Any experiences with increased running performances from dropping weight?

How old are you now?
You are probably above 30. Loosing weight will be not that easy, if not impossible. But you can try.

In my experience it makes a big difference on a number of dimensions. It isn't just VO2 max and x seconds per mile because you are carrying around less mass.

Lower weight is huge in injury prevention and recovery when increasing volume. Obviously there is a line at which point it becomes counter productive and increases injury risk and decreases power to the point where you see declining performance. As long as your are conservative in the caloric deficit you apply and don't go to dangerously low BMIs I think a lot of that can be mitigated.

As a personal anecdote I went from 185-190 down to 170-174 over the last 2 months and I can't tell you how much less beat up I feel after long runs and higher volume. I am running more, more consistently at a higher quality and feel the freshest I have ever felt since I started running.

Some time back I read that losing excess weight could yield about two seconds per mile per pound lost. My experience was consistent with that, though I was also benefiting from regular training, too. This was all weight I lose (I. E. Not even close to race weight).

I will be turning 35 next month. In Aug I was heavier than I have ever been (171) but last I checked I weighted in at 148 about 10 days ago. I am super motivated and, as long as I have no issues health wise, I will be 130. My goal is to get down to this by Feb next year but may get there before then.

I'm not sure focusing on a specific weight is the best way to go here for targeting a running performance. It can be a dangerous path with disordered eating, bonking on runs, and injury and illness. Perhaps a better idea is to focus on the training required to hit your goals, and slowly increasing that. Meanwhile, be sure to eat a little more cleanly, less (or none) alcohol, soda, sweets, and fried food and more vegetables, fruit, and water. You'll naturally adapt and feel good without forcing a calorie deficit. That will simply be a byproduct as will fat loss.

I recently lost 40 lbs and I'm setting PRs in my late 40's. It works. Just keep it in the healthy BMI range with healthy training and eating habits and you'll be fine.

Thanks for the post. It is motivating to hear!

I have always done well with more mileage at lower intensities with prolonged threshold runs. When I do Interval and strength training with hills historically my quads and hamstrings and glutes balloon which work well for around 4-6 weeks but then get sluggish. I am a warrior in practices but have been limited in my all-out speed. My hope is that I can trim down for the next 8ish months and when I put more of the speed work I will be starting from 130. I will try to update this post when I am down to 130 and see if I can PR again!

In my 30s and started training again after a few years of sitting at a desk doing nothing. Huge difference in shedding 15 or so lbs and maintaining consistency. I'm back to my undergrad weight and set PRs from 5k - HM by substantial margins last year and am likely to break my mile pr soon. I was never crazy fast (right around 5:00 mile) but it's been super motivating to see such rapid success once I got my s*** together.

As mentioned above, I didn't focus on weight loss specifically, it just happened as I cleaned up my eating, cut back on drinking and upped the training volume.

Losing weight is not impossible when you get older, it just won’t happen unintentionally. At 40, I went from 160 down to 135. I was following a lot of YouTube peoples summer shredding videos and just kind of mimicked counting calories and slowly decreasing every couple of weeks as long as my average weight was dropping each week 1-2 pounds. I ran but didn’t train for anything while cutting, and ended up dropping a couple of minutes from my 5k despite doing a lot of training prior to the weight loss. I started training to see what I could get for a time and then Covid happened and gyms closed and races were cancelled so I put some of that weight back on. But since then I believe the biggest factor in going faster is weight. Although for the skinny runners weight is a touchy subject for some reason.

When is the last time you weighted 130 lbs?

I would say the last time I was 130 was around 13 haha. In high school I was most successful in cross country and as a 800 meter runner starting my junior year. I was really into cycling/biking and frequently was required to wheelbarrow dirt or crushed granite and shovel it as a side job which built up my leg and trunk strength, but (looking back at it now) I feel this may have hurt me as I was bigger than a lot of runners.

In graduate school I was prescribed Adderall and was on it for around 1.5 ish years and drop weight down to 135 but my heart was terribly weak. I had issues with pericarditis which I felt was a result of my stimulants rushing my heartbeats and as soon as I graduated with my doctorate I got off that stuff haha. It took years to feel healthy in my heart with exercise. I have only felt comfortable going all-out with high intensity intervals within this last year or so.

