Yeah. After I sobered up I went through about 3 years of intense training (may have had a hyperfixation) … I was down to an A-cup, just lean muscle and bone. After a normal training session I’d get the greasiest half-pound double cheeseburger with bacon money could buy.
These days I look at a stick of celery wrong and put on weight :-/
Had a friend training for Iron Man. He’d do like 15 mile bike in to work (and back), 5 mile run at lunch, and swim in the evening. Dude would eat sticks of butter straight out of the refrigerator for lunch. I couldn’t watch.
Yeah, I looked like a piece of leather wrapped around a stick when I was training that hard. And I pretty much just lived on takeout
And yeah, 10 years later, older, no longer anywhere near that fit, and even as I train for a half marathon, it’s hard to shift my weight to where I want it to be for my race
Yeah, but the saying is usually told to fat people. It is very unlikely that a fat person has enough endurance to burn 4,000+ calories a day via physical activity.
It’s still possible to build up endurance even while fat, if you never got completely sedentary or if you take the time to build it back up. But if you’re too fat there comes a point where physical activity starts becoming dangerous without proper guidance - and if you have that then you’re probably looking into your diet too.
Yeah, it works as a general rule of thumb but there are nuances. Running 2km or 1 mile burns roughly 100 calories.
If you were burning 100 calories running per day, and consuming just as many calories each day as you were burning, the lack of running puts you at a 100 calorie daily surplus without a change in diet. That translates to an annual surplus of 36,500 calories, which will likely gain you about 10 pounds of body fat in that year.
Simple solution in that situation is to eat 100 fewer calories per day, if you can (or however much else you estimate you were burning). 100 calories is half a candy bar, half a bottle of soda, skipping sugar in your coffee/tea, etc. If the injury was specifically a leg injury, can also supplement with cardio exercises that only work the upper body and don’t require your legs, if desired.
When I was marathon training I found that eating enough calories was a matter of meal timing, simply because I didn’t have the stomach to be able to eat that much in a single sitting.
With training a total of 50 miles (80 km) per week at a body weight of 190 lbs (85 kg), that’s basically 6700 calories per week of direct energy expenditure, maybe another 1000 calories of excess post-exercise energy expenditure. That’s 7700 calories per week from running, which allows you to add a whole 1100 calories per day to your diet, plus the amount you’d normally need for day to day.
With intense exercise, there’s a lot of room to work with.
That’s one of the reasons I ended up eating like trash. Fatty foods are calories dense foods, and that made it easier to get enough calories in a single meal, rather than trying to eat enough food throughout the day that wasn’t as calorie dense.
I won’t pretend that was the only reason I ate like trash, but it was definitely a part of it
Then you weren’t eating enough ice cream 😉 on average a mile run is 100 to 150 calories burned. Eat one pint of Ben and Jerry’s and you’re looking at 10ish miles to burn that off if you’re not in caloric defecit. Like I said it’s technically possible but by disagreeing you’re really just being pedantic. If your body’s ideal caloric intake should be 2000 calories to maintain your weight, eating 3000 a day (which is easy) means ten miles run a day.
I wasn’t trying to be pedantic as such. It’s just that I found fitness when I was on a path to trying to bring my body fat down to a level I was happier with. I had originally though “losing weight” was healthy, but then I read that being active is more beneficial than losing weight, so I thought I needed to include a bit of fitness training in there.
And then when I started running, to my great surprise, I found out that I loved it, and I kept running. I ended up SUPER SUPER in to running. And one of the things that I discovered was that after a period of trying to watch how much I eat, when my training peaked, I was often struggling to get enough calories to match my burn.
And I often joked to myself back then that if I’d have known I could have outrun my bad diet, I’d have started there :P
But in all seriousness, as you said, it’s not possible to sustain. Age, injury, decreased training levels, eventually, something happens and your calorie burn returns to more regular levels, and then you’re not outrunning it anymore
It isn’t. Bad diet can mean a lot of different things. If you are only eating a little extra kcal then exercise could compensate for that. Obviously unless you run a marathon a day you won’t escape eating an entire cake every day.
