QCK wrote:
beerslug, I don't think De Vany says running makes people fat. Essentially, he says that dedicated endurance training has negative health consequences due to repetition and chronic stress on the body. Nevertheless, he readily admits runners are healthier than sedentary people, who often eat terribly and get no activity. De Vany advocates acute (i.e. intense) workouts over "chronic" or repetitive ones. Personally, I don't think I could ever voluntarily give up running, but I am considering toning down my mileage a bit and playing more soccer/football now that I am no longer racing.
In response to the first point, De Vany repeatedly refers to longtime distance runners as skinny/fat, or says that marathon training causes loss of muscle mass so that veteran distance runners 'look like ghosts' (direct quote).
He also says he's always seeing people working out endlessly on the treadmill, and these dedicated runners (to his mind) are all fat. Possibly you haven't come across these comments, which I am recalling offhand from his blog. I could search them out and find the exact URLs if needed.
But as I suggested, I cut the guy some slack. His ideas of 'Evolutionary Fitness' (apparently he has a book) say that the ideal and healthful scheme is brief periods of intense exercise, with intervals of languor and low-intensity exercise in between. This sounds like good horse-sense to me.