How do these lean girls do it?- nutrition advice please

anonymous coward wrote:

I track my calories and eat about 1500 a day,

I sincerely hope this isn't a joke.

/is

We would probably need a current photo in order to provide useful advice on this subject.

The truth is that most of those women aren't lean because they eat very little food. Most of the elite women actually eat quite a bit of food (definitely more then 1500 calories/day). They are lean because they put in significant training volumes. While Hasay, whom you mentioned, probably doesn't run quite that much, many of those lead women run close to 100 miles in their highest mileage weeks (Hasay is known for doing a fair bit of swimming). If you're not consistently putting in 75-80 miles per week or more, you likely cannot get that lean.

Chances are, you're skinny-fat, meaning that you're slim but soft. You would be surprised how much most really lean girls look, because they are dense. A girl with really nice tone and muscle striation will always weigh just a little bit more, because it is dense muscle that looks good (combined with low body fat, but not so low that you lose breasts, ass, and hips). Unfortunately, girls can't control where retained fat goes; the lucky ones get it in classically "sexy" places like their ass, hips, and breasts. It's a crap shoot as to where it goes if you try to retain some fat for sex appeal.

But for general tone and slimness, a slight caloric deficit maintained over a long time will be your best bet. Chances are, with your workout regimen and low caloric intake, your body is becoming or has become very efficient at storing calories because it has been given so few. I would suggest experimenting with combinations of caloric intake and exercise levels to determine your caloric requirements for simply maintaining body weight. Start out with a much higher caloric intake to see how your body gains weight. You can always loose it later. Once you get a sense for how many calories (relative to how many you use) causes you to gain or lose weight, you will be prepared to reach your goals.

That said, I would recommend a beginning weight lifting program for you. It will not make you bulky, unless you're eating WAY over your caloric maintenance needs, and taking testosterone pills. What it WILL do is add just a little muscle, which burns more calories during rest, and it will make you a LOT stronger. Once you're comfortable with weights, then try losing some weight. Once you're as low as you'd like, you'll likely be thinner than you actually want. At this point, begin a cycle of bulking and cutting weight. This will improve the tone of your body, alternating with the cut which will keep you lean. From there on out, your body is your playground.

Also, read this.

And this.

Elite Coach wrote:

The truth is that most of those women aren't lean because they eat very little food. Most of the elite women actually eat quite a bit of food (definitely more then 1500 calories/day). They are lean because they put in significant training volumes. While Hasay, whom you mentioned, probably doesn't run quite that much, many of those lead women run close to 100 miles in their highest mileage weeks (Hasay is known for doing a fair bit of swimming). If you're not consistently putting in 75-80 miles per week or more, you likely cannot get that lean.

...and eating more than 1500 calories a day. I hope this is a troll, but since I had similar thoughts back in the day, I'll bite. If you aren't consuming enough calories for your activity level, your body goes into starvation. It slows your metabolism and holds on to the few calories you feed it. Also, you might be able to run well for a short period of time, but that's the "fight or flight" of survival mode. Eventually your body shuts down because it takes calories not only to run/exercise, but for normal functions (living) as well. You end up losing muscle (your heart is a muscle!) and bone. Worse if you keep digging a hole.

Train smart and eat right. Your body will adapt to its best size. Everyone is built differently.

PS: don't listen to the poster "elite coach" on that last part. You can easily get lean by doing things other than running. Weight and body composition are 90% diet. Lifting burns as many calories per hour as running for most people, and if you're among those for whom is doesn't (more likely given that you're on letsrun) it still burns an awful lot. Do you think super models are running 75-80 miles per week? No way. They are lifting heavy weights, watching their diet (but getting enough) and doing moderate aerobic exercise on their off days to stimulate recovery.

Wait a minute. The OP is "anonymous coward." Definitely a troll.

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=23948

"On top of it, she made the rookie mistake of reading comments under her online interviews or threads on LetsRun.com. "Those comments just crushed me. I so badly wanted to respond, to tell them I wasn't 'intentionally starving myself,'" says Goethals, shaking her head. "They always post as "Anonymous Coward" or something-they're just old people who wish they could compete again and have nothing better to do than tear young girls apart." And kick them when they're down. Metcalf instituted a ban on the online comments and told her from then on, what she saw would be used as ammunition to come back and prove everybody wrong."

Terrific link txRUNNERgirl, I wish I could forward this to every high school and college girl in the country.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

Wait a minute. The OP is "anonymous coward." Definitely a troll.

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=23948

"On top of it, she made the rookie mistake of reading comments under her online interviews or threads on LetsRun.com. "Those comments just crushed me. I so badly wanted to respond, to tell them I wasn't 'intentionally starving myself,'" says Goethals, shaking her head. "They always post as "Anonymous Coward" or something-they're just old people who wish they could compete again and have nothing better to do than tear young girls apart." And kick them when they're down. Metcalf instituted a ban on the online comments and told her from then on, what she saw would be used as ammunition to come back and prove everybody wrong."