5000 calories a day of any food, any reasonable person with absolutely barebone nutritional education knows this. Idk if everyone is just trolling that other dude or what’s happening.
Damn, I didn’t realize the definition of “bad diet” was 5,000 calories per day. I never studied nutrition, so is there some sort of book or organization where that’s defined?
Right, the vast majority of people should not be consuming 5,000 calories per day.
At the same time, a bad diet could be something else, including a 2,000 calorie-per-day diet. And it’s perfectly reasonable to use the term to mean that.
Eh, I look at it more as who you’re going to be telling this to. Someone who is fat and starting exercise is never going to have the endurance to burn off their caloric intake. They need to reduce their caloric intake so that their body can physically handle exercise.
But a lot of high caliber athletes have trash diets because caloric intake trumps nutrient needs. It is also the reason why a lot of athletes get fat if they stop exercising since they are used to the trash diets and can no longer burn it off.
Eh, I look at it more as who you’re going to be telling this to. Someone who is fat and starting exercise is never going to have the endurance to burn off their caloric intake.
It depends on your timing. In 18 months, I went from obese to able to run 5km in under 20 minutes.
It is also the reason why a lot of athletes get fat if they stop exercising since they are used to the trash diets and can no longer burn it off.
And that’s exactly what happened to me when I got injured!
I think the point is about long term consequences, not short-term. Young bodies are good at adapting but, the abuse catches up in later years. It takes getting old to drive that point home for most people, though.
It really wasn’t. My body fat levels were athlete level low, my heart health was good and my cholesterol’s were good. Though I don’t know how much of that was related to my running to be fair
I absolutely used to run enough to out run my bad diet!
It only became a problem when I got injured and couldn’t run for several months :P
Yeah. After I sobered up I went through about 3 years of intense training (may have had a hyperfixation) … I was down to an A-cup, just lean muscle and bone. After a normal training session I’d get the greasiest half-pound double cheeseburger with bacon money could buy.
These days I look at a stick of celery wrong and put on weight :-/
Had a friend training for Iron Man. He’d do like 15 mile bike in to work (and back), 5 mile run at lunch, and swim in the evening. Dude would eat sticks of butter straight out of the refrigerator for lunch. I couldn’t watch.
Nope.jpg
Yeah, I looked like a piece of leather wrapped around a stick when I was training that hard. And I pretty much just lived on takeout
And yeah, 10 years later, older, no longer anywhere near that fit, and even as I train for a half marathon, it’s hard to shift my weight to where I want it to be for my race
Well done for taking on a half marathon!
I’m just trying to keep my old baby bulge in check, lol
Yeah, but the saying is usually told to fat people. It is very unlikely that a fat person has enough endurance to burn 4,000+ calories a day via physical activity.
It’s still possible to build up endurance even while fat, if you never got completely sedentary or if you take the time to build it back up. But if you’re too fat there comes a point where physical activity starts becoming dangerous without proper guidance - and if you have that then you’re probably looking into your diet too.
Yeah, it works as a general rule of thumb but there are nuances. Running 2km or 1 mile burns roughly 100 calories.
If you were burning 100 calories running per day, and consuming just as many calories each day as you were burning, the lack of running puts you at a 100 calorie daily surplus without a change in diet. That translates to an annual surplus of 36,500 calories, which will likely gain you about 10 pounds of body fat in that year.
Simple solution in that situation is to eat 100 fewer calories per day, if you can (or however much else you estimate you were burning). 100 calories is half a candy bar, half a bottle of soda, skipping sugar in your coffee/tea, etc. If the injury was specifically a leg injury, can also supplement with cardio exercises that only work the upper body and don’t require your legs, if desired.
When I was marathon training I found that eating enough calories was a matter of meal timing, simply because I didn’t have the stomach to be able to eat that much in a single sitting.
