Eat, Run, Love

I've had some struggles with eating is a sentence I have heard far too often as an NCAA D1 distance runner.  From friends, doctors, trainers, and strangers, it's very common to hear some variation of, "You distance kids are all just too skinny.  You need to eat something."  To an extent, the petite frame of your typical endurance athlete is to be expected.  In these competitions, the point is to move yourself over a course faster than your competitors can, and that becomes much less difficult if you are carrying less weight.  On top of that, if you consider the fact that the average person burns 100 calories for every mile run, and our metabolisms are often amped up to levels much higher than the average person, it's no wonder that we have to work fairly hard to get the calories that we need in a healthy way.  So, if you struggle to get the calories you need for any reason, it can wreak havoc on your body.  When you put these types of demands on your body and give it nothing to recover on in return, a multitude of problems can develop.  One of the first things I ever learned about in my exercise science courses is called the Female Athlete Triad.  Basically, this is a pattern in female athletes that starts with low energy intake levels and/or disordered eating, and can lead to bone loss and osteoporosis, making the athlete vulnerable to stress fractures.  Muscular atrophy is another common symptom.  Because the body isn't getting its energy from outside sources, it literally starts to break itself down just to fuel the everyday processes necessary for life.  It can also lead to menstrual disturbances, and if that is left unchecked, infertility.  How much are those extra few points worth to athletes and coaches, that they would keep allowing this to happen to their bodies?    

So why is this so prominent in collegiate athletes?  Well, there's a simple formula some people erroneously follow.  Less weight means faster times, so if an athlete drops weight quickly, they can perform at whole new levels.  Often, you'll see athletes on the national stage who seem to come out of nowhere to drop times that they hadn't come anywhere near previously.  They get their moment in the spotlight, and if they're lucky, stay healthy long enough to compete for their team at the championship meets.  What the coaches don't mention in interviews, and what the running channels don't cover, are the intermittent months of injury that precede those great performances and immediately follow them.  When you are sacrificing your own health to run a faster 5k time, your body will not hold up for it.  Doctors, coaches, and trainers habitually overlook their athletes' unhealthy weights and eating habits as long as they are still performing and making the school look good.

The first time I had to buy a shirt in a size medium, I cried.  As stupid as it may sound, at the time I felt like I could never be a real distance runner if I wasn't meeting a certain BMI.  There is such a pressure on distance runners everywhere to be at an "ideal" weight.  These days, I'm actually pretty proud of that size medium because it just reflects the #gainz I've been putting on in the weight room.  I was very fortunate in high school to have the type of coach who encouraged a healthy body and normal eating habits, and am still fortunate in college to have a coaching staff who would never prioritize the health of their athletes below a championship.  However, though I personally don't have to deal with coaches pressuring me to lose weight or turning a blind eye to blatantly unhealthy habits, it is still a clear issue on the national competitive stage.  When you consider the years it can take for these individuals to develop healthy eating habits again, and the lasting damage that is done to their bodies for the sake of shaving a few seconds off in the 10k, it's extremely upsetting.  This is one of many reasons why I believe the NCAA needs to establish a minimum BMI or body fat percentage for athletes to be eligible to compete.  Regardless of whether an athlete has "always been skinny" or they are running fast times, there are certain percentages below which healthy metabolic function, bone density, and brain function simply cannot be maintained.  Glorifying unhealthy habits is only going to continue perpetuating them in future generations of young athletes, and that is a reality that I will not stand for.  Coaches, please stop asking your athletes to set "weight goals" for the season, and turn your attention instead to ensuring that they maintain a healthy body composition.  Weight does not necessarily indicate health.  Right now, I weigh more than I ever have, but my body fat percentage is also lower because since coming to school, I've been incorporating strength training and injury prevention into my training.  I've put on weight, but I've also significantly decreased my chance of injury and am running better as a result.  If a coach pushed me to lose weight right now, the only place I would have to lose it would be from muscle mass, which is unreasonable and unhealthy.  

So, whether you are a coach, an athlete, or a casual bystander wondering what on earth I'm talking about, please always remember to #eatrunlove.