I'm a fan, but I call BS on Megan. It's Flotrack where the default is Anonymous Coward. It is a rarely used moniker on Letsrun. And the old guys tear down young male runners, not the females.

part of it is also probably the opposite.

They aren't skinny because they run; they run because they are skinny. Their bodies allow them to run well.

I ate a very low calorie diet for all of high school and was "skinny fat," injury prone and exhausted all the time. Now in college I actually run less mileage, eat way more, weigh about the same but am far more toned, healthier, have more energy and run much faster. If you're eating only 1500 calories a day your body is in starvation mode. It took me a long period of time to get my body to process food normally which included about about 3 months of no exercise at all and 5-6 of no running.

anonymous coward wrote:

Hi,

I'm a female runner in search of some advice on losing weight. Looking at some of the ncaa pics of the girls, how do they keep so lean, and perform well? I track my calories and eat about 1500 a day,........Want to be lean like the body type that jordan hasay has. Also, please only serious responses!

I used to wonder the same thing as you. It's very possible you just need to educate yourself on not just nutrition but also on general strength training.

I used to eat as little as you do now (was 5'2'' and 114 lbs and wanted to get "lean").

Here are some of the things I did:

1. Changed my routine of 3 large meals a day to 3 medium sized meals with 3 small snacks.

2. Stopped eating 1600 cals a day and then binging on 4000 cals come Friday and averaged eating anywhere from 2000-2500 depending on my training day.

3. Stuck to a very structured lifting routine and core routine that focused on eccentric loading and isometric exercises. I kept all of these exercises short and sweet.

4. I only ate simple carbs directly before and after workouts. The rest of the week I ate low glycemic and high protein and a LOT of healthy fat. This was hard for me at first but I made myself stick to common sense (fat is GOOD) and just waited patiently for results.

5. I always ate before bed - usually something either high in casein protein or fat so it would slowly digest throughout the night and keep my muscles recovered. Believe it or not eating something moderately portioned before bed will limit your food cravings for the next 24 hours because your body and muscles are satisfied. You won't have that midday binge of an entire bag of pretzels at 2pm the next day.

6. I had one cheat day a week where I didn't eat WHATEVER I wanted, but I allowed myself a splurge and ate whatever dessert I wanted. Usually I'd go to Starbucks and get a giant frap or something. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

Anyways, 3 months of this and I was at 106lbs from 114 and was CUT. I actually think I lost more than I wanted to because with small amount of added muscle I was a lot leaner than I could have hoped to get. I didn't realize it was working so well until I saw a picture of myself from a 10miler and literally did a double take. I knew it was time to quit my little diet and just take it easy haha.

What part of "Most of the elite women actually eat quite a bit of food (definitely more than 1500 calories/day)" did you not comprehend? Of course that's not enough calories, which is why the elite women eat more than that!

casual wrote:

PS: don't listen to the poster "elite coach" on that last part. You can easily get lean by doing things other than running. Weight and body composition are 90% diet. Lifting burns as many calories per hour as running for most people, and if you're among those for whom is doesn't (more likely given that you're on letsrun) it still burns an awful lot. Do you think super models are running 75-80 miles per week? No way. They are lifting heavy weights, watching their diet (but getting enough) and doing moderate aerobic exercise on their off days to stimulate recovery.

She didn't ask how super-models are so lean. She asked how the elite D1 runners are so lean. There is absolutely no question that it's because of their high training volumes.

casual wrote:

PS: don't listen to the poster "elite coach" on that last part. You can easily get lean by doing things other than running. Weight and body composition are 90% diet. Lifting burns as many calories per hour as running for most people, and if you're among those for whom is doesn't (more likely given that you're on letsrun) it still burns an awful lot.

I agree with elite coach.

Definitely do not take casual's advice unless you want to have a fat weightlifter's body. Lifting burns as many calories as running?????? Good grief.

casual wrote:

Do you think super models are running 75-80 miles per week? No way. They are lifting heavy weights, watching their diet (but getting enough) and doing moderate aerobic exercise on their off days to stimulate recovery.

Hilariously stupid. Super models are big weight lifters??? Too funny. They are thin because:

a) they are young, and most are naturally thin (always that way)

b) they don't eat

c) they don't eat (yes I said it again)

d) they drink coffee and smoke cigarettes to up their metabolism and kill hunger.

Super models are your examples for weight loss role models and for runners looking to get thin?? Are you kidding??

Wow.

99% of those details, which you apparently think were oh-so-important to your weight loss, had nothing to do with you losing weight.What did matter? You cut calories, cut junk food, you burned more calories and put on a little muscle (with weight lifting). I mean, sure, you had some little psychological strategies, and that's fine, it worked for you, but it isn't necessary or what would work for others. I am not bashing you, it just seems like think you came up with some super secret scientific weight loss diet, when all you did was follow the weigh loss basics that I outlined above (cut calories, cut junk food, burned more calories and put on a little muscle (with weight lifting))