Older guys who were/are skinny: at what age did you have to start watching your weight?

Depends on how much you run/BMI.

But you can still get diabetes or heart disease from eating junk all the time. Weight =/= health.

Sucks when a skinny runner has a heart attack (not me) but I've seen enough to be smart.

By 27 I started to be a bit more aware and mid thirties ate pretty well. But doesn't mean I'm a saint. Crushing cookies, cheeseburgers, beer, pizza for a few days in a row still happens. But then my body just feels sick.

I take a lot of diet pills, speed, and run ultras.

59 here and still have 29-inch waist and 160 lbs with under 10% BF. I put on a an extra 5-7 lbs this winter but it melted off when I cut the carbs to less than 200g/day (fruit, no starch or refined sugar)and focused on healthy, mostly saturated fats. I do a lot of cross-training and body-weight resistance training which helps keep me pretty cut. I also am not chained to a cubicle all day so that is a big part of being healthy for me.

i ate cake wrote:

basically like the title says. I'm 27 now and eat whatever I want. I pig out basically every day and I don't gain weight. All my friends have either gained a bunch of weight or have to watch their diets to stay fit. Lately I've been wondering how long I can get away with this lifestyle for. I'm not ready to give up mcdonalds or taco bell binges

The whole thing about your metabolism slowing as you get older is almost completely a myth. Older people are just, generally, less active and begin to lose muscle mass.

If you are still running 100 miles a week, and lifting, then you will not get fat. Although, as others have mentioned, there are other very good reasons to watch your diet.

I'm a life-long low mileage guy (20-30), now late 40s, quite thin, pretty well-defined, I hope. First noticed in college that unrestricted eating plus really low miles equaled noticeable softness.

But at my normal mileage, first noticed that I couldn't eat whatever I wanted sometime in my mid-20's. Really pissed me off. And got worse. Had to eat less and less to maintain. Fortunately, it seemed to level off roundabout my early 40's, and I also simply got much more used to the idea that if I wanted to look thin and fit, I had to eat quite a bit less than I'd like to. Oh well.

It's funny (AND really stupid) when people say to me (and other thin folks), "You can eat whatever you want!" And I think, "Really, you think that I only WANT 2 or 3 pieces of pizza? No, I want, and could easily eat, 5 or 6 or 7....I just don't." Dumb.

42. But since then I've gone paleo and never looked back. Like the guy above, still holding the 29/30 waist at age 50-something. Boot camps help alleviate the "skinny fat" runners' curse.

Gray Fox wrote:

59 here and still have 29-inch waist and 160 lbs with under 10% BF. I put on a an extra 5-7 lbs this winter but it melted off when I cut the carbs to less than 200g/day (fruit, no starch or refined sugar)and focused on healthy, mostly saturated fats. I do a lot of cross-training and body-weight resistance training which helps keep me pretty cut. I also am not chained to a cubicle all day so that is a big part of being healthy for me.

What are your recent 5 and 10K times?

Adding Up wrote:

It's funny (AND really stupid) when people say to me (and other thin folks), "You can eat whatever you want!" And I think, "Really, you think that I only WANT 2 or 3 pieces of pizza? No, I want, and could easily eat, 5 or 6 or 7....I just don't." Dumb.

Of the old "What do YOU know: you don't have to do ANYTHING to stay skinny!"

Yeah, only run min. 3x/week, bootcamp 3x/week and control my desire for chocolate; sure, I don't hafta do ANYTHING (but exert a modicum of anti-American discipline and self-control.)

48 here - I'm very thin - 5 10, 140, but until 2 years ago I was 135. And that was my weight for 30 years prior to that. So I just gained the first weight since I graduated HS.

I'm not slowing down tho, so I'm not too concerned. I did quit ice cream and I put down the snacks.

I ran 17:15 for 5k this year, with the extra weight, which is actually a little faster than I have had been running at the lower weight.

Was chunky as an early teen but leaned out at 15-16. Finished HS at 5'8" 130.

In college grew a couple inches and ran mostly at 135-140. Might have gained a few off season. But just a year or so out, and still run 30-40 mpw over the winter I put on a quick 8-10 lb, and visited my friends and they all said I'd "gotten fat." So by 24-25 I was already pretty weight conscious, and would rarely race if over 145, usually right around 140, which seemed ideal but not easy to hold outside of race season.

At 35 I put on 10 lbs and never really lost it. So I'm now (50s) right around 150. If I'm not careful will get up to 155, but I really feel that. Have to to starve to get under 150. Race times did take a hit at 35 (went from 15:50/32:30 to 16:20/33:30 in one year and never got faster), but still manages competitive masters times (age grade better than I did as an open runner).

i ate cake wrote:

basically like the title says. I'm 27 now and eat whatever I want. I pig out basically every day and I don't gain weight. All my friends have either gained a bunch of weight or have to watch their diets to stay fit. Lately I've been wondering how long I can get away with this lifestyle for. I'm not ready to give up mcdonalds or taco bell binges

Age 50, but subsequently found out that my thyroid quit on me. Still have to watch the diet however as the metabolism declines precipitously as one ages.

