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

5-10lbs?? try like 20lbs!

Biggest question is how much mileage are they doing? I can't see how an athlete could be 20 lbs overweight running 70mpw?

No way, clearly the volume isn't there for her to be competitive anyways soo....

One of the best ways to improve your fitness & lose weight is to push that longrun and stop jogging it like your in high school.

chatham wrote:

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.

Except when she's out for entire seasons.

Jerry Maguire wrote:

5-10lbs?? try like 20lbs!

Biggest question is how much mileage are they doing? I can't see how an athlete could be 20 lbs overweight running 70mpw?

No way, clearly the volume isn't there for her to be competitive anyways soo....

One of the best ways to improve your fitness & lose weight is to push that longrun and stop jogging it like your in high school.

This.

Have a conversation about eating healthy and make sure they are putting in milage in the offseason. If she eats healthy and puts in sufficient milage, that's all you can really ask of her. If you ask more than that, you are asking her to starve herself.

She's a college freshman and this is the beginning of the season. "Lose weight" is about as vague yet frustrating as telling someone to "run fast." As others have already said, keep your mouth shut and focus on actual training.

Thanks for all the responses, good and bad. This post was more of an experiment than anything, as I really never intend to talk directly with this athlete about actually dropping 5 - 10lbs. I certainly would like this athlete to be lighter but were very curious about how others have approached this matter in the past. I have had numerous athletes over the past 10+ that have needed to drop weight because of poor food choices and have never talked dropping lbs with them, just a cleaner diet.

My wife had in-patient eating disorder treatment as a early teenager (way before she started running). She is perfectly fine today and went on to be a great Div I national level runner. Her mother is a registered dietitian. We get how important the words you use are and the effect they can have on a person's mental state.

This was a very interesting thread that I hope other coaches will find useful. I certainly found some good information/insight in it. Appreciate the discussion.

"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."

We have a winner. From the little we know, she is the athlete most likely to survive college training over all four/five years.