When did you feel diet began to play a significant role in your training/body composition? 20 year old asking

For me it was during grad school (around 25-27) when I realized that the cheeseburgers and beer weren't melting off like they used to. That's actually when I started running (played basketball and soccer from grade school through college) in order to get in shape.

I was a two sport athlete in college and never worried about my diet, outside of making sure I had enough protein. With all the work on the field, on the court, and in the weight room, I ate anything I wanted and still had ~3% body fat.

But everyone is different, so I don't think there is one particular paradigm that everyone should stick to when it comes to their diet.

Mid-30’s is when I began having to watch what I ate in order to maintain my weight. Prior to that I could pretty much regulate my weight through running alone. I’d be a few pounds above race weight a 50 mpw, but would easily drop those pounds once I got above 70. It wasn’t an overnight transformation or anything. I just started noticing at around 33 or 34, that I couldn’t get down to race weight even after several weeks near peak mileage.

Now that I’m in my 40s I have to consciously decline snacks and deserts most of the time to not gain weight. Even when I’m putting in the miles I limit ice cream, chips, and soda to no more than a couple times a week. I also limit my drinking to no more than three drinks per week unless there is some kind of special event (e.g. a friends wedding) where I allow myself a bit more.

For reference, I’m 6’ tall and weigh 155 pounds when competing. That’s up about 10 pounds from college, but it is a conscious choice for the sake of appearance.

aoxomoxoa wrote:

I was a two sport athlete in college and never worried about my diet,.

Jesus what kind of crappy college did you go to that you could play two sports?

What about in terms of staying slim, not necessarily race weight? I'm sure once you get to that age there needs to be a conscious effort regardless, but it seems you aren't crazy restrictive, which, in my 40s, is the way I hope to eat (not too rigid).

It sounds like you sort of see yourself getting too restrictive in your eating and recognize that it could spiral into negatively affecting you both physically and mentally down the road, so that's a good thing. I think you are like me, in that you don't intentionally eat the same thing so often, but food prep can be tedious, and I'm just not that much of a 'foodie', so searching out new ingredients and recipes isn't really ever going to be my thing. But, like you, I realized I needed a LOT more variety in my diet to feel my best. This happened just after I hit 30, btw. What I did to help me out was to get some coupons for meal delivery services (they can still be $$, but not too bad for a short term experiment; you just have to be good about cancelling and find the best coupons). This led to unusual ingredients and meal ideas being dropped off at my house and helped change the way I shop at the grocery. It's not that I couldn't have prepped or cook what was sent, it's that it wouldn't have occurred to me to do so, meaning I fall back on my easy but limited staples. For example, as simple as it is, I eat a lot more sweet potatoes now, and I can pick out a piece of fish at the store because I saw what it should look like when it was delivered. Plus, those meal delivery services usually have nutrition info included, so you can extrapolate out and get a good guess when you cook on your own. It's not a perfect solution, or the cheapest, but it's what I did when I wanted to expand my healthy diet choices in an attainable way.

For some it makes no difference, for others it makes all the difference. Depends on metabolism, of course there is a spectrum because you may get one guy who can live off pizza and nachos, be very low body fat and run well but you may get a guy who ends up skinny fat on the same diet. With women, it varies even more due to hormones.

Genetics aside, 99.9% of runners would run their best on a diet which consists of 90% clean food and 10% eating what you want. If your diet is mostly clean and is not going to give you diabetes then there is absolutely nothing at all wrong with 1 or even 2 pizzas or a week, your body may even benefit from the calcium and protein in the pizza anyway. Nkthing wrong with a midweek dessert or two especially if you are on high mileage and have the discipline to eat good most of the time.

The problem with being 100% clean is it takes a lot out of you psychologically and you can end up depressed by missing out on social events which involve food, missing the foods you love and can just make you miserable. It isn’t necessarily healthier to restrict yourself as a runner.

My junior year of college during outdoor track I completely cleaned up my diet. I would have one cheat meal a week. Other than that I was basically living off of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes. I dropped 47 seconds in my 5K and felt like all of my workouts were easy. Before that I change I wasn't even eating terribly by most standards, I'd still have a spinach salad every day and eat a decent amount of fruit, but I'd also eat a decent amount of processed meat and some processed sugars. Food matters, it helps drastically with recovery and if you have a clean diet you will also be psychologically better for it. The 90/10 rule is pretty solid, I personally don't count calories that would drive me crazy. Remember you eat food not just calories. Eat well, but don't overthink it or else the stress will make things worse.

Counting calories is what I think is messing me up. I view each mile I run as extra calories that I burn instead of how it could improve my training.

I'm 49 and have never noticed any difference. I eat the same as I did 30 years ago and weigh exactly the same and run the same speeds as I did then.

The thing is, I am quite the “foodie”, as I love reading recipes/cookbooks. It’s just either I’m too lazy/fear that it will be too high in calories and I’ll overeat.

I'm in my 40's and have been the same weight for 20+ years. I'm 6'2" 150-155. I eat pretty much whatever I want and always have. As I've gotten older I've just wanted to eat less. I used to eat 4-5 slices of pepperoni pizza, and now I eat 2-3. I used to get appetizers, burger and fries, and a dessert if I went out to a pub, but now I just get the burger and fries. I'm just not as hungry as I used to be. I feel bad for people who are constantly struggling not to eat to much, I guess we are all wired differently.

I'm 36 and it's definitely harder now to keep feeling trim than it used to be, I do eat a lot and it can be a lot of junk if I let myself. I tend to be somewhere between 165-170 lb, I'm 6'2" and average build so on the thin side for a normal human but probably a bit overweight for a runner.

When I was 20 I could eat anything I wanted, as much as I wanted and do very little exercise and would still be lighter than I am now. As I say, I still eat a lot and do snack more than I should, but even with 40-45 miles a week I have to keep an eye on myself or I'll put a little weight on. I got up to just shy of 200 lbs before I started running, still looked OK for my height and build but I was definitely heavier than I wanted to be. That was 29-30 so that was definitely when I had to start paying more attention to diet and exercise. It's drinking that does it for me more than food though, a night out is a full days calories just in drink and add to that a pizza at the end of the night and it takes the rest of the week to get back to equilibrium. It's fairly rare that I have a night out nowadays though thankfully.

Thankfully I don’t drink alcohol. Maybe that explains why so many college kids undergo the freshman 15, it’s not so much the food intake/metabolism that changes.

socooldude wrote:

aoxomoxoa wrote:

I was a two sport athlete in college and never worried about my diet,.

Jesus what kind of crappy college did you go to that you could play two sports?

Little known university in New Jersey. Had a lot of ivy growing on the campus.

As a high school senior, I still feel diet when it affects me. Races are more painful, body feels weaker, more lactate (or hydrogen ions, whatever). What you eat is important no matter your age.

3200y5000 wrote:

As a high school senior, I still feel diet when it affects me. Races are more painful, body feels weaker, more lactate (or hydrogen ions, whatever). What you eat is important no matter your age.

Sure, and I agree wholeheartedly, but maybe I’m more concerned about quantity and eating till satiety. I feel like if i ate when hungry, even if it’s healthy food, I’d end up overeating.

That was your training working, not your diet.

I’m just gonna be honest here: having a completely spotless diet doesn’t matter at all unless you have a some sort of thyroid or metabolic condition which at a lean 6’2/160lbs you almost certainly don’t.

You are displaying warning signs of OCD with food. Please take care think about talking to somebody about this especially if you notice this esculating.