Has anybody here ever gotten out of being skinnyfat?

Any volunteers?

Go run a mile time trial wearing a 10 pound weight vest.

About a week later run a mile time trial without the weight vest.

Report back with :

- weight just before running a time trial

- time and distance

AlSal normally recommends thyroid medication. It will keep you nice and slim.

Really though, for me, I got rid of simple sugars and limited myself to desert twice a week. I used to have desert almost every night and that kept some love handles on me despite running 100+ mpw. My BMI looked great, but I wasn't "slim" like I should have been.

I also picked up heavy lifting. I train for half and full marathons (trying for OTQ this year), and when I saw Jordan Hasay lifting big weight with low reps just 2 weeks before Chicago, I tried it for myself. The trick is keep the reps low (I do 3 sets of 5 reps) so you don't bulk. Not only do my legs feel great/less destroyed after harder workouts, but I look and feel a lot leaner. Got rid of those love handles. I also had 6 weeks off for an injury this winter, so I had a good amount of time to get used to the lifting before training hard again. Now that my volume is back up and workouts are going better, I'm reaping the benefits big time.

Hope this helps.

Incorporate weight training. It will reshape your body by working muscles in every area of your body in order to burn fat in those hard to spot areas. That’s what I did, now I’m ripped. No need to go crazy, just a little bit.

Just dont' eat.

Struggled with this big time - Tried everything, what eventually worked? Keto Diet. Seriously limit carbs to under 20 a day, thank me later.

Get off the dairy and bread. Drink lots of water, and only water. When doing core exercises, really try to engage your core. Try to do stability exercises like planks or TRX moves. Imagine your belly button and spine are trying to touch each other, and take slow, deep, diaphragmatic breathes (belly, not torso breathes). Also, complex weight movements like squat, deadlift, push-press, etc. will help too.

95% genetics. Elite runners are not ripped because they starve. They looked like that even before they ran. And that is why they run fast not because they got skinnyripped.

self-diagnosed morbid obesity wrote:

Of course I can't be 100% certain, but people here generally estimate the effects of fat loss to be ~2.5-3lbs/sec/mile

Doesn't that equation mean you'd only drop 3 or 4 seconds in the mile if you lost 10 pounds?

What does under 20 carbs per day even mean? Under 20 carbohydrate molecules? Under 20 kilograms? It honestly makes no sense and annoys the Fvck out of me

Is this a troll post?

Skinny fat isn't real, visible abs are a genetic thing (weight distribution on chest vs. thighs) and you can't expect to improve at running if you're looking for easy ways out like weight loss. Just eat when you're hungry and focus on quality while knocking out workouts for 2-4 years.

Charlie wrote:

Any volunteers?

Go run a mile time trial wearing a 10 pound weight vest.

About a week later run a mile time trial without the weight vest.

Report back with :

- weight just before running a time trial

- time and distance

i'm pretty sure that a mile time trail is 1 mile, so you won't have to report distance

OOF

Tabitha Wheelright wrote:

Is this a troll post?

Skinny fat isn't real, visible abs are a genetic thing (weight distribution on chest vs. thighs) and you can't expect to improve at running if you're looking for easy ways out like weight loss. Just eat when you're hungry and focus on quality while knocking out workouts for 2-4 years.

I'm assuming you are "skinny fat" since you think abs are genetic. You sound like an old coach of mine... "if the furnace is hot it will burn anything" - Once A Runner. Side bar.

We have little information to actually answer the poster.

A. What does he consider eating healthy?

- eating healthy vs eating for performance

B. Is he doing strength training?

C. What's his mileage?

D. What's his age?

E. Must I go on since everyone on this board is just going to jump to conclusions. This person is either young and going to get bad advice from people like you or he's older and is never going to figure out "life" because he's to lazy to read, read, and read actually think logically about how the body works because he has no knowledge on human physiology.

I'm reading this on the shxxxer because it's sxxx (poop).

Skadoosh

A. Breakfast: Tea and biscuits

Lunch: Pasta or Soup, Apple

Pre/Post-Run: Bananas, Apples, Berries, Chips w/ Hummus, or whole wheat bread w/ Hummus

Dinner: White rice, whole wheat tortilla rolls, black beans.

Hydration: Before run, after run, dinner. Those are really the only 3 times I drink water, so there's no doubt I should drink more.

