My weight is making me uncomfortable as a runner (21F)

Increase your mileage a tad (60-70min long run) and hit the gym a least 3x week to lift weights. Fad diets are stupid. You are young, merely cutting out junk food and increasing exercise volume will do wonders.

What worked for me was to increase my vegetable intake. So instead of eating pasta and meatballs, I eat half pasta half spaghetti squash and meatballs. Eggs with lots of veggies for breakfast, that kind of thing. Don’t decrease your portion size but fill up on things that are high volume low calorie and don’t be afraid of eating healthy fats like nuts, avocado and whole milk yogurt.

Before you read this I warn you that there will be a bunch of keto/low carb fans hysterically commenting on my post that you shouldn't listen to my advice but trust me I know a thing or two about training and nutrition. I am saying this because you could be easily overwhelmed by nonsense floods that will come soon.

With highest confidence I can say that too much dietary fat is the reason why you are gaining weight. When you eat and uptake lots of carbs and fats simultaneously as is the case with most food nowadays , carbs (glucose) will trigger the release of insulin. Insulin shuts down the usage of fats for energy production through inhibiting breakdown of fat in adipose tissue and opens cells for glucose uptake almost exclusively. All the fat (triglycerides) that is circulating in the blood stream from your food are instantly accumulated into adipose tissue. So please understand that once you combine carbs and fats in single meal, you can assume that all the fat on the dish will be stored and carbs will be used to fuel you. Now to start losing significant amount of stored fat you need to either exercise enough or have long periods of fasting without carb uptake.

TLDR: From a body perspective, insulin has fat-sparing effect. It forces most cells to preferentially oxidize carbohydrates instead of fatty acids for energy and indirectly stimulates accumulation of fat in adipose tissue. Since insulin is triggered by carb uptake (glucose) you must avoid combining fat and carbs in single meal.

Knowing this the first and most important rule if you want to lose weight but keep training and performing well as a runner is to go low on fat and have plenty of carbs.

Simple rules that will help you get leaner without feeling down is:

1) exclude from your diet food that contains more than 10% of fat

2) eat plenty of steamed, boiled or raw vegetables

3) choose grilled or boiled meat/fish that is as low fat as possible

4) drink lots of water (you can't break down fat if dehydrated)

5) take multivitamin supplement

By following these simple rules you will see noticeable weight loss within a week without feeling low on energy or something like that.

Forgot to add that if you follow my rules, you don't need to limit carbs that are low fat. Bread, pasta and rice (that is less

That is an absolute crazy way for a 21year old FEMALE to eat! You are asking for an eating disorder by eating like that. OP check out the book Run Fast Eat Slow by Elyse Kopecky and Shalane Flanagan.

Forgot to add that if you follow my rules, you don't need to limit carbs that are low fat. Bread, pasta and rice (that is less than 5% fat) can be eaten almost in unlimited amount if combined with sufficient amount of vegetables.

Runninglady wrote:

That is an absolute crazy way for a 21year old FEMALE to eat! You are asking for an eating disorder by eating like that. OP check out the book Run Fast Eat Slow by Elyse Kopecky and Shalane Flanagan.

As I foresaw here it starts. Please follow with clinical research that backs up this book. The diet I put down is a diet that any qualified sports nutritionist will prescribe you.

qw wrote:

Runninglady wrote:

That is an absolute crazy way for a 21year old FEMALE to eat! You are asking for an eating disorder by eating like that. OP check out the book Run Fast Eat Slow by Elyse Kopecky and Shalane Flanagan.

As I foresaw here it starts. Please follow with clinical research that backs up this book. The diet I put down is a diet that any qualified sports nutritionist will prescribe you.

Also this is not a diet to follow indefinitely. It is diet that you can follow to get down to racing weight and then continue with more unrestricted diet

Have you heard of The Path?

http://giphygifs.s3.amazonaws.com/media/84CRvhy2DJlwA/giphy.gif

I agree with qw. There's a lot of empirical evidence for this approach. It helped my wife take off 20 lbs and keep it off for the past five years and she doesn't run. She never feels she is starving herself. She uses tips at trimhealthymama.com. It works for me, too.

Just run more

qw wrote:

qw wrote:

As I foresaw here it starts. Please follow with clinical research that backs up this book. The diet I put down is a diet that any qualified sports nutritionist will prescribe you.

Also this is not a diet to follow indefinitely. It is diet that you can follow to get down to racing weight and then continue with more unrestricted diet

Reading your post, it appears your suggestions can be summed up with:

- eat only foods less than 10% fat

- avoid carbs

So what, she should be eating only lean proteins and nothing else? Maybe post a typical day with quantities of each food to clarify what you mean.

lottea wrote:

Please help—I’m a 21 year old female college student, I’ve gained some weight recently and I feel horrible in my body. I’m 5’6” and currently 128lbs and I feel like this is a lot for my build and stature. I feel like I raced my best below 120, so want to get back down to 118 in a sustainable way that I can maintain. I train with my running club about 30-35mpw.

Just a thought: you're a "normal" bmi, not even in the upper end of normal. You're not rail thin for a distance runner, but you're well thinner than an average person.

You're in a running club running low mileage, so presumably doing it primarily for fun and to enjoy hanging out with like minded runners. I'd suggest that maybe you feel "big" only because you used to be smaller. I think objectively, you're a very healthy size. Since you're not looking for every second at all costs, maybe shift perspective, I dont see any problems with what you're currently doing.