With training a total of 50 miles (80 km) per week at a body weight of 190 lbs (85 kg), that’s basically 6700 calories per week of direct energy expenditure, maybe another 1000 calories of excess post-exercise energy expenditure. That’s 7700 calories per week from running, which allows you to add a whole 1100 calories per day to your diet, plus the amount you’d normally need for day to day.
With intense exercise, there’s a lot of room to work with.
That’s one of the reasons I ended up eating like trash. Fatty foods are calories dense foods, and that made it easier to get enough calories in a single meal, rather than trying to eat enough food throughout the day that wasn’t as calorie dense.
I won’t pretend that was the only reason I ate like trash, but it was definitely a part of it
Then you weren’t eating enough ice cream 😉 on average a mile run is 100 to 150 calories burned. Eat one pint of Ben and Jerry’s and you’re looking at 10ish miles to burn that off if you’re not in caloric defecit. Like I said it’s technically possible but by disagreeing you’re really just being pedantic. If your body’s ideal caloric intake should be 2000 calories to maintain your weight, eating 3000 a day (which is easy) means ten miles run a day.
I wasn’t trying to be pedantic as such. It’s just that I found fitness when I was on a path to trying to bring my body fat down to a level I was happier with. I had originally though “losing weight” was healthy, but then I read that being active is more beneficial than losing weight, so I thought I needed to include a bit of fitness training in there.
And then when I started running, to my great surprise, I found out that I loved it, and I kept running. I ended up SUPER SUPER in to running. And one of the things that I discovered was that after a period of trying to watch how much I eat, when my training peaked, I was often struggling to get enough calories to match my burn.
And I often joked to myself back then that if I’d have known I could have outrun my bad diet, I’d have started there :P
But in all seriousness, as you said, it’s not possible to sustain. Age, injury, decreased training levels, eventually, something happens and your calorie burn returns to more regular levels, and then you’re not outrunning it anymore
Literally impossible, but ok
It isn’t. Bad diet can mean a lot of different things. If you are only eating a little extra kcal then exercise could compensate for that. Obviously unless you run a marathon a day you won’t escape eating an entire cake every day.
If you’re being a pedant, sure. But of course everyone knows what “bad diet” actually means
What does it mean then?
You’re literally being pedantic. You do know this, don’t you?
I genuinely have no idea what you’re talking about
5000 calories a day of any food, any reasonable person with absolutely barebone nutritional education knows this. Idk if everyone is just trolling that other dude or what’s happening.
Damn, I didn’t realize the definition of “bad diet” was 5,000 calories per day. I never studied nutrition, so is there some sort of book or organization where that’s defined?
No, its just obvious that you should not be consuming that amount unless you are a super athlete.
Right, the vast majority of people should not be consuming 5,000 calories per day.
At the same time, a bad diet could be something else, including a 2,000 calorie-per-day diet. And it’s perfectly reasonable to use the term to mean that.
Eh, I look at it more as who you’re going to be telling this to. Someone who is fat and starting exercise is never going to have the endurance to burn off their caloric intake. They need to reduce their caloric intake so that their body can physically handle exercise.
But a lot of high caliber athletes have trash diets because caloric intake trumps nutrient needs. It is also the reason why a lot of athletes get fat if they stop exercising since they are used to the trash diets and can no longer burn it off.
It depends on your timing. In 18 months, I went from obese to able to run 5km in under 20 minutes.
And that’s exactly what happened to me when I got injured!
Usain Bolt ate 100 chicken nuggets per day at the Olympics. Does 100 chicken nuggets sound like a good diet?
I think the point is about long term consequences, not short-term. Young bodies are good at adapting but, the abuse catches up in later years. It takes getting old to drive that point home for most people, though.
You win goofiest comment of the day
It really wasn’t. My body fat levels were athlete level low, my heart health was good and my cholesterol’s were good. Though I don’t know how much of that was related to my running to be fair