Old dudes...weight question.

A lot of the weights here remind me of reports SAT scores, income, house value, and PRs.

[So the average 50 year old here scored 99.7% on their SATs, earn $450K/year, $750K house appreciating at 5% a year, 4:02 mile PR as a sophomore in college but decided to quit to focus on school and making money, but ran a 2:17 marathon on a whim at 25. And BMI has never exceeded 20, lifetime body fat at 6.7%, but working to get under 6%.]

Right.

Anyway, yeah you have to watch what you eat after about age 30. I don't think it's any more difficult at 50 compared to 35.

College was 5'10" 140, and kept in the 140-45 range through age 35 (maybe not the entire year but definitely during racing season). Weight bumped to 150 for most of the time since, but after couple long-term injury bouts (no running for a couple years) in late 30s and early 40s weight went up to low-mid 160s.

GorilSleep wrote:

I'm 45. I noticed everything changing when I turned 35. Suddenly weight gain occurred. For me, it's more about food intake. Prior to 35 I could eat whatever I wanted and not gain weight, but not anymore.

While injured last year I gained 15 lbs in just 2 months. But it took me 6 months of 60-mile training weeks to burn it back off. That sux! I need to eat less.

Agreed...

College: 5'8 128

35: 5'8 132

39: Tore calf in race

40: Divorce

45: 5'8" 165

50: still at 165 but I traded running for weights so I have more muscle to go with more fat.

28-29" in college. 32-34 now.

42 5'9" 154 (muscular and lean)

My weight spiked up in my mid to late 30's to around 172. It took me a while to get down to my target weight of 155, but now that I'm here it's easy to maintain.

Losing the weight for me was very simple - cut out sugar 6 days per week. Once I cut out the sugar, my body stopped craving it and it became my easier to have control over what I ate and I felt like I got fuller much faster.

I also cut out coffee and that seemed to make a big difference. I'm not sure why since coffee has minimal calories, but my weight definitely went down after I eliminated the coffee.

I'll be the fat guy here. 5'9 166 down from 182 in March and 192 the year before.

You can run off the first set of pounds but then you will get stuck. I've been stuck on 172 for quite a few months.

Despite churning out 40+ mile weeks over the summer I've had basically no impact to my weight until my daughter went on a no carb diet. I needed to shop for her and consequently my own eating has dropped a considerable number of carbs and I broke below 170 in the last couple weeks.

Most of the advice from the fit guys is right on. It just takes some kind of 100% concentration of pure will. I don't have it mastered for sure.

Good luck.

I think part of the problem with runners is that we burn so many calories that we can get away with eating badly. Until we can't.

At about age 30 and again about 45 I had periods of non-running in which I put on a little weight (maybe 10-15 pounds), but was basically able to train it away slowly. At 55, that doesn't work anymore, maybe because hard run training is so pathetic compared to what it used to be. I pulled a hammy about 18 months ago and in a few months was up about 15 pounds. And it is a bitch getting it off this time.

The horrible truth is that eating right is as or more important than exercise at this age. Luckily, it isn't rocket science or gimmick:

Avoid processed foods

Avoid most simple carbohydrates except strategic use post-workout

Eat nutritionally dense foods and don't worry too much about this 'macro' gimmick

Eat good fat and protein - nuts, avocados, lean meats, a little dairy (no butter in your coffee, wtf?)

Avoid alcohol as much as possible

Don't gorge on anything; never feel uncomfortably full

Drink more water

Advanced: Try intermittent fasting a day or two a week- 16 hours without food, say 8 p.m. to noon. Again, don't gorge all afternoon afterwards.

Doh etosh wrote:

Avoid alcohol as much as possible

This is the one that sucks for me. I'm not a snacks guy, and have never been much into sweets, but I really, really love having a couple of beers in the evening. And I've certainly noticed that when I cut down to only drinking on the weekend my weight gets much easier to maintain.

And another thing I've noticed as I've gotten older is that you need to be really careful with weight spikes. Every year around Christmas/New Years I tend to gain maybe 6 or 7 lbs. And every year it takes a little bit longer to burn back off. Used to take a month, max. Now it takes like three months. Getting older sucks.

All this jargon speak of keto this that is total bullsh1t. Snake oil at its best. If you want to drop mass, eat in moderation and exercise more. It could be cross training or more running. Doubles worked for me.

ugh..... wrote:

This is the one that sucks for me. I'm not a snacks guy, and have never been much into sweets, but I really, really love having a couple of beers in the evening. And I've certainly noticed that when I cut down to only drinking on the weekend my weight gets much easier to maintain.

Beer is liquid bread. You can undue an entire week of good eating with a weekend of bad eating. Weight loss/maintenance when you get older becomes an issue of constant vigilance. Forget cheat days every week, it's more like once a month (or less) or pay the price.

To maintain fitness, when I was younger I would never dream of slacking off on training, but I would slack off on my diet all the time. When I got older, it switched and I'd rather slack of on my training (fake a workout) than slack on my diet. Losing weight is a b*tch.

Exhibit some self-control, fatso, and do a few easy doubles.

Also, simple things like eating low or no fat yogurt, watching those double lattes, don't eat a WHOLE loaf of bread.

The age thing is mostly an excuse for the weak and lazy.

I am 54.

