Do people actually cheat their weight?

Do a lot of people actually cheat their weight? i.e. weight dope? and if so is there no way to get accurate readings?

I can understand that people want to go faster, and it doesn’t really bother me that much. The only reason I bring it up is because I see a lot people with silly W/kg numbers.

@William_Ric-Hansen.

There are a lot of really strong riders on Zwift. Zwift is a global cycling community so you can expect to see the best of the best.

There are no doubt that there are People that weight dope and that is very sad. But there is no easy way to track that, Zwift Power (ZP) are trying to track weight changes and will DQ people that has sudden weight loss or irregular weight data.

Once Zwift auto assigned racing categories is based on performance weight doping will be less significant in the B,C and D groups.
Than mr Bob X that weigh 105kg IRL but in zwift weigh 70kg will be classified in the proper cat and he will have to ride his butt of to be competitive.

The only big issue will be A and A+ but they have started to ask for photo evidence of weight and duel power meters.

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Okay yeah, that makes sense.

It’s nice that there are some strong riders, as it gives a nice target to aim at.

I guessed that the Academy must eventually ask for some evidence, and either way, the joke will be on the dopers when the rubber hits the (real) road…

If I am talking about myself then I do not cheat myself but do not know about the other one. Yes there are many people who follow keto diet in order to balance and reduce their fat.

I cannot speak to how many people cheat, because I have no idea.

However, I did want to share that I only started racing on zwift a couple weeks ago, and picked up several wins, and no cheating. So what that tells me, is either the cheaters all operate in higher levels, or, they aren’t really impacting the game.

I just happened to land at the very top of Cat C (fun is over today, I’v been bumped to Cat B). But if you are just borderline at the top of your Category, I think that’s where you need to be. If you cat down by exaggerating your weight, well…gee, you could in real life actually put weight on your bike…anyway< I think pride does prevent people from sandbagging. probably all cheating is with falsely low weights.

That’s interesting. I was just in my first zwift event and could not keep up so was told to change my weight and rejoin!

For Group rides that is sometimes necessary and acceptable.

I would rather reccomend joining a slower groupride, there are some at 1,0-1,5 w/kg,if we all would weight cheat where does that end up? stay honest (imho!):+1::+1:

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Yup I found one of these group events for today so will give them a try. I agree, I can’t see the point in cheating weight as it will just throw my training data off.

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yeah exactly. doesn’t make sense to me. I only reason I can think is if there is a group that has a lot of friends who are quicker, but I prefer to know exactly where I stand so I can improve

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That is odd. I would bail from the event and go for something that suits you better instead - the W/kg needed/declared on the event info is always undercalled by about 25% in my experience.

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I’ve avoided races initially untill i can compete at the top of my d class which i think is about 2.5 k/w, i dont cheat the weight but i do update it regularly so as to be as accurate as i can be. last weigh in i was at 87kg and still going down slowly.

The last few academy races have the top D racers around 2.8 w/kg, so just try a race since no one abides by the requirements and there are no penalties right now. As a heavier rider, find flat roads and you will be OK. The real fun starts when you get passed by riders using zPower.

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Wait till you find out that people height cheat too

Wait what? Are you being serious and if so how does this work?

Yes, your in-game height does make a slight difference in in-game speed.

Yeah, people definitely cheat… My weight is set as 75kg, but it swings between that and 77kg… I don’t bother changing it…I’m more concerned with my actual wattage and HR… People with doping weights of 55kg and only knocking out 100 watts will soon learn the hard way when the real rubber hits the road… Like an earlier poster mentioned, do it for yourself, your own fitness. Zwift can be proud of the amount of people are getting fitter by being addicted to Zwift… All the rest is just a game, try not to get too emotional about it :kissing_heart:

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If I am talking about myself then I do not cheat myself but do not know about the other one. Yes there are many people who follow keto diet in order to balance and reduce their fat.

out of interest, which way? shorter equals faster or slower? I assume its due to aerodynamics so shorter is faster?

Sorry for the late reply: How Rider Height Affects Speed in Zwift | Zwift Insider

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