I’m getting way too skinny!!!

Eat steak wrote:

S C U R V Y wrote:

Oh really!?

On vitamin c and scurvy.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n-i_o1Gr5iM&feature=youtu.be

Seriously! This is over an hour long and is a youtube video. The first line of wikipedia says: "curvy is a disease resulting from a lack of vitamin C..."

When I was a freshman in high school I had to eat 5-6 meals a day over the summer because I was adjusting to the higher mileage and intensity of my high school XC team. I have always been skinny so I wasn't worried about gaining weight. I had never run more than like 35 miles in a week at that time but in a matter of a month I jumped up to about 50-55 miles in a week as a 14 year old and in order to maintain that I found myself sleeping a lot, and eating a crap ton. Whenever I was hungry I would just grab something to eat because I knew I needed the calories and nutrients and I wasn't afraid of gaining weight. When school started that year, I just had to pack a ton of food for lunch and for snacks to make sure I got enough food in my body. My advice would be to just eat when you are hungry. Just listen to your body

That weight for your height is extremely low. I'm about your height, pretty damn skinny and more like 130 at racing weight. It's not a lifting issue, you probably need to eat a little more and more healthy. Maybe a couple of snacks between meals. You may just have an extremely small frame or are overestimating your height. But that weight just feels very low for an 18-year-old.

The dizzy thing you should definitely look into. Could be any number of issues, many unrelated to weight.

As far as cadence stop worrying about it.

1) Snack more, as others have stated. If you feel hungry at 3 PM but are waiting until dinner to eat, you're going to lose weight at your age. Do not restrict your diet in any way. If your body is hungry, eat until.

2) Unrelated, but slow down your long run. You should not be running 7:00 long runs when you only run the times you are running. With your weight issues, you are running a significant risk of overtraining.

It’s simple... EAT MORE! Not eating enough can result in an injury, because your body is’t getting amble nutrients. Eating more will give you more energy which = faster times. No need to worry about gaining weight, us highschool XC runners burn so many calories.

Eating three meals a day is good, but if you are losing weight while feeling like you are stuffing yourself, then try incorporating more food in smaller amounts. Still eat all three meals, and try to keep them close to the same size as they are currently, but you need to fit in snacks during the day. Snack between breakfast and lunch, snack between lunch and practice, snack after practice before dinner, and snack before bed. Play around with the foods you like to figure out what kinds of snacks work best for you. I like to do lighter snacks around work out time, but large snacks in the morning and before bed. Also, there are ways to add calories everywhere. Bagel for breakfast? Peanut butter. Sandwich for lunch? Lay on the hummus. Having an apple for a snack? Slice that bad boy up and yep, you guessed it, PEANUT BUTTER. Also, protein shakes are a man's best friend. Have a smaller one in the morning with breakfast, or drink it throughout the morning. Could also have a big one at night to really cram in a few hundred more calories. You've really got to increase, trust me. Even if you are running faster while you are lighter and losing weight, it isn't sustainable. First come the shin splints, then the overall bone density problems, then the issues with your heart. Get control of this now before it is too late.

Interesting that you bring up hyperthyroidism, because my dad actually has Graves’ disease. Although when I went to the doctor about 1 year ago my doctor checked my thyroid and said I was fine. I was running a lot less miles back then tho and I have my scheduled visit to the doctor in about 2 weeks. Should I ask her to check again. How will this impact my running if I have hyperthyroidism? Is it true that this can destroy running careers and potential?

But will I experience any loss of fitness and aerobic capacity by getting up to a healthier weight?

What kind of foods are you eating for breakfast that allow you to get that many calories? Because my go to breakfast at the moment is usually an overflowing bowl of bran flakes mixed with Quaker oatmeal squares a long with a banana that I slather with peanut butter. This usually ends up making me feel stuffed for about the entire 5 hours I have till lunch at school.

Eat more often and more at once, sleep a lot more, and bring a snack to eat at the end of school, just before practice.

This is a crucial growth and development phase for you, so don't let this go.

Such effort requires a multi-meal regimen providing energy & nutrition with proper resistance training to ensure you maintain & enhance your performance. You can implement about five meals in your day, try to avoid the excessive loading at any one time & ensure all you consume will get put to good use. Diet knowledge & discipline (within reasonable limits) important to your training & competitive performance as your desire & effort. Also, try getting a nutrient profile that's usually provided with any lab test & your general physician or else could arrange.

You mentioned lunch at 11. You mentioned feeling hostile after practice and lifting but before dinner. What would be typical times for beginning of practice, end of practice, lifting, and dinner? You may need something with carbs and protein somewhere between the end of practice and dinner.

My bias is for high-quality protein and plenty of it, especially at breakfast. Not sure if bran flakes, oatmeal squares, and banana with peanut butter are adequate.

As an aside, 7 minute pace seems a bit quick for a 5:00/10:41 guy as a long run pace. Doubt that that has anything to do with the losing weight thing but who knows?

jojorunner wrote:

What kind of foods are you eating for breakfast that allow you to get that many calories? Because my go to breakfast at the moment is usually an overflowing bowl of bran flakes mixed with Quaker oatmeal squares a long with a banana that I slather with peanut butter. This usually ends up making me feel stuffed for about the entire 5 hours I have till lunch at school.

