IS IT POSSIBLE TO LOSE WEIGHT WHILE YOU TRAIN FOR A MARATHON?

We live in a world where it’s impossible to escape diet culture (I call it poison punch because we’ve all been served it our entire lives!). We’ve all been sold this idea that we’re not good enough. Not thin enough. Not driven enough. Our weight is tied to morality.

THIN = Healthy.

Fat = Unhealthy, “lazy”, or you lack self-control.

BOTH of the above are untrue.

YOU CANNOT TELL HOW HEALTHY SOMEONE IS BY LOOKING AT THEM.

FAT IS A BODY TYPE. SO IS THIN.

Running won’t change your body type. Your body composition may change depending on how much you’re running, but balance is key.

We’ve all been sold this idea that regardless of what you weigh, you need to lose weight.

But here’s my challenge to you: Don’t run a marathon because you want to lose weight. Run a marathon because it’s a challenge that excites you.

When I signed up for my first marathon back in 2013, I thought I was finally going to shed the weight I convinced myself I needed to lose in order to be desirable. I thought I’d finally be skinny because in my mind (thanks to media), runners were skinny.

I didn’t lose a single pound.

Look y’all, even when I run 50 miles a week, cycle 2-3 days a week, strength train 2-3 times a week, and eat really, really well to fuel my body, I still find myself “overweight”. I put those in quotes because all of those charts are insane. To classify weight as “overweight” when you’re doing the work to train for a marathon is a perfect example of how fatphobic and broken our healthcare system is.

For women, the worst thing you can do when you’re athletic is to try to live in low energy availability AKA calorie deficit. YOU HAVE TO FUEL YOUR BODY. YOU HAVE TO EAT! If you don’t, your endocrine system goes haywire. You don’t recover and adapt from your workouts. You’re exhausted. And you’ll feel terrible.

That’s diet culture for you. Dieting is about obsessively counting the calories you take in against the calories you burn in hopes of being in deficit. And it sucks. Dieting sucks and it doesn’t work. It’s dangerous if you’re athletic. Dieting and counting calories does not work.

HERE’S SOMETHING RUNNING TAUGHT ME:

HEALTH IS NOT A LOOK. IT’S A LIFESTYLE.

STRENGTH COMES IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES.

Seriously.

I get hundreds of emails a year from people looking to run anything from a 5K to a marathon and lose weight. Please don’t start running because you think it’s going to be the thing that solves your weight loss woes.

I CHALLENGE YOU TO STRIVE TO FIND A WAY TO MOVE AND GET ACTIVE THAT YOU ACTUALLY ENJOY.

Now, that doesn’t mean you love it 24/7. But you need to enjoy it more than you hate it. For me, I love the sense of pride and accomplishment I feel running. I love that it gives me a way to process my feelings or connect with a community. 75% of my runs are really hard and feel terrible. ESPECIALLY in the early weeks when my aerobic system isn’t strong after a break. But it’s worth it to me. If you hate running more than you love it after 3-4 months, find something you look forward to doing and give running a try in a year or two.

As the former President of the “I F*cking Hate Running Club”, it’s possible to fall in love with running. Even if you don’t have an athletic bone in your body, you can fall in love with running. You can become one of those people that actually looks forward to getting sweaty and sore. Don’t write anything off. You may find a love for something you don’t enjoy down the line. But for now, move in ways that make you feel good.

IT KILLS ME THAT THE WORD DIET IS WHAT WE PERCEIVE AS ALL THE FOODS WE SHOULD CUT OUT IN ORDER TO LOSE WEIGHT OR MAINTAIN A “HEALTHY” LIFESTYLE. YOUR DIET IS WHAT YOU PUT INTO YOUR BODY TO HELP YOU THRIVE.

If you’re looking to lose weight, start with how you feel. What foods satisfy you and make you feel energetic? What do you know about your diet? Are you getting enough fiber, vitamins, nutrients, fat, and protein? Can you work with a registered dietician who is health at every size? Being anti-diet isn’t anti-health and the more you know about all the food that makes up your diet, the easier it is to ditch diet culture.

Your diet isn’t about what you limit. It’s about what you add.

Just look at this list of food that you can add to your diet to give you energy.

WHOLE GRAINS

• amaranth

• brown rice

• bulgur (cracked wheat)

• oatmeal

• popcorn

• rolled oats

• quinoa

• whole grain barley

• whole grain cornmeal

• whole rye

• whole wheat bread

• whole wheat crackers

• whole wheat pasta

• whole wheat sandwich buns and rolls

• whole wheat tortillas

• wild rice

Ready-to-eat breakfast cereals

• whole wheat cereal flakes

Refined Grains

• cornbread

• corn tortillas

• couscous

• crackers

• flour tortillas

• grits

• noodles

• pitas

• pretzels

• white bread

• white sandwich buns and rolls

• white rice

• Pastas

• spaghetti

• macaroni

Dark Green Vegetables

• bok choy

• broccoli

• collard greens

• dark green leafy lettuce

• kale

• mesclun

• mustard greens

• romaine lettuce

• spinach

• turnip greens

• watercress

Starchy vegetables

• corn

• green bananas

• green peas

• green lima beans

• plantains

• potatoes

• taro

• water chestnuts

Red & orange vegetables

• acorn squash

• butternut squash

• carrots

• hubbard squash

• pumpkin

• red peppers

• sweet potatoes

• tomatoes

• tomato juice

 Beans and peas

• black beans

• black-eyed peas (mature, dry)

