at Zwift always keep asking themselves this question: How can Zwifters see these races are fair?. (and dont do organized rides for fairness) so I dont have resistance changes and sometimes zwift reports extraordinary power readings for a ride. First up, you'll have to head to Zwift.com and log in, then click on Settings > Profile > Connections and choose 'opt-in' under the ZwiftPower logo. Best Zwift setups: Indoor cycling setups to give you the competitive edge. Though our intent is to protect potentially vulnerable users by removing labels that can trigger unhealthy behaviour What are they trying to protect? Blaming Zwift for allowing cheaters is the system problem that gets more people frustrated, upset, etc. Yes thats completely unacceptable, you should never be at a disadvantage at any time in your life, just as your mother raised you. Problem solved! How come I get beat in sprints when a 60kg guy puts out 700W, when I put out over 1000W at 76kg? Ive connected my garmin scale with this app https://smartscalesync.com/?utm_source=tr Lucky forRead more . In reality no under 12 is competing with a decent 2nd or 3rd cat (UK system) Ive ridden with enough talented youth riders that this is fact so letting young kids crush half decent amateurs on zwift would be unrealistic. Using your Mac or PC, you can do it online on the Zwift website. This is why for a while I was ranked as a C even though my w/kg was higher than 3.2 since my watts werent over 200. She can crank but her w/kg is low. Taking that info away further depersonalizes the platform, and and may be fine in group rides, but it is a step closer to racing against bots. I have wondered about this subject on a few occasions. people need to stop taking Zwift racing so seriously. I have to say I weigh myself most mornings in the buff (just my glasses on so I can see the numbers)! A good portion of that weight difference is in the Hub's 10.3 . Just sign up for A races from now on. So I just bumped myself up to the B group and went faster overall simply because there were faster people to draft off of. It just makes a mockery of the whole system. Youre having fun winning (or nearly winning) C races! My last ride I spotted 35kg lad who last week was 56kg. I love reading it. If so, that makes sense to me and I can absolutely see the point of that. This calculates that this heavy rider would take 23:14 to do the distance a justRead more , Everyone has a sweet spot for weight. In some cases this even happens unfairly. Do some races have split out start times so you are only racing with those of similar ability? Most of my ZwiftRead more . I put my real weight 95% of the time. The rule set for the categories is so simple yet Id bet >99% dont understand it, to my knowledge cyclingRead more . Since strava is all that matters of course. We would like to thank the community for your passion and feedback. When you're in the game, click "Menu". (a is tough and im struggling at max h/r for most of the race).Ive gone from 87kgs to 80 kgs in this time and feel fitter than ever. Id be super interested in the timing you set your weight. This is done by separating riders based on their FTP (functional threshold power) a wattage test you can take part in on Zwift over a 20-minute, 45-minute or 1-hour period. Well, its adding weight to gain an advantage. What particularly annoys me is being beaten by light but moderately powerful riders doing individual time trials on flat courses. Zwift can wipe your Zwift Power profile and give you a clean slate to start over if you want, but I think you will lose all past data. Its a huge problem. Conserving energy is a key part of successful bike racing. I should mention: many Zwifters have lied about their in-game weight for perfectly acceptable reasons. Adjusting Difficulty Before Your Workout. Just like the CEO promised us rowing years ago, right? Fluctuations of a few percent would be tolerated and percent change would be displayed on ZP. We like this move from Zwift. If they keep riders from competing in categories below their ranking, it will reduce the number of sandbaggers and cruisers. its only cheating myself, instead I would prefer to spend that 2 painful hours doing something honestly and feel proud of it than zooming through it in sub 60m and not reap the same benefits (or in my case, pain). Had assumed I just rode inefficiently. Head to http://my.zwift.com/ and hover your mouse cursor over the 'Download' button under one of your activities. Check out this FAQ for some of our frequently asked questions: Q:&. If people want to cheat, they will and can do so in any uncontrolled situation. People with eating disorders, or a proclivity toward extreme dieting. As others have said, your higher weight helps on flat courses. Frankly I struggle to believe these are real. Racers who get top 1,2,3 more than a few times get upgraded period. This raised concerns within the Zwift Racing Community regarding fairness in racing. First, you need to sign up for an account. If I get down to 52 kilos I can climb well but my sprinting is terrible. The easiest way to qualify for a higher category is to cut weight. I may of course be wrong, and these are all true weights, but Id be very surprised if that were the case, in the races where this matters, riders have to submit a private youtube weigh-in video <2 hrs before the race. So am I a super-drafter, the king of indoor efficiency? Choose a Zwift workout, but before you start riding look at the workout breakdown on the left side of the screen. But without any hard and fast rules, we cant say anything is illegalat least for certain races. thanks for the help with the graphs. The default position is midway between "Off" and "Max," or 50 percent of the grade resistance you'd find while riding the same grade of hill in the real world. Among the communicated changes were plans to hide the visibility of height and weight from ZwiftPower in an effort to encourage individual health and wellness. This community-driven site is maintained by Eric Schlange and a team of Zwift enthusiasts. But then you could have someone in the same age group who maxes out at 170. Context, Tim, context! Here it is in its entirety: Last week we outlined a number of planned changes to address harassment and further safeguard