How Can Someone Run a Marathon and Still be Overweight?

sirrunzalot wrote:

Crappy ping wrote:

Pics?

http://www.movingcomfortmediahits.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/6698.jpg

You're seriously calling this girl fat?

Running Formula reader wrote:

Frightened Inmate # 5 wrote:

Oh come on. Only on Planet Letsrun is running 6 miles a day for 5 days a week "hardly exercise at all".

If you run at 8min/mile, that's only 4 hours of running per week.

Doesn't CDC recommend 5-6hrs/week of cardio exercise? And that's just for maintaining general health?

No, that's a LOT more than the recommendations. Come on, man. Very few people aside from the extremely motivated can get off their butts to work out every day.

I second this, 30, mpw is nothing.

SMJO wrote:

It's because 30 miles a week is hardly exercise at all. People eat way more than they run.

I totally agree. I can run 80-85 and be OK, but for some reason north of that, I just get skinnier and skinner by the day - despite what I eat. I can TAKE DOWN some food, too. I'm not a light weight.

Toasted wrote:

I second this, 30, mpw is nothing.

SMJO wrote:

It's because 30 miles a week is hardly exercise at all. People eat way more than they run.

Lately I've been maxing out at 20 mpw. I don't see it going too much higher. My weight is dropping and I'm still drinking beer (a delicious craft IPA as I type this). Life is good.

Fat Joe wrote:

sirrunzalot wrote:

I am the same. I usually run 25-30 miles a week for shorter races and that is my max. I'm older and have a busy life (children) so I would have to wake up at 4 a.m. every day if I wanted to run 50 miles a week or more. And I'm incredibly lean on 30 mpw, I have to eat everything in sight to just not waste away. (5'10" and low 130s)

You would only need an additional 20 to 30 minutes a day to add 25 miles a week.

Speak for yourself. I don't have the free time for even 10 minutes more a day. I'm maxing out my running without disrupting the work/family balance already. I have to get half my runs in at lunchtime and 10 minutes more would get me fired. I suppose I could do doubles EVERY day of the week for 30 minute at 9pm at night, but that would not be too fun. At 30mpw, I maintain my weight just fine and eat whatever I want even as a older runner. I rarely do marathons.

What does overweight mean any ways?

Is a man that weighs 180 at 5-11 overweight? That's probably average weight for his height by age 25.

Or a woman that weighs 140 and is 5-4. Maybe even below average.

My high school coach was a bigger dude and started running only in his thirties. When he was 46 he ran a 3:36 marathon weighing 215 at 6 foot 2.

He only trained three miles a day with one long run of 13-18 miles and probably took a day off every week.

Most people wouldn't consider him overweight.

I have run marathons at 250 to 280 lbs in 4:30 to 5:20. I eat very clean but I eat a lot. I am old and have a sedentary job. It is quite easy to stay fat while running a lot. I am also a solid frame 6'5".

Frightened Inmate # 5 wrote:

[quote]SMJO wrote:

It's because 30 miles a week is hardly exercise at all.

Oh come on. Only on Planet Letsrun is running 6 miles a day for 5 days a week "hardly exercise at all".

Try telling that to the AMA.

[quote]

There is a full 7 days in each week. 30 miles is nothing.

Particularly when you consider that most basic Marathon programs are heavy on the long run.

You will find that a 30 mile per week program involves a lot more eating and resting than it does exercise.

Ask the AMA if they think 30 x 8mm per week is enough cardio.

With the USA's epidemic of obesity, I bet they'd say, hell yeah !!

Again, I maintain, for those of you running 100 miles per week, sure 30 miles is "practically nothing", but I work in an office of 300 people, and there might be 5 of us who run over 30 miles per week.

Some of you guys need to get out more.

I've run a marathon, and I'm overweight. Training for the marathon didn't help me lose any weight, if anything I gained a few pounds. I was doing 70-80mpw and ran 2:43. I was about 20 pounds overweight at the time (5'10", 165 lbs).