I have a couple of english muffins (200 calories each), and a couple of bagels (450 calories each), I put a bunch of butter on them (so who knows how many calories that is, probably in the 150-300 range), and a couple of cereal bars (150 calories each). So that's 1,500 plus whatever the butter is. These are approximates, I don't read the labels.

Generally, go with high carb whole wheat foods. Carbs are a runners best friend. The ideal runner diet is 80% carbs and then 10% protein and 10% fat. So as long as you eat mostly carbs and occasionally have some junk food you're fine. Don't count calories and be obsessive about it. Just find tasty affordable foods you like that are high in carbs and low in fat and protein and you'll be good.

Sorry, typo. Meant to say "don't count calories and don't be obsessive about it."

The real answer is that I don't know what will happen. I'll tell you what I think you should do, and you can take it or leave it. I've been in the sport for 15 years now, and I've been coaching both men and women the past seven years now. You should definitely see a doctor just to make sure everything is alright, but I wouldn't be overly concerned yet.

I think you're in the best shape of your life right now, which is awesome, congrats. You should also be looking at the long term health of both your body and mind. I don't think you need to back off on the training, but if you're not keeping a training log, you should start immediately. Cataloging weight, sleep, nutrition, thoughts and the run/workout/race will give yourself a lot of feedback when looking back on it.

I agree, you should try and snack more throughout the day. Put the peanut butter in the oatmeal to thicken it up, and eat a second banana later in the day. Avoid nuts, apples, meat and dairy before runs. That's always helped me feel good. As soon as your workout/run is over with, try and fuel up while you're stretching with a clif bar or protein bar to replenish what you spent. Maybe some liquid calories that isn't all sugar. But then again, if you're 109, maybe a little sugar isn't bad for you. Then again, this is LetsRun and I'm not a doctor.

I would err on the side of caution, and back off on the pace a little bit on the long run. Listen to your body, and unless you're racing or working out, running 7:30-8:00 on your easy runs could be better But maybe don't rock the boat until the off season? If you were going to make any training changes now, I would recommend this and only this: If you're running 12 miles, great! Keep it there until its the final 2-3 weeks of the season then shave just a little off, not a lot. If I were your coach, on those long runs, I'd just have you start out comfortable 7:40-8:00 the first half of the run, and if you feel good, gradually pick it up and work on your pacing or something. Try and make mile seven be 7:29, then 7:25, 7:19, 7:15, 7:11, 7:06, 6:59. The average will be down, but you'll add a few minutes of total running time, and reduce the risk of injury. Running fast on your easy runs is a risk in my opinion. I don't think there is much of a benefit between averaging 7:00 pace for 12 miles, or averaging 7:25 pace. I'd rather you run 13 at 7:30 pace than 12 at 7:00 min pace.

Running it my way, you're still touching the pace you want to, but progressively and in a controlled manner. You're simulating finishing fast, but in a controlled manner. Go ham in the races, but train smarter.

Wait until college and talk to your coach always, but high school.... sometimes less is more. It's better to be under trained than over trained.

Lastly, being too skinny and competing at an elite level doesn't last long. You might be fast for a year or two, but your body will break down. Definitely consult a physician, but right now, your body is probably preparing itself for peaking season, and I feel as if when training is going right, you're body sheds weight naturally as you're getting race ready. I read on here that Emma Coburn wanted to gain weight before her wedding. She discussed how getting really sharp for races has her cutting weight in the article that I read. When I was in college, and in the best shape of my life, my weight dipped from 153-155 beginning season, down to 143-145 when I was running my last races in May. I'm over 6'2.

Hope this helps, good luck the rest of season.

Practice starts at 3:30 and I often still feel satisfied with food by then, but as soon as practice ends I’m extremely ravenous. I’m not always hostile tho. I’m only really irritable after practice and before dinner if I had bad workout or run, otherwise I’m content. Dinner is usually not till 6:00 as my lifting routine after practice doesn’t end till like 5:30 and then I have to shower and then make my own food as I usually do not eat the same food as my family does because they eat a lot of fast food.

jojorunner wrote:

The only problem with ramping up my mileage is that I’ve noticed I’ve been losing weight. I am 5’8.5 and my weight has dropped from an already underweight 112 pounds to about 109.5 pounds. I wasn’t that worried about how light I was getting up until I saw number drop below 110, THATS when I knew it was becoming a problem.

That height/weight alone isn't necessarily a problem if you have a very skinny frame, though your other symptoms are concerning. I weighed around 110 and was 6 feet tall in high school and would eat a 1/2 gallon box of ice cream after dinner every night. Am now 130 lbs in my late 50s on 30+ mpw. You might want to try a sugary snack in the mornings when you feel dazed.

jojorunner wrote:

But will I experience any loss of fitness and aerobic capacity by getting up to a healthier weight?

Don't even start down this road. I've seen several female distance runners go down this route and it always ends badly. Short term performance gains from being under your healthy weight are real but completely unsustainable. There is always a crash and burn.