“It’s more important to be aware of how tired, hungry, or sluggish you are feeling.” ![]() “My biggest concern is that they distract runners from listening to and understanding their own bodies, because they’re caught up in reaching some number,” she says. ![]() These ranges can be good motivators, according to Rasa Troup, a certified specialist in sports dietetics (CSSD), a 2008 Olympian and current nutritionist for Team USA Minnesota, but she adds that athletes shouldn’t take them as gospel. These are the age-adjusted body fat percentile recommendations health pros use from Human Kinetics: In terms of your health, your body fat percentage should fall within a certain range. “If I’m eating well and training hard, that’s the weight my body naturally gravitates to.”įor any weight loss or gain, it helps to have something to aim for. “I started setting PRs and had more energy and confidence,” he says. He began planning his meals and stopped mindless eating, and he dropped from 150 pounds to 145. When he began spending time with other pro runners, Lemoncello realized he needed higher-quality fuel for his furnace to run at its most efficient. “Genetics, form, how hard and smart you train, and your weight-and not necessarily in that order.” “Four factors determine how fast you are,” says Sean Wade, a top masters athlete and coach of the Houston-based Kenyan Way running program. So while weight isn’t everything, it’s certainly one thing. They also burn carbohydrates more efficiently. Leaner athletes can dissipate heat better, too, because they have a higher surface-area-to-body-weight ratio and less insulating fat tissue. Losing weight doesn’t change your lung capacity or function, but it does mean that each breath doesn’t have to go as far. Still, there are other reasons lighter suggests faster: Larger people are less efficient at delivering oxygen throughout the body. Plus, most professionals now view BMI as an antiquated marker of health.) (While this research is interesting, generalizations about BMI shouldn’t be used prescriptively, Shay says, because it doesn’t take into account lean muscle or body fat. And a lower body-mass index seems increasingly important as race distances get longer: A 2014 study found that the optimal BMI for male 800 meter runners was between 20 and 21, while it dropped between 19 and 20 for male 10,000 meter and marathon runners. Your Complete Guide to Running for Weight Lossīody weight affects performance in running more than it does in other sports, such as swimming and biking, according to a 2011 Swiss study on Ironman triathletes. “You can’t move forward without moving up, and the more you have to lift against gravity, the more energy it requires.” “Running is really just a form of jumping,” says Matt Fitzgerald, certified sports nutritionist and author of Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance. Join Runner’s World+ today for more of the latest health and nutrition tips! What the Science SaysĪs a general rule, runners move most efficiently when they’re at what’s considered a healthy body mass and body-fat percentage. ![]() It’s a delicate balance: Dipping below your equilibrium weight or losing weight in unhealthy ways could put you at risk for injury, illness, and disordered eating behaviors. Which is why striving for an “ideal” number shouldn’t be your main focus-especially if you’re already logging major mileage and have a fairly healthy diet you use to fuel your training. And while your weight isn’t the be-all to end-all of a good race, it can still play a role, says Alicia Shay, a nutrition counselor in Flagstaff, Arizona. Perhaps you have always had the same body and never considered what gaining muscle or dropping a few pounds might do for your performance. So it makes you wonder: Is there really an ideal running weight to think about? Yet we still hear about “race weight”-that is, the weight at which you supposedly run your fastest. We agree-the number on the scale is only one metric and doesn’t provide a complete picture of health and performance. ![]() So who cares what the number on the scale says, right? You’re in good shape you feel great and you run, a lot. It may have been a while since you’ve stepped on a scale.
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