I recently had the privilege of talking about weight loss for endurance athletes during a Facebook Live event with my cohost Justin from Tabula Rasa Racing. Justin is a triathlon coach and has a history of bariatric surgery. He has been training and racing for about 12 years post-surgery and brings a very unique perspective to the conversation. Below is a link to that you tube video if you are interested in viewing it.
First, I want to acknowledge that this is a very sensitive or delicate topic. As a collegiate runner in the early 2000s, I can attest to many of the reports from other athletes of this era that the pressure to be thin was ubiquitous. I was never told directly that I needed to lose weight, but many of my teammates did feel this pressure, and there was a toxic culture around food and eating. I witnessed runners who were cleared to compete that, honestly, should have been sent immediately to the eating disorder treatment center. Looking back on it, I cringe thinking about it. I had my own struggles with disordered eating in high school, and just like many other runners, I thought that being thin meant that I would be faster. This caused me to suffer and my performance to suffer. This may be the first time I am actually discussing this anywhere other than with close friends, but whenever there is a discussion about endurance athletes and weight loss, this is important to mention, and I am not alone in my struggles. Disordered eating is a true problem amongst the endurance athlete community. Despite athletes speaking out recently and a movement of athletes focusing on being strong versus thin, it is still a problem.
Whenever I work with an athlete who is seeking my services to lose weight, I want to ask them why. Why do they want to lose weight? This may seem like a simple question, but it is important to dig into the "why" behind this desire. What are they hoping to accomplish with weight loss? There are people who get into endurance training as a means to lose weight. This is okay, but you have to understand that trying to lose weight while you are training to perform can be challenging. It is very hard to both lose weight and perform well. It may be possible, but it takes some careful planning and consideration. In most cases, you either want to lose weight OR perform well. You can't expect to be losing weight during a marathon build and have an outstanding performance. So, what is more important? Weight loss or performance? The most important thing to consider when I am working with any individual is to do no harm. I ask very deliberate questions of my athletes when they come to me for weight loss because the very last thing I want is to cause anyone to develop disordered eating or to assist in this type of behavior.
I also think it is important to consider your goal weight. Where is that goal coming from? Is it a weight you were told by the doctor you needed to achieve? Is it a weight you had in high school? If you are trying to achieve a weight that you have never been at in your adult life, it might be worth re-evaluating your goal. I am not saying it is impossible, but it is very unlikely you will be able to lose weight below any amount you have weighed since graduating high school. Setting realistic expectations is a good starting point. Don't set yourself up for failure.
There is a bit of an "elephant in the room" here. I think we are all aware of the research and coaches telling us that we need to be leaner and lighter to run faster. I mean, don't we all want to improve our FTP or have less weight to carry while we are running a marathon? It is important to know that there is a law of diminishing returns. Yes, sometimes being lighter does mean being faster. However, as I have learned the hard way, there is a point at which being lighter can actually mean performance starts to suffer. We also have to remember that our muscle is what carries us those 26.2 miles of a marathon or pushes us through 112 miles of biking in an Ironman. If we lose muscle, we lose power, stamina, and resiliance as an athlete.
Many athletes may be getting back into training after a break and find themselves needing to lose some weight. Perhaps they just want to lose the 5-10 pounds they gained over the holiday season. Often, just the act of starting a run training program can cause some weight loss, and this is normal. However, if an athlete still has a significant amount of weight to lose, they may eventually reach a standstill. This is because it is actually fairly hard to lose weight while also training for a race. This may be counterintuitive, but I think most athletes have experienced the intense increase in hunger as training volumes start to increase. Perhaps you have heard the phrase "you can't out-exercise a bad diet." This is true, but even in an effort to clean up your diet, you may find that hunger wins.
Why are you so focused on that number on the scale anyway? It is, after all, just a number. I encourage you to consider focusing on body composition or even strength or fitness improvements or body measurement improvements. Any of these goals are better than weight. Have you ever been on Instagram and seen those before and after photos of someone who weighs the exact same, but started lifting weights and doing cardio and ended up increasing muscle and losing body fat? They look much leaner, but the weight is unchanged. I find these images to be a powerful reminder that weight actually tells us very little about a person's strength, fitness, or health.
I encourage athletes who desire to lose weight to consider doing this in the off-season or base season of their training. This often coincides with a rest period or a time of decreased training or low-intensity training. Thus, the energy demands on their body and the recovery demands are lower, and they can focus on reducing their calorie intake without putting themselves in extreme energy debt or compromising as much on their recovery. If you are in the middle of an intense training cycle in preparation for a marathon or triathlon, for example, please consider putting off the weight loss goal until after the race.