Last year I was Hitting 175 which is the thiniest in my adult life. (6'5 so I don't really have a distance runner's body on height alone). I am prone to having some muscle, so I burned some of that on the way. I can hold 185 pretty easily, down from a high of 218(gained over 20 or so years, and lost in just a few months when I started running again so I consider that "easy"). I had my BF measured in a tank and it was 14% at 190 lbs so under 180, I was getting at least under 10% .

I got a long lasting case of bronchitis and didn't want to have any medicine, so I gained some weight back and finally shook it. Sort of afraid to try really skinny again, so not going to jump right back at that but, I can do pretty well at 185. Going to stay there more or less and work on body composition and see what I get.

Right now I am working out on a 9 day rotation for races under 2 hours from Joel Friel's book Fast after 50. I like it , kind of matches other runner/ coach /author recommendations for older runners with regard to number of running days and overall volume( Brad Hudson , for instance). Has a long run, a short vo2 max day, a short lactate threshold day, some easy days, and two weight lifting days in 9 days, during base and build( you change the proportions through periodization) . Finding my energy pretty good , weight and eating easy to manage with this. Can't say for sure that I will max out running performance yet. He does have what I consider good common sense thoughts on the matter of weight and diet.

Disclaimer, I have no personal or professional connection to Joel Friel and probably don't even spell his name right.

Devastator wrote:

All this jargon speak of keto this that is total bullsh1t. Snake oil at its best. If you want to drop mass, eat in moderation and exercise more. It could be cross training or more running. Doubles worked for me.

Spoken from a place of profound ignorance. Good luck with your "willpower" and running 80 miles/week in doubles when you are 60. I have plenty of both but I also got off the blood-sugar roller coaster ride. Now it doesn't matter if I run 10 miles or 80 (and I still do both on occasion), my weight fluctuates not an iota, stays at it's optimum...with no hunger.

Also, I will add the importance of eating LOADS of varied greens and vegetables, in addition to healthy meats, fish, eggs and dairy, and lesser amounts of nuts and berries. Intermittent fasting is also a powerful tool with proven long-term benefits, when done in an enlightened fashion.

It's really sad to see the guys come staggering in many minutes behind me in my AG who don't lack "willpower", but are fighting their bodies every inch of the way because of the bad habits they were conditioned were "normal". Adapt now or die a miserable, prolonged, flabby demise.

Fortunately for the younger generations, the word is getting out. At least they won't have to wait until their 50's to even hear about how to eat healthy, in a scientific perspective.

Here is an LCHF for athletes lecture by Tim Noakes, with a couple of especially relevant cases starting at 23:58:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WVLrQmnnAY

Age 30. 6-2, 158 lbs (50-60 mpw)

Age 37. 6-2, 166 lbs (30 mpw, but now I don't look like I have some sort of disease because when I hit 155 people wondered if I was sick).

Noticed the pants fitting tighter when dropped down to about 25mpw. I also started drinking more because my wife loves wine/beer and we relocated to a new town with better restaurants. Whoops.

Would like to add that intervals (hard 200-400's, hill repeats) really set my metabolism ablaze and it made me look more cut. When I was slogging at 60mpw I was getting sort of skinny fat.

Would like to be around 162 - but I need to eat better to make that happen.

I don't like to say I am old but I guess at 66 today I am. I have been running for over 36 years. I am 5' 9" and used to be 5' 10". In high school and college I weighed around 190. After college I had to join the National Guard to avoid the draft and dropped to 170 pounds during active duty. I then carried mail for 34 years and started running and dropped to 160. I retired and even with increasing miles I gained 10 pounds and then I got a stress fracture and ran very little in 06 but did ride a bicycle but still gained another 15. In Feb. of 07 I weighed 185 and went back to running and lost 30 pounds in 8 months. I maintained 155 until about a year ago when I started running every day and now am at a streak of 1006 days and I weigh around 148. My weekly mileage is and has been between 25 and 35 miles a week. Last year I ran 7 half marathons but my knee has been bothering me since January and have only ran 6 5ks but have a half next month. Luckily, I can eat all I want but am a vegetarian and have been since 1982; we do try to eat organic and don't eat a lot of sugar. I might improve my times if I lost some weight but at this point just happy to be running every day.

Noakes, Volek, Teicholz, evil gov't recommendations, you've changed your life and grown your genitals and added 9 inches to your biceps.and never get tired and now are superman, blah, blah, blah..............we get it, you are a "true believer" and our hero.

A) nearly none of what you wrote is true

b) there are TONS of guys your age that look as good as you, can outperform you, and don't eat a diet anything like yours. In other words: maybe you are in good shape, maybe you work hard and don't eat junk, maybe you are a talented athlete. But you did NOT do all this because of your new magical diet. Sorry if that makes you feel bad.

topcat wrote:

Yup. Once you hit 60 you start thinking about health and longevity and just being able to run. Getting a medal every once in awhile is icing on the cake although sometimes it is by default because of the few number of runners in my age group.......

Yes, indeed. Runner in college until age 33 but have steadily put on an average of 2 pounds a year no matter what I do, and I work out 6 days a week.

When you hit 60, you start leveling out with weight because you can't eat as much

Had to stop ice cream, should stop pepsi, but I still drink one every other day and suffer for it.

"Things fall apart, the center cannot hold"

Your innards rot, you can't eat as much or you get sick..

Its a drag.

You guys know that there have been genes identified that correspond with people for whom a low-carb diet is effective and different genes for those who respond to a low-fat diet?

There's no sure-fire thing that works for everyone. If there were everyone would be Brad pitt