Stopped racing years ago due to a serious injury which is now fully healed, but I just run for fun now. Based on the training I do with guys that race, I'd say 18:30-19:00. I do regular strides and hills but no real intervals and only tempo effort on longer mountain runs. Ran under 17 in my 40s but trained hard to do so. Chances are I will race again sometime this year.Oh, also stopped drinking my nightly beers, but that was more for general health than weight. I can currently rep out 25+ pullups or dips and recently did 10 reps of first-joint fingertip pullups on an edge for the first time in my climbing career, so my strength-to-weight ratio is at an all-time high. I just started this week working towards doing one-armed pullups.

Of tuft wrote:

Gray Fox wrote:

59 here and still have 29-inch waist and 160 lbs with under 10% BF. I put on a an extra 5-7 lbs this winter but it melted off when I cut the carbs to less than 200g/day (fruit, no starch or refined sugar)and focused on healthy, mostly saturated fats. I do a lot of cross-training and body-weight resistance training which helps keep me pretty cut. I also am not chained to a cubicle all day so that is a big part of being healthy for me.

What are your recent 5 and 10K times?

The thing to give up is the harmful ingredients (artificial stuff, additives, etc.). I am 45+, and have always been natural skinny. I can still more or less eat whatever I want. During heavier training periods I can definitely eat whatever I want...however, I stick to a natural/organic diet. When training hard, I can hardly take in enough calories. If you eat good food, you will be in better health.

If McDonald's came out with an all-natural or organic Big Mac, I would see nothing wrong with eating it (have not been to McD's in at least a dozen years). Why people get so bent out of shape about a hamburger or cheeseburger as being "bad for you" or "junk food," I do not know. It is just a sandwich.

Gray Fox wrote:

59 here and still have 29-inch waist and 160 lbs with under 10% BF. I put on a an extra 5-7 lbs this winter but it melted off when I cut the carbs to less than 200g/day (fruit, no starch or refined sugar)and focused on healthy, mostly saturated fats. I do a lot of cross-training and body-weight resistance training which helps keep me pretty cut. I also am not chained to a cubicle all day so that is a big part of being healthy for me.

So you watch what you eat and you are watching your weight.

Was there a point where you didn't minimize your carbs and types of sugars?

For me, I had to become more aware of what I ate when I hit 40.

I didn't run like I used to, but I had a running routine that stayed the same for years and I gained weight.

So it wasn't a dropoff in activity that lead to weight gain, it was getting older and a changing metabolism.

But the good thing is I am more normal now and not skinny.

I'm 52. I haven't ever gained weight. I weight a little less than I did in college, and bout what I weighted when I did my first marathon. I tend to eat *less* when I'm stressed, though, so I have to watch out for losing.

Me, too...I tend toward eating less when stressed, and, in general, I have to watch out for losing.

i ate cake wrote:

basically like the title says. I'm 27 now and eat whatever I want. I pig out basically every day and I don't gain weight. All my friends have either gained a bunch of weight or have to watch their diets to stay fit. Lately I've been wondering how long I can get away with this lifestyle for. I'm not ready to give up mcdonalds or taco bell binges

Who knows. There are very few people who can simply eat "whatever they want" and have it make no difference. Elite endurance athletes are (generally) more careful about their diet and are very restrictive about what they will eat. If you can eat endless amounts of crap/calories without it affecting your weight or performance, that is rare, very rare. Enjoy it while it lasts for you - since you are in a unique position, where you can eat as much crap as you like with no ill effect, you'll only know when that stops when it stops. Most people can not do that even if they are doing 100 mile weeks.

For normal people, who can gain weight at any age by eating a lot of crap/calories, it generally gets harder to maintain weight without being careful about what you eat as you age.

Gray Fox wrote:

Stopped racing years ago due to a serious injury which is now fully healed, but I just run for fun now. Based on the training I do with guys that race, I'd say 18:30-19:00. I do regular strides and hills but no real intervals and only tempo effort on longer mountain runs. Ran under 17 in my 40s but trained hard to do so. Chances are I will race again sometime this year.

Oh, also stopped drinking my nightly beers, but that was more for general health than weight.

I can currently rep out 25+ pullups or dips and recently did 10 reps of first-joint fingertip pullups on an edge for the first time in my climbing career, so my strength-to-weight ratio is at an all-time high. I just started this week working towards doing one-armed pullups.

Of tuft wrote:

What are your recent 5 and 10K times?

Is climbing a primary activity? Or just something you do on the side?

I can still fit in some of my clothes from when I was 18.

My socks.