When does being underweight become dangerous for runners?

Pics? The main problem is that you are more prone to bone problems. Like stress fractures and will be more fragile overall. Hints: look how often Ritzenhein has been injured in his career.

jojorunner wrote:

I am in the middle of my senior year of track and cannot stop running now so how can I gain weight to make me healthier while still keeping up with all my training?

You only need to eat more calories. If you are already full, you could eat something that's not filling, for example nuts.

Is that really the only problem tho? I’ve never had a stress fracture or any bone problems. Is being this underweight still unhealthy for an 18 year old runner who is planning on running in college after high school. For reference, my PRs are 10:41 3200, 5:02 1600, and 2:23 800. With a BMI of 16.6 and a weight of 110.4 pounds at 5’8.5. Is there any good reason why I should try to put on weight, and if so, how? I’m currently eating 3 meals a day. Breakfast can vary from a huge bowl of cereal and a banana with peanut butter to a English muffins with peanut butter and banana. Lunch is always a turkey sandwich, banana, and granola bar. Post run is usually a banana and dinner is usually rice/spaghetti/quinoa with some type of meat, like salmon, chicken, or steak (once a week). How do I add more calories without feeling bloated after my meals?

110lbs is very light for a 5'8" 18yo male, even among distance runners. I'm your height and I weigh a lean 135. Eating too little means you'll recover slower. Bones are already slow to heal, so if you do end up with a fracture, then you could risk a whole season. The injuries will start to pile up if you don't maintain good nutrition and recovery habits. If you want to add calories without feeling bloated, cut the fluffy carbs like rice/bread/cereal and add more fat to your diet - e.g. avocados, nuts, hummus, pork, eggs. Also, don't have an "always" meal. Vary your diet a little.

Are you male or female?

Being too lean is bad for your organs.

At your age I have run a 2:00 800, and a bit slower on longer distances but still a 4:30 mile and a 10 flat 2 mile with a BMI of 21.

So carrying excess bodyweight is one thing, but being too weak to maintain a 7 foot stride for just 2 min/ 800 m is another thing...

Middle distance running up to 2 miles and maybe even 5 k is not about who is able to be the most economic, but who can put the most power on the track in a given time frame of about 2, 4, 9 or 15 minutes...

I’m a male.

There are other issues besides bone problems. Which is also not to say that you won't have them down the line, and like a PP mentioned, if you are too light, your recovery can be compromised if you do have a stress fracture. You are also more prone to other issues such as hormonal disruption/overtraining like symptoms , other soft tissue injuries, and getting sick (just flus, colds, mono, etc. don't underestimate how disruptive something like mono could be athletically). You might be getting away with underfuelling now, but in college your training load is going to pick up and if you cannot absorb the training from not having enough calories, you will get injured, sick, and/or just have your performance decline.

One thing I've noticed with a lot of naturally thin people is they have appetites that lag behind their activity level and tend to feel bloated eating larger portions. I think the main solutions to this are eating more frequent small portions and eating more calorie dense foods (nuts, avocados, etc. as mentioned previously). Also, if you are running a lot and eating a generally nutritionally balanced diet and your problem is not getting to racing weight but actually KEEPING weight on, you do have some wiggle room for whatever sounds good even if it is "junk" ( including desert which you don't mention in your typical diet). Being calorie balanced is more important than having a perfectly "clean" diet.

Eat a huge bowl of ice cream every night. Problem arrived.

Huh??

I weigh 15 pounds more than you at the same height and I am pretty skinny still. If you cant put on any muscle try to eat more high calorie carbs but not total junk. a few more pounds of fat probably won't hurt your times, and you might have more energy if you eat more and you will probably gain some muscle too if you do any sort of strength reguarly

Icecreamftw wrote:

Eat a huge bowl of ice cream every night. Problem arrived.

OP can eat me

You know what really sad, if it weren't for all the running your height would be closer to 6ft, strenuous exercise stunts growth. If you are a girl you are anorexic and you know what you need to do but are in denial.

Wowcsdfs wrote:

You know what really sad, if it weren't for all the running your height would be closer to 6ft, strenuous exercise stunts growth. If you are a girl you are anorexic and you know what you need to do but are in denial.

Talk about being sexist, men can be aneroxic too.

OP, you are obviously so skinny that it is slowing down your distance times. Think about that. Really let that process. You are too skinny for a sport where people tend to be skinnier than any other sport.

I am not making fun of you btw. I was 6’4, 130 for much of high school. In my case, I actually wanted to gain weight. But as a runner with an already high teenage metabolism, I needed 4000+ calories/day to gain weight. The problem was that my parents did not understand this.

You don’t sound like you eat very much. And you also sound like you are overly concerned with eating clean, super healthy foods. In your case, you can definitely hit the buffet line guilt-free. Order a large deep dish pizza loaded with your favorite toppings and eat the whole thing for dinner some nights. Drink tons of milk. Have seconds and thirds at family dinner.

And most importantly, communicate with your family about all of this and make sure they understand. I would honestly recommend trying to gain at least 15 pounds between now and graduation. Lifting weights while you do this can make it very rewarding... you will get some huge “newb gains” as you fill out a bit. From there, you can decide if you want to go for the Steve Prefontaine/Chris Solinsky bod to impress the ladies ;)

GL!

15 pounds? Won’t that make me significantly slower? I heard that for every pound you gain it’s plus 5 seconds per mile slower you run in pace. Obviously the first few pounds I gain would make me faster but there has to be some point where gaining weight becomes disadvantageous. I’ve always wondered how Yomif Kejelcha with a BMI of 16.9 is doing so well.

Also, gaining weight has proven significantly harder than I thought, I’m now having huge dinners but still nothing is changing and I only feel full for the first 5 minutes after the meal.

Average professional marathoner BMI is 19, 3k and 5k it’s even higher.

Gain some weight, it’s dangerous being that low. Foods that are “bad for you” are fine and will make you a stronger runner than being overly skinny.