• garbanzo beans (chickpeas)

• kidney beans

• lentils

• navy beans

• pinto beans

• soy beans

• split peas

• white beans

Other vegetables

• artichokes

• asparagus

• avocado

• bean sprouts

• beets

• Brussels sprouts

• Cabbage

• cauliflower

• celery

• cucumbers

• eggplant

• green beans

• green peppers

• iceberg (head) lettuce

• mushrooms

• okra

• onions

• turnips

• wax beans

• zucchini

PROTEIN (GO LEAN OR GO HOME)

• beef

• ham

• lamb

• pork

• veal

• bison

• venison

• beef

• pork

• lamb

• chicken

• duck

• goose

• turkey

• ground chicken and turkey

Eggs

• chicken eggs

Beans and Peas

• bean burgers

• black beans

• black-eyed peas

• chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

• falafel

• kidney beans

• lentils

• lima beans (mature)

• navy beans

• pinto beans

• soy beans

• split peas

• white beans

Soy Products

• tofu (bean curd made from soybeans)

• veggie burgers

• tempeh

• texturized vegetable protein (TVP)

Nuts and Seeds

• almonds

• cashews

• hazelnuts (filberts)

• mixed nuts

• peanuts

• peanut butter

• pecans

• pistachios

• pumpkin seeds

• sesame seeds

• sunflower seeds

• walnuts

Seafood

• catfish

• cod

• flounder

• haddock

• halibut

• herring

• mackerel

• pollock

• porgy

• salmon

• sea bass

• snapper

• swordfish

• trout

• tuna

• clams

• crab

• crayfish

• lobster

• mussels

• octopus

• oysters

• scallops

• squid (calamari)

• shrimp

• Canned fish such as:

• anchovies

• clams

• tuna

• sardines

FATS

Monounsaturated fat

• Olive oil

• Canola oil

• Sunflower oil

• Peanut oil

• Sesame oil

• Avocados

• Olives

• Nuts (almonds, peanuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, cashews)

• Peanut butter

Polyunsaturated fat

• Soybean oil

• Corn oil

• Safflower oil

• Walnuts

• Sunflower, sesame, and pumpkin seeds

• Flaxseed

• Fatty fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, trout, sardines)

• Soymilk

• Tofu

SO MANY FOODS! Food is fuel. Food is a source of connection. Food is tradition and heritage. Food is something to enjoy. Food helps us recover from the work we put in when we’re training. EAT! Stay out of low energy availability gang. EAT EAT EAT.

AND WHILE WE’RE HERE TALKING ABOUT WEIGHT AND RUNNING, HERE’S THE FINAL BULLSHIT RUNNING AND WEIGHT LOSS MYTH THAT I’D LIKE TO TALK ABOUT:

YOU WILL RUN FASTER IF YOU’RE SKINNIER AND LIGHTER.

Below you’ll see two photos of me during the Chicago Marathon taken three years apart.

On the left, I am 10 pounds lighter than I am on the right. Yet I ran 5 minutes slower.

In that picture on the left, I bought into the idea that I’d run faster if I weighed less and tried to lose as much weight as possible while training for my marathon. My diet was great but full of disordered eating and guilting myself after a cookie or a piece of pizza.

And yet on the right, after training on a powerful diet of proper portion sizes prepared by a meal prep company that specializes in athletes, I’m 10 pounds heavier (and so much happier and more confident.) AND SHOCKINGLY, I RAN FASTER!

YOU 👏🏻 DO 👏🏻 NOT 👏🏻 NEED 👏🏻 TO LOSE 👏🏻 WEIGHT 👏🏻 TO 👏🏻 RUN 👏🏻 FASTER.

Eat well. Learn to listen and trust what your body is telling you it wants. Fuel your body the way it deserves to be fueled. Rest. Chase goals that challenge you. Find a supportive @badassladygang to chase your goals with. Push each other. See your strength. Believe in it. But please, please, PLEASE do not run a marathon because you want to lose weight.

RUN A MARATHON BECAUSE IT WILL HELP YOU SEE YOURSELF AND EVERYTHING YOU’RE CAPABLE OF.

Running a marathon will change your life.

Chasing weight loss is a hollow outcome goal that won’t fulfill you the way chasing a feeling like pride and accomplishment because of what you can do will.

REMEMBER, HEALTH IS NOT A LOOK. IT’S A LIFESTYLE.

Don’t believe me? Watch this.