I am excited to drop down to lower weights naturally without stimulants and run kick butt times again. I have never held weight as a super important factor in running (as long as you were in a healthy skinnish runner build; i.e. not a weight lifter build). When I thought of the three determinates of distance running: Aerobic Capacity's contribution I thought of stroke volume (which many articles will cite as the most important factor); Anaerobic Threshold I focused on putting in the work and essentially building more motor recruitment to aid with Hydrogen Ion control/neutralization; Running Economy (fine tuning the synchronization of muscle firing). I think I just missed that I (potentially) could increase my V02 max just by maintaining my stroke volume and dropping weight. I am not saying I want to pull an Alberto Salazar and seek to lower my BMI from a healthy low weight to an unhealthy weight as we saw with Mary Cain. I am saying I want to to be on the lower end of what is considered still a healthy weight as per the BMI at around 20. When we see all the best performances from distance running athletes this is where they generally are. When I discussed this idea with my wife (who also is a runner) she was told that she needed to maintain a low body weight from day 1. I had never got this advice and never really focused much on wanting to drop any weight, but when you hear about the anthropometric features of champion distance running... the weight don't lie. At least that is what I am going to try to find out with this self experiment.

Yeah I like what you did and it is motivating! I find doing my daily 7 mile runs without a huge focus on intensity is helping me trim.

I feel improvements in pretty much every physical and mental aspect of running when lower weight. I’m just so hungry all the time it’s hard to maintain.

As a basic reference, a 4-5 mi tempo @ 5:45 pace is hard for me at 143 lbs

A 6-8 mi tempo and 5:25 pace is better feeling while at 136 lbs

I wanted to follow up to this thread. I have been able to drop to as low as 133- maintaining 140s with trips to Cheesecake factory/red lobster/Harkins extra large popcorn (my kryptonite haha). The weight change has resulted in a lighter feel on my feet. I will say that there are times where I have felt like eating a lot at times and I have allowed it (especially after hard workouts) to promote optimal adaptations. I ran a 16:47.5 5k very easily. There was a stomach sickness in my household around my race week and ended up throwing up the night before my race and had a resting heart rate of 85ish (42ish is typical for me). I left it as a race day decision but decided just to do it as a training run as I already paid for the entry and couldn't get a refund. I was super weak all day and if this was college I would have sat out... having said this with running sick and still easily breaking 17 re-assured me that my training strategies are working. I just need to build up my speed but definitely am convinced that I will easily be able to break my previous PR with continued training within the next year or so.

Additionally I have observed that there can be fluctuations in weight and I have eased up my expectations to providing myself increased flexibility. While my favorite race is the 10k and want to trim down to BMI of 20 as this is the common profile of top performances for this event I also like the mile and the 5k and the BMI value of 21 is likely more appropriate for these shorter distances so now I will be shooting for 130-136 pounds (rather than just a 130 pound focus) which is around 10-15 pounds less than where I was for my previous PR body around 10 years ago.

8 month follow up

Just ran my mile PR of 4:31 (4:29 1600) a week or two ago at 141 lbs turning 36 in about 6-7 weeks. I am gearing up for a 10k and shooting to go back down to 135 lbs. Was 138 this morning so should be able to drop a couple pounds over the next couple weeks with the increased miles and prolonged intervals of the 10k workouts (3 x 2 mile coming Monday; 3 mile/2 mile/1 mile next Thursday... as opposed to repeat 800 and 600s). Shooting for sub 32 10k.

Being discipline with my caloric intake has been key to helping me progress as an older runner.

Was able to drop down to 136ish and was able to break my 5k PR in the second half of my 10k. Fastest 5k split was 15:45 and finished 10k in 31:53 according to Strava/GPS, but due to not getting tight on every turn (i.e. hitting the tangents) crossed the 10k finish line in 32:04.

In less than a year on the same race went from 34:56 to 32:04. I think I will conclude my contribution to this thread with my opinion that, indeed, dropping weight [within healthy BMI limits] can significantly improve VO2 Max and running performance.

Thanks for the updates. Awesome dedication and result! Keep it up.

The problem with threads like these, is that the health issues associated with focusing on weight/weight loss/caloric intake are insidious.

Just about every runner understands that dropping a small amount of weight will improve their power to weight ratios and therefore performance in the short term.

Unfortunately, a lot of young athletes, both female and male, will also assume that this relationship is linear. They will then gradually become hyperfocused on weight and weight loss, as a means to improve athletic performance. This leads to the development of eating disorders, which in turn can cause issues with bone density and stress injuries, thyroid dysfunction, depression, anxiety and a host of other very serious medical conditions. A lot of athletes never fully recover.

You've tried to include a disclaimer (within healthy BMI range), but that is insufficient when combined with all of the other ill-informed opinions on this thread.

How are you able to lose so much weight in such a short time frame, and still feel like you’re adequately fueling for your runs? Wouldn’t that make it more likely to get injured?