the health and wellbeing of the Zwift Community. I completely agree with the last paragraph here. That's it! Too light and watts go down as does watts per kilo. Zwift should offer a Validated Racer package for a slight premium over normal membership. Then weigh yourself, and open Zwift, and see if it reflects the change. More of an issue than thisRead more . Tour de Zwift events were races? I use my average weight but I feel; guilty because my weight tends to fluctuate by 0.5K or more during the week depending on how much I eat during the day really interested to learn that there is a scale that auto updates Zwift. Some races (many, in fact) on Zwift work exactly like that. I take issue with the weight doping is okay in none competitive events because of strava. It would be easy to deny it was intentional. I am not in the least bit interested in competition cycling, so no point in doping in either direction as i would only be cheating myself. Or weight bonuses for completing events that last for a set amount of days or even hours. Some weight dopers are obvious and blatant other times its much less egregious. If I am racing I want to be able to look across at the guy/girl next to me (ie on the Companion app) and get an idea if they are going to kill me on the next hill, or not are they a 185cm/90kg guy versus my 172cm/74kg. Even at my age I still plan to compete in MTB races when the world gets back to racing. Some big Zwift races have specific rulesets, etc. As a lighter racer 136lbs it pisses me off to see cheating. It's a real community hub. Zwift power usually looks at numbers vs the category race he entered. I said if its not done during a competitive Zwift event, its not a problem. I would include chasing Strava Zwift KOMs as a competitive event (but I could see how what I said could be interpreted otherwise. My best race results as a Zwift B are on flatter routes, and I find my watts per kilo are consistently lower than most of the riders around me. As some others already mentioned, the bodyweight tends to oscillate over the week and even the day. Please refresh the page and try again. 1 second per 1 km on the AdZ dowhill (after losing minutes going up it) is literally the only place in the game its beneficial and the IRL advantages on the flats over light riders is excessivelyRead more . A thank you to Zwift HQ for listening to the feedback from the racing community and taking action. I recently won a C race, but it didnt feel like winning as I knew there were 2 categories faster. My weight is showing orange everytime. I did on one and second on the other. Whether w/kg is the appropriate way to categorise races is anotherRead more , As a 92kg rider, with a w/kg FTP of 289 (or 3.14 w/kg) I wholeheartedly agree. Kudos to Zwift for listening to their customers and admitting they made a mistake. Good heavens man, the sentence before You do you says If its not done during a competitive Zwift event, I dont see it as a problem. Obviously weight doping in races is cheating and not acceptable. The Tour de Zwift events this year were much moreRead more , Wait. A good rule we follow is to take our FTP divide it by 3 and then put that in as our weight (in Kilograms). Next up is the most finicky part of the process finding your Zwift ID in order to connect your accounts. Take one of our four FTP tests to determine your FTP. Also a really frustrating thing is why doesnt Zwift autoRead more , is he riding in the right category? IfRead more . Tie that together with not letting people race in a lower (but letting them race in a higher) cat, and youll have fixed a number of the issues. Just the fact that you need a third party (ZP) to validate race results really says it all. I averaged between 300 and 310 watts for all segments and my heart sat pretty consistently between 140 and 144.Read more , saying x number of watts per kg at xxx hr is flawed anyways max and resting hr can vary alot. Okay, I now see in ZP where it has my minimum racer category (B) in my profile based on my last race, so I can choose B or A going forward. Everyone else in the race is riding flat out (your own HR was 174bpm) but these guys are just cruising along watching their watts and are then able toRead more , Not sure its that simple I am a heavy category C racer, and (funnily enough) finished 5th in both my recent Crit City races with average HR of 153 and 150. Just from riding regularly I went from 166 FTP to 187 in 800 miles over a 2 1/2 months. plain and simple. Makes me happy to see that the community is able to speak with one voice if necessary. He had fun laughing at fat dad, but I pipped him at the line! Not sure why its hard for you to believe that there are a lot of riders under 70kgs. would that be cheating then ? No race Chester worth their salt pops in and changed weight ahead of a race, what they do is post the wrong weight and leave it there. I wont do and will rather try my very best to compete with the As. Too heavy watts are up but watts per kilo goes down. But for most riders watts per kilo rules the day, determining which category you race in Zwift. Tough to recover after attacks in a race when youre always near maxing out. If I wanted to win I just drop my weight to 65kgs 350w/65kgs is a lot better than 350w/85kgs, of course 350w/65kg is better than 350w/85kg, its a massive increase in w/kg. There was a problem. Its going to take a certain amount of calories for a certain person to perform a given amount of work in a given time. Would depend entirely upon the bike geometry, how much weight is over the front wheel and how much over the back. Eric runs Zwift Insider in his spare time when he isn't on the bike or managing various business interests. If Zwift can be seen to be doing that then very little need toRead more . However, insecure Freds jumpingRead more , I am new to Zwift, but I do wonder how it is youll see a bunch of people finish at the front of a D race at 4-5 W/kg. While the benefits of being light fully kick in while climbing a mountain (as it is easier for smaller guys to achieve certain w/kg), the benefits of being a tall and strong guy dont fully apply in the flats. Finally, just head back to ZwiftPower and click 'Connect to my Account'. We may call it sandbagging or reversed weight doping but its legal .