Need honest help: How to tell female collegiate runner to drop 5 - 10lbs

Not Wise Enough wrote:

I am a head coach who has been at the collegiate level for nearly 10 years. We have had success across the board but I have reached a point that I need outside help. For those who have experienced this situation and had positive outcomes (not created an eating disorder), how do you approach this situation?

I am a straight-shooter but at the same time, I know that women can take discussions about weight over-board.

Specifics on this situation involve college freshman who weighs around 140 at 5 foot 5. This is not a muscular build. This athlete is motivated and does what is asked of her. Clearly she would be a stronger runner if she was 130. Both of her parents are bigger.

Any positive/helpful advice would be greatly appreciative.

Is she healthy and training hard? If so, leave it alone. Keep an eye on her and see if she looks durable enough to handle more training. You can give her a solid plan for the summer. You might get back a really improved sophomore.

the skinny on fat wrote:

Here's some helpful advice:

Vacate your coaching position to enable someone with better judgment to coach your athlete.

This. The fact that you think the issue is a number on the scale and not whether the athlete is fueling with nutritious foods is a big red flag.

Also the fact that you said "women can take discussions of weight overboard" or whatever it is exactly that you said makes you someone who should not be coaching women.

2 thoughts on this delicate subject:

Freshmen 15 at work here?

Is she pregnant?

See if she is fast, and if so use xc, for middle distance training.

andicamp wrote:

Also the fact that you said blah blah

That you're posting on Letsrun.com and answered a question.

Coach G wrote:

Say nothing it's not your place and young women have enough body image issues.

Let her decide if she needs to lose weight.

Skinny doesn't equate to faster if it did why don't 75 lbs girls win?

Allie Ostrander (75lbs) does win.

One of the greatest things a young girl can have is a mild eating disorder. GO ahead and help her out. Its the gift that keeps on giving.

Not Wise Enough wrote:

I am a head coach who has been at the collegiate level for nearly 10 years. We have had success across the board but I have reached a point that I need outside help. For those who have experienced this situation and had positive outcomes (not created an eating disorder), how do you approach this situation?

I am a straight-shooter but at the same time, I know that women can take discussions about weight over-board.

Specifics on this situation involve college freshman who weighs around 140 at 5 foot 5. This is not a muscular build. This athlete is motivated and does what is asked of her. Clearly she would be a stronger runner if she was 130. Both of her parents are bigger.

Any positive/helpful advice would be greatly appreciative.

140 is really large for 5'5" and in reality as a distance runner she needs to lose more than 5-10lbs.

This is a super touchy subject with a girl and any time you broach weight with a girl you risk getting yourself in trouble. Maybe ask her about her diet and try to work on healthy dieting. I don't know any direct discussion about weight could definitely backfire. Especially when dealing with the emotional bombshell that is a freshman girl.

Are you a male. Is there a dietician in your athletic department or a female trainer or someone in the athletic department staff who could maybe approach the subject with her?

Since she is just a freshman, I'd wait to hear her story. Not only does she know that she is heavy but if you are DI or DII there probably is an ED. Several "chubbies" have voluntarily told me about their (usually self-diagnosed) eating disorder history from high school. This is especially true if she gained the weight after you signed her. Many ED female runners I've known had a fat freshman or sophomore year- usually came back from summer having gained 15-25 pounds then the next summer they came back far under ideal weight. The others with a high school ED history trained well and were at competitive weights by junior year.

140 plus freshman 15 equals 155! Yikes !! I might just not worry about it! Perhaps take her scholroship away and just do a little better job recruiting

andicamp wrote:

Also the fact that you said "women can take discussions of weight overboard" or whatever it is exactly that you said makes you someone who should not be coaching women.

I don't know about that. The fact is that, in general, women react differently to weight issues. Were this coach talking about a male runner, the consensus response would be to to tell him to lose weight, and no one would be worrying about his feelings.

[quote]

[quote]

Read the EXERCISE INTENSITY section:

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/72/2/558s.full

Read the WHOLE-BODY FAT OXIDATION DURING EXERCISE OF INCREASING INTENSITY section:

http://www.gssiweb.org/Article/sse-59-fat-metabolism-during-exercise-new-concepts

A nice little quote (with the scientific paper cited):

Maximal fat oxidation occurs at low to moderate intensity (between 25% and 60% of maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) (Horowitz & Klein 2000).

https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/physiologgfatloss.html

Must be total BS.............

To the OP: For real, slow her runs down a bit and up her duration slightly. Unless she's extremely inefficent, she shouldn't get hurt. Her mileage will still be about the same, but she'll stay on the lower end of her Aerobic zone and rely more on FFA than glycogen. Just my 2 cents.

You know OP, if you can keep the fire and desire kindled, your kid will do what is necessary to succeed. No need to overcomplicate things. If she respects and understands the process, she will improve. With improvement comes confidence and the rest will fall in place. College kids should figure it out eventually.

I work as an assistant coach and our head coach addresses this issue fairly regularly in a way that I really like so maybe it can help you out too. When we have a girl (or a guy) who is a little heavier than what their frame should hold we always address it 1:1 in a positive and definitive way as part of a larger training model. In the case of your runner, we might pull her aside after a meet and say something along the lines of:

"I'm really excited about the way you're handling adjusting to college running. Its clear to me that you've been working hard and that's the kind of athlete we like to work with here at _________. Now that you've kind of settled into our training program, we really want to focus on consistency outside of practice. Things like getting enough good sleep, following our nutrition plan, and making it to the trainer after practice are going to make all the difference. Myself and the other coaches get that you're in college and and there are going to be days where you can't put it together, but its important that you really try to maximize your good decisions and minimize the bad ones. If you want to be a factor a conferences we need to get you stronger, more balanced, and at a better racing weight. The decisions you make outside of practice play a huge role in your success and we as coaches want to make sure you're taking that seriously." Then we'd talk about schoolwork for a while because freshmen are a nightmare when it comes to schoolwork.

Even though we barely mention weight, the kid will almost always say something along the lines of "yeah i'm hoping to drop down to xx lbs by the end of the season, I'll pay attention to that," and the problem is solved. These kind of kids know they're heavier than the other runners, and when we treat it like any other factor in running fast most are quite receptive.

Just my 2 cents though, hope it helps

My daughter is a freshman college XC runner. Her coaches were asked by parents about nutrition and eating and in particular about problems. The female coach said only they discouraged social eating at the cafeterias (where it is all you can eat). I think she was talking about sitting around the cafeteria for long periods of time to socialize with friends and be tempted to go back for more food and especially more desserts. I think the coaches of all the sports let others handle the nutrition subject. Someone associated with the athletic training department provides nutrition talks that I assume all of freshman athletes are required to attend. They send out a daily e-mail in the morning with the healthy options from the cafeteria menu highlighted. Freshmen are required to stay in a dorm so they eat in the cafeterias. Most athletes move out to apartments by their sophomore year. The college offers services like teaching athletes living off campus how to shop for groceries and how to prepare foods if there are problems. They will take them to a grocery store and shop with them. If an athlete mentions a problem to a trainer that could be nutrition or food preparation or handling related they will have a nutritionist talk with them.

Clueless in Topeka wrote:

That is pretty good-sized, especially for a collegiate runner. I was 6' and weighed 145 and was like the heaviest guy on my x-country team. Losing 5 to 10 pounds would benefit her greatly but she could lose 20 easily. Does she do anything physically besides running?

In what way were you like the heaviest guy on the team? Did you have the same haircut, or something?