Like LM said, whether I'm running or not there is really no limit to how much I'll eat if I'm not careful. My body is just always telling me to eat more. I might not really feel 'hungry' after a big dinner, but I don't really feel full either, and I still want to eat. I could eat the whole dinner again, probably two or three more times, and the same thing would still be true. (I know because I've tried. I don't stop wanting food until I've eaten 4,000 - 10,000 kcal in a sitting, depending on the type of food.)

I've run as much as 120mpw. It's true that I wasn't overweight back then, but it was because I cared about staying skinny for running. I still had to be careful not to overeat.

There's a whole division for men over 200 pound. Clydesdale. Filly for women over 150.

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/13/ma/Feb24_Hyanni_set4.shtml

1) 5'10" 175 is not fat

2) A lot of the "fat" people you're seeing at marathons are not even running 30 mpw. More like 20s or even less. I know a girl who ran 4:30 off of, no kidding, something like 5 mpw over 3 or 4 months (10 mile run here or there, random 3 mile run, many days not running at all). Many of the people at 5hrs+ train like this in reality.

3) Plenty of people in the #2 category take the little bit of running they do as a license to eat whatever the hell they want. Net calories are greater than before they starting "exercising."

Weight depends more on the other 23 hours a day than on the hour a day you run. I don't do much in the winter as far as work goes and always gain a few pounds. In the summer when I am working hard (remodeling houses) I drop weight pretty quickly.

As for mileage, I went 6 months running 30 a week on 2 runs. I did do elliptical on the other days. Doing a couple hard 15 milers a week can get you in pretty good shape.

metabolism is the answer you are looking for.

sirrunzalot wrote:

Crappy ping wrote:

Pics?

http://www.movingcomfortmediahits.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/6698.jpg

Oh you must look like a rail-thin stick without any muscle whatsoever.

girlgonerunning wrote:

I totally agree. I can run 80-85 and be OK, but for some reason north of that, I just get skinnier and skinner by the day - despite what I eat. I can TAKE DOWN some food, too. I'm not a light weight.

haha I'm like you except that I just need to get close to 50mpw, or more like 7 hours a week of easy running, to start losing weight without trying.

I'm also not lightweight by default, just average. at my normal 30-35mpw with some speedwork, I'm 5'4" 115-117 lbs. same weight I was when sedentary but less fat, so it looks better.

when running 7+ hours a week (speed work didn't fit into that schedule), within a few weeks that started to drop below 110...

when I was training for a marathon, I didn't run that much, just maybe 40mpw, I had some faster runs too, I ran that marathon at my normal weight. no weight loss.

my conclusion is that for me it's a lot of easy running that makes me lose weight really fast even if I don't want to lose any weight (I look pretty good at 115). 1 hour of easy running per day on average.

but of course it's all really individual...

George Atlas wrote:

What does overweight mean any ways?

Is a man that weighs 180 at 5-11 overweight? That's probably average weight for his height by age 25.

Or a woman that weighs 140 and is 5-4. Maybe even below average.

My high school coach was a bigger dude and started running only in his thirties. When he was 46 he ran a 3:36 marathon weighing 215 at 6 foot 2.

He only trained three miles a day with one long run of 13-18 miles and probably took a day off every week.

Most people wouldn't consider him overweight.

Your coaches BMI is over 27. He should lose at least 20lbs just for his health. 5-11/180 is 25.2, so that's borderline overweight. 5-4/140 is 24.1, so that's within the normal range.

For comparison, Asafa is 6-3/192.

BMI wrote:

George Atlas wrote:

What does overweight mean any ways?

Is a man that weighs 180 at 5-11 overweight? That's probably average weight for his height by age 25.

Or a woman that weighs 140 and is 5-4. Maybe even below average.

My high school coach was a bigger dude and started running only in his thirties. When he was 46 he ran a 3:36 marathon weighing 215 at 6 foot 2.

He only trained three miles a day with one long run of 13-18 miles and probably took a day off every week.

Most people wouldn't consider him overweight.

Your coaches BMI is over 27. He should lose at least 20lbs just for his health. 5-11/180 is 25.2, so that's borderline overweight. 5-4/140 is 24.1, so that's within the normal range.

For comparison, Asafa is 6-3/192.

BMI doesn't take into account body fat percentage so it doesn't tell a lot tbh

also, muscle weighs more than fat.