Why is talking weight to female distance runners taboo?

not very old sac joaquin guy wrote:

sbeefyk2 wrote:

You’re right, facts are facts. It is also facts that discussing weight with a teenage girl causes eating disorders.

Anyways, at my college there was one girl who put on extra weight and they had the sports psychologists in the program (who was also a female) discuss dieting tips with her to eat a balanced and healthy diet. I suspect a sports psychologist can handle that type of situation way better than anyone else. Especially random male coaches.

It does seem characteristically “woman” to take good advice to an extreme where it then becomes bad advice and suddenly it’s the fault of the person who have it to you.

If someone gives you advice that you can take to an extreme where it becomes bad for you, it wasn't good advice. It's defiitely the fault of the person giving it to you for not phrasing it clearly and in an educated fashion with clear result expectations.

Everyone knows if you you weigh less you can run faster. Right now in this climate that is something best left to each runner to come to grips with themselves. Maybe it can be addressed between teammates, but even that might be too much for most girls to handle.

If I were a coach I would avoid that subject at all costs. The worst thing that happens is that one of my girls doesn't run fast or up to her ability, and I get to keep my job- and I recruit right over top of her.

Just the way it is. wrote:

Being the weaker sex they are hyper sensitive psychologically, just the way it is. Just look for a female outlier who can handle the truth, not many around, but the ones who can handle it tend to be successful athletes.

This is true. The best female runners I knew all approached the sport with the same mentality of a dude. They could be pushed and they WANTED to be pushed because they wanted to perform well and they wanted to WIN. Often they would get very frustrated in their more sensitive teammates.

Also the worst male athletes I knew were more like girls and got their feelings hurt over any little perceived slight by a teammate or coach.

Runners will hit their ideal race weight if they eat well and train properly. Most runners who hang on to a few pounds are taking in more carbs than they need. Simple dietary changes like swapping out pizza/sandwiches for salmon, steak, etc. and a veggie/whole grain side dish will take care of the last few pounds. But race weight is mostly achieved through muscle adaptation. Your body will develop more lighter slow twitch muscles and shed the heavier fast twitch muscles. Once those adaptations have taken place, any further weight loss will start to be detrimental to performance. So, just dropping weight in and of itself will not necessarily mean improved performance unless the weight loss is in conjunction with the muscle adaptations.

The problem with focusing on weight is that diets do not work and most everyone who wants to lose weight will turn to a diet and restrict calories. That puts them on a cycle where they lose some weight, but gain it back and then some as soon as they go off their diet because their metabolism becomes more efficient on a diet and does not adjust back when they go off a diet. For people with eating disorders, this is often the first step on the way to an eating disorder. The bulimia, anorexia and binge eating are often efforts to short circuit the invariable weight gain when people go off their diet.

The other problem is that weight does not tell you who can and cannot lose weight. You need to know someone's body composition to be able to make that judgment. My training group got a deal with a bodpod company and we all went and got body fat measurements. One of the skinnier runners actually had one of the higher body fat % and a female runner who had a heavier frame had one of the lowest body fat %. If the female runner tried to lose 5 lbs, she would crash and burn because she was as lean as she could be.

Oh cool. You just heard about Mary Cain. Welcome to 2018

Precious Roy wrote:

Runners will hit their ideal race weight if they eat well and train properly. Most runners who hang on to a few pounds are taking in more carbs than they need. Simple dietary changes like swapping out pizza/sandwiches for salmon, steak, etc. and a veggie/whole grain side dish will take care of the last few pounds.

...

The problem with focusing on weight is that diets do not work and most everyone who wants to lose weight will turn to a diet and restrict calories. That puts them on a cycle where they lose some weight, but gain it back and then some as soon as they go off their diet because their metabolism becomes more efficient on a diet and does not adjust back when they go off a diet.

This is so flippant. Care to explain how you 'simply" swap a sandwich for salmon? do thye sell salmon at subway, or 7-11? can you easily swap out a steak at Domino's? Does your avrage fast food location offer veggie/whole grain side dishes?

the single worst contributor to bad diets is bad diet advice from people who don't think about how completely impraftical their advice is.

Do someone here really think you can point to the thinnest/skinniest dude/gal on every running team in the world, and know for sure that he/she is the fastest one?? It's not that simple.

Run6556 wrote:

Do someone here really think you can point to the thinnest/skinniest dude/gal on every running team in the world, and know for sure that he/she is the fastest one?? It's not that simple.

They definitely think you can take any runner, make them a little skinnier, and they'll be faster.

Run6556 wrote:

Do someone here really think you can point to the thinnest/skinniest dude/gal on every running team in the world, and know for sure that he/she is the fastest one?? It's not that simple.

Actually if you point out the fattest one, you will usually pick the loser, so yeah.. it's pretty simple.

I think it's quite good to speak about weight with women and to de-stigmatise the topic.

