No wonder I'm fat. Drew Hunter only eats ~2500 calories/day.

seems like a very meager amount of food.. only 2500cal?

Someone in the Comments wrote

Rough calorie and macro estimate:

Calories: 2429 kcal

Protein: 112 g (~25%)

Carbs: 235 g (~52%)

Fat: 103 g (~23%)

so I'm going off that number.

are you sure? wrote:

seems like a very meager amount of food.. only 2500cal?

Yeah, no way. The average person needs 2500 calories a day and he's burning off 1000+ from running. He's also a young guy that's likely to have a strong metabolism.

How would he not be in a calorie deficit all the time

He doesn't know how much he eats, or something more sinister is at play. He wants to misguide young athletes in the hope that he stays on the all time board.

based on the 3 meals actually shown in the video, 2500 seems like a pretty reasonable estimate, unless he's doubling the pasta.

he says at the end he's learned he was underfueling in the past. says he'll sometimes have a bowl of ice cream, etc. no mention of snacking.

maybe it's just unsustainable.

Ever heard of basal metabolic rate? the average person doesn't NEED 2500 calories per day.

That's about what Meb was eating while training for marathons, no?

Meb's listed weight on wikipedia is 126. He's only 10% lighter than Drew. I wouldn't be surprised if Drew runs a little less than Meb was when training for the marathon, but don't actually know how much either of them run.

This reminded me I made a sort of calorie requirement estimator once and just went back and put Drew's stats in: 141lb - 5'11" - 22 y/o and it says to sustain that weight on 2502 calories he could run 53 miles per week.

So yeah, he could be on 2500 calories, but as you heard he'll drop a bowl of ice cream or whatever here and there which keeps him from losing more weight.

For reference, at 100 mpw I show him needing 3246 calories.

Meb at 100 mpw at 126lb - 5'5" - 38 y/o appears to need 2834 calories by my ultratrusty calculator. So if Meb was eating 2500 a day in foods he'd talk about in an article, maybe he was getting some desserts binges in that can quickly make up for being in slight deficit for a while.

Crowd Sorcerer wrote:

This reminded me I made a sort of calorie requirement estimator once and just went back and put Drew's stats in: 141lb - 5'11" - 22 y/o and it says to sustain that weight on 2502 calories he could run 53 miles per week.

So yeah, he could be on 2500 calories, but as you heard he'll drop a bowl of ice cream or whatever here and there which keeps him from losing more weight.

For reference, at 100 mpw I show him needing 3246 calories.

Meb at 100 mpw at 126lb - 5'5" - 38 y/o appears to need 2834 calories by my ultratrusty calculator. So if Meb was eating 2500 a day in foods he'd talk about in an article, maybe he was getting some desserts binges in that can quickly make up for being in slight deficit for a while.

Where is this trusty calculator? can you post a link? plz and thank you :D

Yeah it's on my google drive, but I'm not sure how to protect the cells so some jackhole doesn't delete them all or change something. Let me see if I can figure this out.

You should be able to edit the appropriate cells only now. Let me know if it works for you. Note that there are separate calculators for men and women, which you select down at the bottom left hand side of the screen.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eH0jYg1o36LU9zH08i3nfA1z6QlU1RNuipZ4NhgV5lk/edit#gid=747608652

When he was underfueling, he was only eating 1800-2000 calories a day, which also contributed to the stress fracture that prevented him from going to Doha last year despite qualifying.

2500/day is still extremely low. Another runner who doesn't eat much is Evan Jager - weareeaton.com has a 2-week routine of his nutrition. Jager also seems to be around 2500/day, at 140 lbs (which is skinny for a 6'2" guy).

I'm at 5000-6000/day (160 lbs), if I eat less I would be hungry and also increase my risk for stress fractures. Jordan Hasay was self-reported to eat 5000/day, which seems more believable/realistic for a pro runner.

It is very individual and depends on muscle fibers - ST fibers need a lot less than FT fibers, so distance runners like Hunter and Jager who have 70% ST and phenomenal aerobic abilities don't need to eat as much as sprinters or people like Rudisha, also they have less muscle mass which also requires less calories. Maybe 2500 is the right amount for Hunter - it probably is - maybe it's not. Keep in mind he is burning more fat relatively and much more efficient at it than us recreational 15-18 min runners.

Correct link:

http://weareeaton.com/evan-jager/

Like Hunter, he is eating only a sandwich or toasts at lunch, which I don't even consider a real meal (apart from being unhealthy). That's essentially starving, but a lot of elite athletes do that so maybe they just don't need much and don't get hungry (I'm also a strong believer that if you restrict your diet for a few days/weeks, the body adjusts to it and then is okay with eating less calories every day).

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

I'm at 5000-6000/day (160 lbs)

So you're doing 150 mpw?

[quote]jamin wrote:

I probably eat ~1000 more per day and he runs a lot more than I do. I would be always feeling a little bit hungry all the time if I ate ~2500 per day. But maybe that's what I need to do to get down to distance runner weight.

I always knew the thing about pros like Galen Rupp and Jordan Hasay eating tons of Slurpees and whatnot was B.S. And some people here still believe that Kloster Klaufenhezen or whatever is naturally a skeleton and georges herself on chocolate-covered pretzels every night.

He probably eats a lot more than that. No runner should starve themselves, it messes up your hormones. A slight calorie deficit for a few weeks may be beneficial, but there are enough undereaters around in this sport already, so it's good that you bring this issue to everyones attention.

He is coming off an injury, and a symptom of poor diet and malnutrition is increased injury risk.

You start running the risk of an eating disorder when you start thinking that you should eat less. If you run a lot you also burn a lot of calories and need a lot of food.

I’m 5’6 149lbs and the only way for me to drop weight is to eat around 1500-2000 a day. Otherwise I won’t drop weight. I do about 12-14 hours of Arrobic training a week. 50-55 now a week and tons of elliptical.

Typical food is Salmons, chicken, salads, roasted vegetables, oatmeal, avocados, rice maybe once a week, almonds.

I just can’t drop weight otherwise and I’ve been through this process numerous times. The last time I went from 180-135 in 5 months. This time I went from 175-148 in two months so far. My body just won’t drop weight and I eat no garabage

“the mean wolf leads the lack, baby.”

“Gaunt is beautiful.”

Do you kids even recognize this anymore?