Run-Down Forums

[mjsbossman]

Does anyone know just how much a good diet can help? I am a 16 years old and everyday I eat junk for lunch, french fries, pizza, nachos, chicken nuggets, soda. If I change my diet this summer and eat sandwhiches, fruit, and water, will this improve my running? I have read that a high fat diet can be good so you can store fat in your muscles.

[Dan]

A good diet can make all the difference in the world, or it may not make a noticeable difference at all. It depends a lot on the individual. If you know you don't eat well, then you are most likely aware that it can benefit you, so you might as well try it.

As far as high fat diets such as the 30/30/40 nonsense, I would highly recommend ignoring them. Wait a year or two and everyone will be off the bandwagon and writing how dangerously unhealthy they are.

Dan

[mjsbossman]

Thanks Dan. This past week I ate good, and I ran good. But, this summer I plan on eating maybe a little snack with some fat at night, maybe a little pizza, to store some fat in my muscles. Plus, I dont want to eat all that junk because it all has soo much saturated fat, and I dont want to have heart problems! Also, all that fat can build up in arteries and slow down bloodflow which will slow me down.

[Dan]

Here's the question I would pose for any runner wondering if they should be consuming more fat -- what are the Kenyans and Ethiopians eating? From what I have read of their diet, the key is grains and beans and very little processed food. Fat does not enter the equation.

The body does not need much fat for normal activity. Carbos are the #1 source of energy, both short term and long term, so I wouldn't worry about storing fat in the muscles.

Dan

[mjsbossman]

Ok. But I did read that when you run you burn 70% Carbohydrates and 30% fat.

[Dan]

I'm not sure about that. Could be. Still, 70% clearly makes up the majority, and few people eating processed foods are fat deprived, so I see it as somewhat of a moot point. I maintain, if you consume just healthy foods, the rest will take care of itself. The only reason we have fad diet after fad diet is because people make lots of $$$ writing books about them.

Dan

p.s. My understanding is that the Zone diet research was based largely on swimmers, to whom body fat is much more of a benefit than it is to runners. I have also been told that there have been significant health problems with the people in the studies, but I don't know details about that.

[Guest]

be careful how much fat you do eat b/c if you gain excess body fat it can slw you down if you are a competitve runner its like running with a weight tied to you-guys should usually have 6 or 7 percent body fat while women should have 10 or 11 and the elite usually have less

[mjsbossman]

I am 6 feet tall, I weight 147. My body fat is 5.8 percent. I can eat all the fatty foods I want and I still wont gain weight. I dont even have to run and I still wont gain weight. Plus I am a 16 year old boy, and still growing so I guess I need food so my cells can undergo mitosis.

[Dan]

There's nothing wrong with gaining weight, but adding fat will only slow you down. If you want to put on weight, it should be in the form of muscle. This would be accomplished through rigorous strength work, and possibly increased protein. If your body simply refuses to put on no weight, then no big deal. The worst that can happen may actually be the best possible scenario -- you add strength without adding weight!

Dan

[mjsbossman]

Hey Dan, I have gained much strenght without gaining weight. I lift weights, and my muscles have gotten strong, but not bigger. They are big when I flex them. I can bench press 175 and weight 30 pounds less than that. Does anyone know how to gain pure muscle? I dont know if I can gain it since I am soo skinny.

[Dan]

Why do you want to get bigger? Unless you are a sprinter, that would just be a disadvantage. If you are strong and light, that's the best possible combination.

I benched 225 pounds while weighing 150, but I'm also three inches shorter than you.

Dan

[mjsbossman]

Wow, that is an impressive bench. How can you do soo much? I mean not many people in my class can bench more than me except some football players. How can you bench so much. I have stopped seing gains.

[Dan]

I'm not built like a distance runner. My best in high school was around 185, and I plateaued for about two years at that level, then saw a big increase my second year of college. If I remember right, it came after I had missed time with a hip flexor injury. I could hardly find any exercises that didn't put strain on it. About the only thing I could do was push ups, so I did push ups pretty much non stop! Before that, I had never done more than 50 push ups in a row. After that injury, I was up to 127 straight. I'm pretty sure that's why my bench press improved as much as it did, although I was also doing a lot of dips (the single best upper body workout). I later stopped doing bench press, as it's really a pretty useless workout. About all it's good for is looking good on the beach...

Dan

[Guest]

Eating healthy food does not guarantee anything. In fact, it hinders your performance. I have seen this kind of thing happen, heck I can run a 5K in 15:34 and I eat nothing but fast food. So do not say that diet plays a role in performance, because it does not do anything.

[Anonymously Posted by: 'Fatman']

[Dan]

You'll need to provide much more evidence than that to convince anyone of anything. Like, have you compared your performance over extended periods time eating healthy vs. unhealthy? The only way I can see healthy eating hindering performance is if the person becomes too uptight in trying to do things right and cannot relax enough to run well. In which case, it's not the diet that is the problem, rather the person's mindset.

Guarantees are hard to come by, but I will stand by this guarantee: Eating healthy will improve the odds of better performance on average. Good luck refuting that!

Dan