How Can Someone Run a Marathon and Still be Overweight?

Doctor says I am overweight. I contend that I am undertall.

5'5" 170 pounds...could stand to lose 20-25, but then my life wouldnt be as fun.

I run about 35mpw,,swim 3.5-5 mpw, cycle 40-80 a week. I just like to eat garbage.

26 marathons with times from 3:52 to 4:27. Ironman Arizona last november in 13:21. Fastest 13.1 at 1:46.

I am fat, and i dont care.

infmacs wrote:

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

also, muscle weighs more than fat.

Are you suggesting that his coach is a lot more muscular than Asafa?

I compared his coach to a sprinter because they are more muscular than distance runners. Craig Mottoram is 6-2/157. That's 58 lbs lighter than his coach at the same height. And Mottoram doesn't look skinny at all.

BMI wrote:

infmacs wrote:

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

also, muscle weighs more than fat.

Are you suggesting that his coach is a lot more muscular than Asafa?

I compared his coach to a sprinter because they are more muscular than distance runners. Craig Mottoram is 6-2/157. That's 58 lbs lighter than his coach at the same height. And Mottoram doesn't look skinny at all.

I wasn't suggesting anything as I don't know the coach. He may or may not be more muscular than Asafa. I was simply pointing out the problem with BMI.

Bumping this - interesting topic. I ran a 2:48 marathon at 6'4 195lb on moderate (~60mpw) mileage and good diet (much closer to "overweight" than the middle of the "normal" BMI spectrum), and can't fathom how I could be much skinnier. Don't know how the average high-achieving LRC marathoner stays so lean.

Can't beat genetics.

I think we are programmed for both of these things: (1) a homeostatic weight; and (2) ease of gaining weight as opposed to losing weight. At 6’1” 139 lb, I have a technically underweight BMI of barely 18.5 and I eat two meals a day and eat well and don’t watch calories. I’ve been at my current weight for many years now.

But I suspect I can gain weight much easier than lose it. I think if I keep on force feeding myself till I’m sick to the stomach, I’ll gain weight. I’ll be unhappy as the pleasure of putting food into an empty stomach will be all but gone, but I will be far more unhappy starving and losing weight. Evolutionarily speaking, being programmed to maintain a certain homeostatic weight skewed towards more easily gaining it than losing it makes sense as food availability through most of history was scarce, so storing it as fat inside the body was presumably advantageous for survival (until food became so easily available that the risk of diabetes, heart disease etc. offset the benefit of starvation avoidance).

Running a marathon by itself doesn’t necessarily change the caloric deficit math, so marathoners can be fat.

McChub wrote:

(~60mpw) Don't know how the average high-achieving LRC marathoner stays so lean.

Another 60 miles per week. If you're ok with yourself, thats fine. You may have health issues down the road, which in the US can get very expensive to treat. Or you can live your best life and run closer to 2 hours per day. Runs before and after work will do it. Even 120 miles per week isn't that much really.

Run?

Or "complete?"