B. Once a week weights, Daily sprinting drills. I'm incorporating 10min jump rope once/twice a week now.

C. 60mpw (I was doing 80 before but my coach and team got really really pissed at me)

D. 17

E. I've read a lot on weight loss and nutrition in general, but I still struggle with being lean. I do have some bad habits that I need to stop doing (Not enough water, Limited Protein, White Rice, Biscuits), but for the most part I feel like my diet is reasonable for a runner. I honestly think it's a problem with portion control and hunger for me, as many of the people I know eat a lot less and have a much smaller appetite.

Kid. What are you doing with these 80mpw and like no protein. That just screams you aren’t recovering properly. Back off the mileage, Little improvement in the diet and just crush it in workouts. Core helps. If your core isn’t strong you won’t run as well. It’s the base for all athletics. Don’t worry about the “extra” weight. Put in the work on the track and trail and the results will come.

Don't run anymore - still have tiny little arms but am getting gross gut and can't button my pants anymore

Ehh.... There is truth to what you wrote, but it's more nuanced.

How much toward the faster end of things you are doesn't really matter, once you understand that the relationship between weight and running speed is a fairly linear one. What you can't do is say a blanket 3s/lb/mile. That will vary by speed quite a bit. What won't vary is the percentage difference. In other words, if a 4:30 miler and a 10:00 miler both lose 5% of their body weight, the 4:30 miler is probably going to improve down towards 4:1x high, and the 10:00 miler is going to improve down towards 9:30 or so. Let's say that was 8lbs. The 4:30 guy then improved about 1-1.5 s/lb/mile, whereas the 10:00 guy improved almost 3 s/lb/mile.

I agree that the OP isn't going to from 5:00 -> 4:30, but he could easily improve into the 4:40s.

The fact that he already runs fast does NOT affect the fact that weight loss will make him faster.

Well, the effect isn't quite that much. Even if it was, it misses out on a key point....there has to be fat to lose in the first place. If you're a 4:10 miler, and you're 13% body fat, there is a darn good chance that by dropping about 10-15lbs you could go sub 4. Most importantly, if you're 13% body fat then you have the weight to lose, and performance will be improved.

If you're like most guys that run 4:30, you're probably between 8-10% body fat. That's getting to the range you don't have much to lose. Most people are going to perform best around 8%, give or take 1-2% in either direction. Most people will TRAIN best at a percent or two higher than their best racing. It's hard to be optimally lean and stay strong and healthy for workouts. 6-8% is probably a good racing target (most will be towards the higher end), and 8-10% is a good training target.

Bottom line, if you're over 10% BF, i.e. don't have clear defined full set of abs, then you definitely have weight to lose and do stand to get faster from losing that weight.

Charlie wrote:

Any volunteers?

Go run a mile time trial wearing a 10 pound weight vest.

About a week later run a mile time trial without the weight vest.

Report back with :

- weight just before running a time trial

- time and distance

Weight makes a difference, anyone that doesn't think so is being silly. However, you're post is also silly. A weight vest makes a noticeable difference in weight distribution and changes the mechanics.

Nkny wrote:

I know a kid who was about 6 feet and 175 in high school and ran 4:15, he was probably sitting around 20% body fat. In no way would losing 10-20 lbs have made him a sub 4 kid. There are plenty of elite distance runner sitting at 15% body fat, and losing that weight wouldn’t necessarily make them much faster. It depends on your makeup and body composition. At the end of the day weight is only one small part of the equation, with proper training and good habits making up a good chunk of what makes someone fast. That being said you can’t be 6 feet tall, 200 lbs with 15% body fat and expect to run fast even with a well thought out training plan

20% BF? A little doubtful. A person like that is at the point where, while there frame won't be destroyed they will definitely have the beginnings of a gut, noticeable love handles, less defined face, etc. That's borderline chubby territory.

There are also not plenty of elite distance runners sitting at 15% BF. I doubt there are any. Do you have any pictures you can link to that suggest elite distance runner at 15%...every guy I've ever seen training shirtless or ripping of their shirt in celebration was pretty lean.

If that guy was truly 20%, then yes, if he would have gotten serious and lost that weight dropping about 15lbs or so, then there is a VERY good change he would have flirted with sub4. I can't guarantee a 10% weight loss is going to net a 10% improvement, and it probably won't at the mile due to aerodynamics, but in the more realistic scenario he was probably around 15%, could perhaps have lost 5% of his body weight, which would have translated to 2-4% improvement in his time, giving him something in the mid 4:0x range...which is pretty believable for a fast, but slightly heavy kid leaning out a bit.

I'm 13% body fat, no six pack, 6ft 156 lbs and I run a 4:34. Mile is also not my event. No excuses.