Male pro runner eats less than 1500 calories a day

Bill ate like 4000 calories

Stress fracture waiting to happen.

Howisthislegit wrote:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VrxVDV8V35s

Thoughts on this??

Can you transcribe what he is saying? I can't understand him with the accent.

Howisthislegit wrote:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VrxVDV8V35s

Thoughts on this??

He means 1500 metric calories.

An average Male person his age who lives a sedentary lifestyle would eat at least 2000 cals per day so the average Male runner his age would probably be closer to 3000 cals per day. Everyone is different but he would be way below average if he ate that little or he is lying/exaggerating for a one day total that does not reflect his true average.

For example I'm a 6 foot 138 lbs Male (which is considered skinny even by runner standards) and I eat an average over 3000 calories a day and I have a teammate who eats nearly 5000 cals a day.

his bones gunna break bruh

This does sound very low, but whatever works for him. Just so that people don't start copying him if their body needs more, here is my input.

(I can't be bothered converting to imperial for you... also please excuse any English mistakes :) ).

Stats:

185cm, 68 kg

PBs: 5km - sub 13:20,

1500 - sub 3:38,

(yes, I know Butchart is faster than me, but I'd still consider myself competitive)

Weekly mileage: 160-180km (110 mpw or so)

7:30am Morning: 2 slices of toast, coffee

Morning session (always my bigger session of the day)

10am: Breakfast: Big bowl of low sugar high carb cereal, piece of fruit

1pm: Lunch: 2 wraps, consisting of a meat protein, and 2-4 different vegetables in it. Some chocolate or sweets (maybe around 100-200 grams depending on how much I'm craving, I don't measure though)

4:30pm: Afternoon prerun snack: some fruit, maybe some toast if I'm hungry with Jam or honey (quite sugary). Maybe a few pieces of chocolate or biscuits if I want something sweet.

Afternoon run.

7:30pm: Dinner: Usually heavy on carbs and a lot. If I was having pasta, it would be around 250 - 300 grams of dried pasta plus sauce etc. (I don't measure how much pasta I have, I'm just guessing based on how many dinners I get out of a packet). 4-5 nights a week I'll have a beer with dinner.

9pm: Dessert: Whatever I crave and however much I want. Ice cream or chocolate

I train a lot more than what Butchart is doing at the moment in this video. He says he eats a similar amount when he is running in a big training block as well, but I would think he probably starts eating more without realising it.

In summary: different diets work for different people. I eat some junk and I think quite a lot of calories (but I have no idea how many) and it works for me.

I only start thinking about how much/what I'm eating if I get around the 73-74kg mark.

I like to watch WIEIAD videos of unhealthy runners then turn around and do the exact opposite

He doesn’t count the calories in the video but it’s definitely less than 1500. Breakfast was a smoothie, lunch was one piece of toast with avocado and egg, afternoon snack was a cookie and dinner was a pretty small serving of paella. He calls it’s a typical day of eating. Must either have a very slow metabolism or an eating disorder.

Thanks for the insight!

I agree that all runners need to fuel differently but the amount he is eating seems extremely little . There are girls on my college team who clearly have eating disorders that are eating more than that!

don't read too much into a single youtube video

1500 calories one day here or there maybe, but he's not telling you about binging once or twice a week....or more. Nobody counts the gallon of ice cream they bombed at 2am.

This guy isn't much different than the people on that my 600 pound life or whatever show that say they didn't lose any weight after only eating 1000 calories a day.

Now obviously I am no where close to Butchart’s level but it always amazes me how clueless some elite athletes seem when it comes to nutrition.

Maybe it’s because he’s rehabbing an injury and not banging miles and doesn’t want to pile on the pounds but Christ that is such a small amount of food.

I will easily push 3000 calories a day on 60/70mpw and feel it’s about adequate but more to the point how on earth do you not feel lethargic and tired all the time eating so little? A single slice of toast for lunch? Tiny cookie for a pre gym snack? Even just the breakfast would be more like a light snack for me. Wild.

wild wrote:

Now obviously I am no where close to Butchart’s level but it always amazes me how clueless some elite athletes seem when it comes to nutrition.

Maybe it’s because he’s rehabbing an injury and not banging miles and doesn’t want to pile on the pounds but Christ that is such a small amount of food.

I will easily push 3000 calories a day on 60/70mpw and feel it’s about adequate but more to the point how on earth do you not feel lethargic and tired all the time eating so little? A single slice of toast for lunch? Tiny cookie for a pre gym snack? Even just the breakfast would be more like a light snack for me. Wild.

