Running on Empty - Runner's World

  Many people assume that weight loss is inversely related to becoming a faster runner.  How it may be true that shedding a couple extra pounds may make you faster, just like making a sports car lighter, it needs to be done in a smart manor so that no harm is done to the body.  In a recent article published on Runner's World, author Caleb Daniloff explains disordered eating and how it can impede on ones athletic abilities.   Disordered eating varies from the eating disorders since food intake is not manipulated to combat depression or underlying psychological issues. Disordered eating is characterized by the elimination of food groups in ones diet, the replacement of meals with smaller ones, constant weighing, and compulsive exercise or feeling the need to exercise after having a 'cheat meal.'

  Caleb also recounts people's stories while the suffered from disordered eating.  Below is an excerpt of the recounts for Proctor, the captain of the Boston University Cross Country team:

A junior U.K. champion in the 800 meters, Proctor was recruited to BU on scholarship. Tall and naturally slim, after touching down in Boston in fall 2004, he embodied the "freshman 15," and then some. By mid-November, his weight had gone from 145 to more than 160 pounds. One day, Proctor's coach ribbed him about his affection for American cuisine.

"It was totally innocent, the way guys joke with each other," Proctor later told me. "But then I thought about it. My clothes don't fit the way they used to. And once I weighed myself and processed it, I felt like a failure. If putting on weight makes you slower, then I'm letting the team down. I'm failing at my job."

So just like that, Proctor all but cut out breakfast and lunch–disordered eating. "Any food that had very low to zero fat got a check mark," he says. "Anything that had more than one or two grams of fat per serving was out. Fruit was on the list until I found it had really high sugar."

He worked himself down to 500 calories a day, and within a couple of weeks, he'd shed almost 20 pounds. Not for a second did he see this as abnormal. "Track is so focused on numbers; you run your repetitions at this time, your recovery at this time," he says. "This just seemed like an extension of that."

Proctor was determined to break a school record, and every hunger pang confirmed his dedication to that goal. Soon, he was seeing the shaved-down numbers on his stopwatch. Like a greyhound chasing a mechanical rabbit, he kept pursuing that next ounce, that next half pound. By mid-December, the six-foot freshman stood a gaunt 133 pounds. Still, he scrutinized his reflection pinching a quarter inch of skin, convinced it was fat.


To read the full article, click the link below.

Running on Empty - Runner's World