But it remains a stigma, I think the first big issue is that people start about about weight to women when they are too young, in their teens before their bodies are fully developed and their hormonal issues are in balance. The second big issue, we only speak about weight as something to be lost.

I know for my case, people talked about weight when I was 15-17, constantly calling me fat even though my BMI was quite low. This was a fairly toxic time for women in the media So it was when girls were demonized, girls gone wild was the norm, people berated Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Photoshop was increasingly being used projecting the image that women are skinnier than they are. It was bad. I actually with the advent of social media, and body positivity we are in a healthier phase because we can hear more than one perspective, we can see the smoke and mirrors behind touched up photos and accept no one is perfect. I'm not saying obesity is healthy and we should all be overweight, but healthy and strong can look different and for women who are growing I do think the big of inevitable chubbiness you get as you go through puberty is very healthy. I do think we can talk about being relaxed with weight at certain points in time, I think it's ok, if a teenage woman gains 5 - 10 lbs. A lot of women who reach professional levels as adults were in a bit of a slump as teenagers, perhaps not refer-thin, even a bit chubby, but it was good their bodies were gaining strength and adjusting to adulthood. the trejectory for female athletes is not exactly the same as men.

We also stigmatize for being too thin. In essence we judge women way too much. I remember coming into work and two of my colleagues were arguing with each other whether I got fatter or thinner. I think we can overscrutinise female athletes too.

I know constant klosterhafen was already brought up in this thread. In the summer of 2020, I could agree perhaps she could gain a bit - but she is also a slim-built strong female. She did seem to get a few injuries after that and now seemed to have gained a bit-which I think will help her train stronger. It's ok to talk about weight, but we need to individualize it and perhaps toss out some of these ideas we have that lower is better. During a training build-up I think it is great for some women to be a bit heavier, with training and all weight will come off, but the target should be the results, not strictly the weight, some people run better and are mentally healthier have a bit more meat on their bones.

Discuss nutrition, proper fueling

Do your training, running, strength training.

If you're any good as a coach you won't have to tell your group to lose weight. They'll get fit and be competitive through their training.

Telling athletes they need to lose weight can lead to other problems, eating disorders, nutritional deficiencies, injuries, body image issues.

As a coach you want to be positive. Create an environment for team improvement and success.

I think talking about weight in a negative manner to male distance runners should be far more taboo than it currently is.

Males also get eating disorders. There are HS wrestlers routinely cutting 10-20lbs of water weight to qualify for weight classes and male HS distance runners with legitimate eating disorders flying under the radar constantly.

Because Mary Cain said so! Duh!

Because those who fail in running will use the weight talk as a trigger point to get attention. You don't think weight is not talked about in other professional sports? Either you have to bulk or trim down.

"Why is talking weight to female distance runners taboo?"

Because some people take it to an extreme and hurt themselves.

What I notice about facts, science, data, empirical, and stats guys is typically a failure to analyze and read between the lines. Generally a total lack of emotional intelligence also, especially when dealing with homo sapien women not lab rats. I argue with stats guys in sports all the time. There needs to be a category for critical and clutch points as opposed to garbage time points and accuracy and lumping them all together, I digress.

A simple anecdote that taught me well…. Used to call my baby sister “little fatty” when I was a kid, she was just a toddler. this was back when fatty didn’t carry any negative connotation and I thought it was cute and endearing as a kid. it wasn’t until many years later that I realized that I had damaged her and she had developed an earring disorder from a young age, and now suffers health issues associated with it. I’m not totally guilty, there have been other influences, and I’ve since come to terms with my mistakes but it taught me a simple lesson that seems to echo amongst the older folks…

YOU DON’T COMMENT ON A WOMEN’S WEIGHT.

The same can be said for short guys.

YOU DON’T TELL A BOY HOW SHORT HE IS.

It’s pointless, the former is 99% failure, wasted breath, the latter is 100% failure, a man can’t grow taller past puberty.

I’m noticing a lack of emotional intelligence on this board in regards to body shaming and the psychological spirals it could incur. don’t get me started on mental health, and socioeconomic status. Yes it’s FACTS lighter people run faster. But generally you run as fast as what weight you’re training hard at. Starving yourself is not going to make you Faith Kipyegon or anywhere close. For college and high school athletes, deal with the cards you’re dealt and maybe you’re just not as talented as them. just run hard and have fun.

Lol you don't understand why? Really? When coaches pressure athletes to lose weight you still don't understand? Don't be dense. You sounds like a piece of work.

Don't act like understanding the math of "lighter equals better" is difficult for anybody to grasp. Literally everyone knows that, but there are many athletes losing the weight the wrong way because they don't understand complicated things like the female triad. People without nutrition or relevant degrees trying to talk science with their athletes is a major overstep.

People with underdeveloped cognitive abilities are simply unable to receive good information and use it appropriately.

So, unless you're a female, I would advise against trying to discuss these matters with other females because the risk is just too high that even the best guidance (both content and delivery) will go poorly.

It is the main topic of discussion by football coaches to their players.