The body adjusts. First, his aerobic capacity is SUBSTANTIALLY higher than yours. You burn WAY more glycogen when you run, at any pace than he does. Second, he has done this for years. If you only fuel your body so much, and do most of your morning runs fasted, the body learns to cope with it and use more fat as energy source.

Recently Drew Hunter posted a video and it was exactly the same, low calories. And that's already after he said that he was underfueling in the past (1500 and less) and getting injured because of it, but his "new" nutrition is still very, very low calories. Evan Jager, another tall, heavy (absolute) guy posted a training week, and calories were crazy low too.

I've seen both, runners who eat unreal amounts like Hasay (4000-5000 calories a day on SUPER low, absolute weight) and male pros around 150 lbs with less than 1500 calories. Both types of runners probably shift depending on training phase, so they eat more during off-season/base phase, and then less during racing season to drop the last few lbs and get race ready.

We are talking about elite runners, these guys aren't running for health benefits but for performing at the highest level. Their nutrition might not be ideal for health on purpose, just think about how Salazar was enforcing rules to keep his athletes lean.

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

The body adjusts. First, his aerobic capacity is SUBSTANTIALLY higher than yours. You burn WAY more glycogen when you run, at any pace than he does. Second, he has done this for years. If you only fuel your body so much, and do most of your morning runs fasted, the body learns to cope with it and use more fat as energy source.

That's some incorrect information. Humans burn very similar amount of calories PER MILE. Calories coming from fat are still calories, yes you get 9 per gram instead of 4 for carbs, but guess what - you need those 9 back when you eat or you eventually run out of fat and die. Now basal metabolic rate can be different for different people, but there's not much variation on the minimum needed to just function. You need 80-100 grams of carbs per day just for your brain to function properly, that's roughly 400 kcal and that's not really optional. Too keep you at your body temperature is also quite fixed amount for your body weight - some people sit at 36.6, some are constantly at 35.*, but obviously that's a small variation. You will get bigger variation at the maximum end of the BMR, because people are good at wasting energy by fidgeting etc, but your minimum is really defined by laws of physics.

"Differences in BMR have been observed when comparing subjects with the same lean body mass. In one study, when comparing individuals with the same lean body mass, the top 5% of BMRs are 1.28–1.32 times the lowest 5% BMR. Additionally, this study reports a case where two individuals with the same lean body mass of 43 kg had BMRs of 1075 kcal/day (4.5 MJ/day) and 1790 kcal/day (7.5 MJ/day). This difference of 715 kcal/day (67%) is equivalent to one of the individuals completing a 10 kilometer run every day."

Long story short, 1500 kcal/day is not sustainable for active person at 50+ kg.

I have seen articles that Hasay eats 4-5k calories per day but I just do not believe it to be remotely true. Especially given her injury history.

Videos like this, the Drew Hunter one and the training article about Evan Jager are a problem because they show elites eating very little. It causes people to adjust their diets according and flame out. What’s the common theme with Hunter, Jager and Butchart? They’re all hurt frequently. Jager and Hunter are coming off massive injuries that took months to heal. I wonder why?

do you guys really believe these "pro" videos?

TME Hater wrote:

I have seen articles that Hasay eats 4-5k calories per day but I just do not believe it to be remotely true. Especially given her injury history.

Videos like this, the Drew Hunter one and the training article about Evan Jager are a problem because they show elites eating very little. It causes people to adjust their diets according and flame out. What’s the common theme with Hunter, Jager and Butchart? They’re all hurt frequently. Jager and Hunter are coming off massive injuries that took months to heal. I wonder why?

Hasay got high incentive to overstate how much she is eating. She is incredibly lean, and operating in an environment were professional female runners are often associated with an eating disorder.

Even if Jager/Hunter/Butchart would be able to get away with eating so little, which they might or might not, at least not for a long time period, it is not advisable for non professionals to copy that. We don't have their VO2MAX or fuel system. Put a 15-20 min 5k hobby jogger on their diets and they will be injured after a few weeks. Most people forgot how incredibly strong the aerobic systems of these 13 flat-13 mid guys are, it takes much longer or a ridiculous effort for them to really start burning lots of carbohydrates. Let someone with a VO2MAX of 60 race an all-out mile, and a pro with 80+. The pro barely shows any fatigue after the mile, and would be able to dual meet soon after, the 60 VO2MAX 5 min miler is exhausted and done for the day.