Stop worrying about your weight, the only numbers you should pat attention to are heart rate and running times - basically focus on gaining fitness, not losing weight. You’re just going to make yourself ill. It’s just weak mentality to starve yourself in attempt to get faster, real success comes from training smart and treating your body with the utmost respect.

I am the only one who will respond here has tried BOTH HCLF (high carb/lowfat) AND HFLC (high fat/low carb), the former for four decades (had to restrict to keep weight down and had NUMEROUS health problems) the latter for six years, and ongoing. Under keto/HFLC/carnivore, weight control is effortless, I and most who switch keep the same low body fat year around where I used to put on 10-15 lbs in the winter; most important, ALL chronic health issues and injuries vanished and am running at my best in 15 years.

High carb/low fat is playing with metabolic fire, and with an important side problem of toxic and addictive plant substances, especially plant-derived oils. You have already eliminated the toxic plant product of alcohol, by eliminating or minimizing toxic carbs (which all turn into sugar and spike insulin) you will improve your health and weight. Embrace a high-fat, moderate protein (1g/lb of lean body mass) high-animal-based diet and you will easily drop that extra weight without counting calories while building strength. Fasted cardio becomes natural and effortless. Eating more than twice a day will be revealed as the folly of carb addiction.

[Cue all the carb addicts who will vilify the very concept of minimizing a NON-ESSENTIAL MACRONUTRIENT, i.e. carbs (including fiber, which can be very damaging to gut health, as it was for me.). Fatty acids and amino acids are the ONLY essential macronutrients.}

Carbs just add calories with low nutrient bioavailability, and plants have a complete lack of: Vitamin A, B6 (Pyridoxal, Pyridoxamine), B12, D, E (Animal) F, K2, Q10. Amino acids: Creatine, Carnitine, Carnosine, and Taurine (all these are critical to athletes to maintain lean muscle mass). Heme-iron (very important for women runners), Collagen, CLA (Omega 3- critical for brain/neural health).

Antinutrients & harmful substances in plants: Alkaloids, Alpha-amylases, Arsenics, Cellulose, Cyanogenic glycosides, Fiber, Flavonoids, Gluten, Lectins, Mycotoxins, Oxalates, Phenolics, Photosensitizers, Phytic acid, Salicylates, Saponins, Sulforaphane, Tannins, Terpenoids and etc.

YMMV, idiots like you must be kept away from ever allowing to post anything regarding nutrition. You say you tried HCLF diet and used vegetable oils? Since when does vegetable oils are low fat? People like you who are posting they have tried low fat when infact with "low fat" they refer to a diet of 30%+ kcal from fat and then they complain that it didn't work and caused health issues. Guess what a diet of 30% fat is not low fat diet under any circumstance. It's a standard diet. Even 20% is not low fat diet. By cherry picking and bending facts you share experience that you want to be true but that has nothing to do with objective reality. Also do fans of ketogenic diet understand that this diet basically tricks your body into thinking it's starving? Your health improves on keto because under conditions of starvation body is forced to break down tissue including white blood cells. This mechanism allows to lower inflammation but the cost of it is disturbed metabolism that for some people is not reversible. Thankfully not many people are disciplined enough to sustain true keto diet for long periods of time and slips on some carbs here and there. True max keto is like playing with fire and it can burn you deeply. I know people who have basically crippled themselves on keto.

My advice. Don’t be neurotic and overthink everything in life. It’s one of the worse habits a person can have.

You already know what is not healthy to eat. Minimize those things to be healthy. You are not a professional runner. Don't fixate. It’s a choice.

How did you come up with that summary of what I wrote? What I said is that you should embrace low fat diet without specific restrictions on amount of carbs and protein (as long as these carbs/protein isn't paired with fat). I use low fat diet as base for my nutrition. Generally 5-6 days per week I eat low fat and remove restrictions for 1-2 days per week (but still it's lower fat than average people). Before important races I go strictly in low fat mode to become leaner. My staple foods for 5-6 low fat days per week are: - rice or pasta with different mixes of steamed vegetables (you can combine this with grilled or boiled chicken) - rice or pasta with boiled sweet potatoes and carrots (you can combine this with grilled or boiled chicken) - lots of toasted bread with honey or jam - lots of fruits (mostly bananas) - natural fruit juices with pulp For 1-2 unrestricted days per week I allow myself: - some bread with butter and cheese (in moderate amounts) - some pizza with cheese maybe (in moderate amounts) - maybe some burger and fries (very rarely though) - some pie, cake or pastry (in moderate amounts) I'm 5'8'' and am around 135 lbs normally. When preparing for important races I go down as low as 130 lbs.

Drainthefecesswamp wrote:

Reading your post, it appears your suggestions can be summed up with:

- eat only foods less than 10% fat

- avoid carbs

So what, she should be eating only lean proteins and nothing else? Maybe post a typical day with quantities of each food to clarify what you mean.

I’m glad you are seeking advice on this, I’m no nutrition expert, but can caution you from personal experience 24 years ago as a freshman in college that (i’m a man) if you cut weight incorrectly it will develop an eating disorder for the rest of your life (at least it did for me). I wrongly chose to starve myself, cut 18 lbs down to 142 (the weight my college coach told me I needed to be at) at 6’2” tall and ran much faster for a short amount of time. Now at 42 years old I deeply regret the choices I made as an 18 year old.

Whatever you do, do it healthy, don’t starve yourself and choose a diet plan that is sustainable for the long term. No short term fixes.