My coach thinks I'm overweight,,,,,am I???

Your coach is crazy,

I am a DIV I athlete, I have competed at Nationals, I am 5'6 and 137 lbs. I have a teammate 5'8 155lbs who will be running Nationals this week.

If you feel good about yourself, I say keep training hard, eat smart and you will be fine, be comfortable with yourself that is number one.

Allyson Felix is 5'6 and 125lbs...i'm just providing some stats.

Notafatty wrote:

My coach is a distance runner

Now that's why he thinks you're too fat. Your weight is completely normal for a sprinter, but it's a bit high for a 10K runner or marathoner.

This probably isn't the best place to ask this question... Some place like trackshark, where there are more female sprinters, is probably better. There are mostly super light distance guys here and they are probably going to be pretty cruel.

Bottomline, eat right and train hard. Whatever weight you are when you are doing these things is the right weight. One of my ex-girlfriends was a national class swimmer in high school (same height and weight as you) and her coach told her the same thing. It messed her up a lot and she's still struggling with an eating disorder post college. Don't listen to your coach about this or worry about what other people's weights are. Listen to your body, stay ontop of your nutrition, and train hard.

Try getting a body fat test and look up what good percentages are for your age and female. I bet you are mostly muscle not fat. show your results to your coach and he will back off.

Thanks, good luck to your teammate. That is cool.

I agree with other posters that I am too heavy for a distance person. But I'm a sprinter! And some sprinters are long and lean and some are more compact and powerful. I guess I'm in the second group.

Thank you to the person who said get a body fat test. that is a good idea.

Notafatty wrote:

Thanks, good luck to your teammate. That is cool.

I agree with other posters that I am too heavy for a distance person. But I'm a sprinter! And some sprinters are long and lean and some are more compact and powerful. I guess I'm in the second group.

Thank you to the person who said get a body fat test. that is a good idea.

lose some weight porky

just a 4:35 miler wrote:

Notafatty wrote:

Thanks, good luck to your teammate. That is cool.

I agree with other posters that I am too heavy for a distance person. But I'm a sprinter! And some sprinters are long and lean and some are more compact and powerful. I guess I'm in the second group.

Thank you to the person who said get a body fat test. that is a good idea.

lose some weight porky

Gain some weight, a$$hole.

Notafatty, you are SOOOO not a fatty. Keep up the good sprinting work!

You are too heavy for a distance runner but probably doing good for a sprinter. Don't let your coach play head games with you. If you have a sprint coach let him or her go to bat for you. Especially since you are ranked high in state. If you were dogging it then you may be too heavy but your height and weight combination is probably working fine for you. Dont' start getting messed up about body image too many girls your age think they have to be super skinny and starve themselves. Eat a balanced diet and avoid eating junk or too much fat and that will help you be the best athlete you can be.

And don't pay any attention to asshole posts from some skinny distance guys who weigh 120 lbs soaking wet. From your description of your families body types they probably are jealous they don't have they muscle tone that you have.

your coach is an idiot. First you're a sprinter not a distance runner and as others posted you're not carrying that much weight.Secondly, No HS coach should tell a young lady that she is overweight. Let the training take care of the weight. Coaches like that can help promote eating disorders

Notafatty wrote:

I\'m 5-7 140 lb. My body type is very mesomorphic --if you saw pictures of my relatives they all had big shoulders, narrow hips, and muscled legs.

Damn, girl. You sound like a goddess.

Your coach is basically an idiot for telling you, a competitive 16 year old female, to lose weight. I wouldn't even touch the subject of weight with my athletes. If they are carrying a few extra pounds as the result of a poor diet I will talk about the importance of nutrition for optimal performance and let a nutrition expert make determinations about calorie intake, etc.

Focusing on weight and/or dieting will not help performance. Your optimal weight is the weight at which you run best, and if you haven't reached it already, you will reach this by excellent training and excellent nutrition. Numbers on a scale are a very poor gage of your level of fitness.

-As a side note: I was once observing two of LSU's star sprinters. One looked skinnier than most distance runners (maybe 5'6" 105...i commented on this to a teammate b/c I was wondering how someone with no meat on her bones could run such a fast 100). the other was built like a rock and looked liked she could probably throw a discus quite far; I was amazed that someone that heavy (albeit it muscle-weight) could move so quickly. Both ultimately made it to the Olympics.

get your body fat measured and show it to your coach

From Track and Field News year end rankings:

Women's 100:

Sherone Simpson (Jam): 5-4+, 110

Marion Jones (US): 5-10, 141

Lisa Barber (US): 5-3, 115

Torri Edwards (US): 5-4+, 115

Debbie Ferguson (Bah): 5-5+, 130

Allyson Felix (US): 5-6, 126

Stephanie Durst (US): 5-6, 128

Kim Gevaert (Bel): 5-7, 132

Veronica Campbell (Jam): 5-4+, 134

Lauryn Williams (US): 5-1+, 126

Women's 200 (not in the 100 list):

Sanya Richards (US): 5-6, 126

Rachelle Smith (US): 5-4+, 130

Shalonda Solomon (US): 5-6+, 123

Cydonie Mothersill (Cay I): 5-7, 119

I don't see your height and weight numbers as out of line.

The post is useless without pictures.

Jiggle test: Stand naked or in thong with a full length mirror behind you. Get on your toes and tighten up that bootay. Now jump up and down and see what jiggles. That is fat (a little of which is a good thing for a female).

Easier to do than body fat %, and about as accurate.

You are fine. Train hard, eat well, and rest properly. Everything else will take care of yourself. Your height and weight is in line for a sprinter. Your performance speaks for itself and your coach should probably get his chain yanked at some point if he keeps this up with you. His criticism is inappropriate and inaccurate.

As a Personal Trainer, I can tell you right now that you're NOT overweight! Your high ranking speaks for itself- sorry to tell you this, but your coach is a moron! Sprinters are more muscular than distance runners- therefore, they will weigh more! You are TOP 5 in the state...you are kicking butt!!! The best thing for you to do is eat right and continue to train hard. Also, remember that everyone's body is very different- people need a certain percentage of body fat on their bodies in order to perform at their peak! If you drop your body fat lower than what your body naturally wants to be at, your performance and health will suffer. Sprinters have no business dieting- that's the fastest way to kill your speed. Again, don't listen to your coach- something is wrong with that dude.