If you want to both train or plan to continue to train at a high volume or intensity while trying to lose weight, there are a few considerations. First, you want to avoid being in such a large deficit that it puts your net calorie intake below your resting metabolic rate or your basal metabolic rate (BMR). This is simply because weight loss is considered stressful on the body, and we want to minimize this stress as much as possible. Our basal metabolic rate is what our body needs just to survive if you are lying around all day. So it is basically the bare minimum we can eat to meet our basic physiological needs. If we start to dip below this amount, it puts our body under a significant amount of stress. It is important to remember that stress comes from many forms. We commonly think of stress from work or from kids or other demands on our lives, but it is important to remember that sometimes it is the very things we do to try to promote weight loss or health that can also be stressful. So things like intermittent fasting, intense workouts, or under-fueling can all be a form of stress on the body. Usually, when we have a balance in our lives of stress and recovery, we are okay and can actually see improvements in performance from the stress of training. The problem is when the stress becomes compounded, when all of these little stressors start to add up. I think of it like a stress bucket. You fill up that bucket throughout the day, but if you overfill that bucket without having enough outlets to relieve the stress, it starts to overflow. This is when people run into issues such as injury, burnout, or even more serious health consequences like thyroid issues or overtraining.
Another issue with eating too few calories is that it can cause shifts in hormones as well as a decrease in the amount of non-exercise activity thermogenesis (or how much we burn outside of exercise) we do. This causes the body to slow metabolic rate to help conserve energy. This can be temporary, but if you stay consistently undernourished, the body will compensate by decreasing the resting metabolic rate, and it can sometimes take a long time to recover from this. There has been some research on this, but I think of the Biggest Loser show as an example, or another example would be bariatric surgery. There is some research on people from the Biggest Loser show several years after they participated, and there is research on people before and after bariatric surgery. In both cases, the research suggests that as the people lose weight, their RMR decreased, but even when they gained weight after losing a significant amount of weight, their RMR never returns to where it was prior. This seems to be true even when they regained all of the weight they lost. So essentially their resting metabolic rate remained low, even when they gained weight. There could be a few reasons for this. One reason is that when someone loses rapid amounts of weight, they often lose a significant amount of lean tissue or muscle mass, which is a very metabolically active tissue. They may also have permanent changes in effeciency of energy metabolism or calorie utilization. In other words, how well they burn or conserve energy. There may also be permanent physiological or hormonal shifts.
So how do athletes lose weight safely? First, based on the research we have on non-active individuals, a weight loss of about 2 pounds per week is recommended. Of course, this depends on how much a person has to lose and their starting weight. For athletes, I tend to be more cautious. I recommend a weight loss of 0.5-1 pound per week. This equates to a calorie deficit of 300-500 calories per day. Losing more than this will likely compromise performance and may increase an athlete's likelihood of injury or affect their mental and psychological well-being. Losing weight at a rapid rate also increases a person's likelihood of weight cycling or yo-yo dieting. This is where someone loses and gains weight over and over again. Weight cycling has been linked to an increased risk for type-2 diabetes, heart disease, and depression.
There is a step-by-step process for determining energy needs and macronutrient needs for weight loss in athletes. Below, I will outline the steps I take when working with athletes.
First, an athlete must determine their resting metabolic rate or basal metabolic rate. There are several ways to calculate this, including Mifflin-St Jeor or Harris-Benedict. These are all equations using height, weight, and age to determine basal calorie needs. These equations are easy to find online. I sometimes take the measurements from 2-3 different equations and then average them. Remember, none of them are 100% accurate, but they can get us close enough.
After determining the BMR or RMR, I like to figure out how many calories an individual would need if they were not exercising. I sometimes use an activity factor for this. When someone is not super active outside of their sport, the activity factor might be 1.2. If they are moderately active (such as having an active job), the activity factor might be 1.3 or 1.4. So you would multiply the BMR by the activity factor to get a calorie goal for a day without training.
Then you determine how much you are burning during exercise. Sometimes our watches can tell us this, or we can find charts and tables online to help determine this based on weight. Higher intensity exercise burns more, and lower intensity exercise burns less. For example, a 150-pound runner may burn 500 calories per hour on a light/easy jog, but closer to 600 or 700 per hour during a very high-intensity session. So each day, the calorie needs will differ a bit based on the type of exercise. This is important because your energy needs will shift from day to day.
The next step is to add the energy burned to the calorie goal you got in step 2. You may need to have different calorie goals based on the different training days. Some days your calorie needs will be lower, and some days it may be very high when you are doing a lot of activity.
The next step is to subtract 300-500 calories from the total. This will put you in a calorie deficit but will ensure you are not underconsuming below your basal metabolic rate.
The final step is to track your energy intake each day to determine where you are and if you need to make adjustments. If you are logging meals and sticking to your calorie goals, you will want to weigh yourself weekly. If you are not losing weight, you may need to adjust the energy deficit slightly downward. If you are losing significantly more than the 2 pounds per week that was recommended, consider adding a little more energy. You may find you have to continue to make these adjustments as you start to lose weight and your energy needs decrease.
So here is an example of this using a 245-pound (111 kg) male triathlete who is 5'9" (69") and 44 years old. This athlete has a goal weight of 200 pounds.
To calculate his resting metabolic rate I am using the Mifflin St. Joer equation for men.
RMR=10×weight (kg)+6.25×height (cm)−5×age (years)+5RMR=10×weight (kg)+6.25×height (cm)−5×age (years)+5
So, for this example: RMR = 10 × 111.13 + 6.25 × 175.26 − 5 × 44 + 5 = 1991.46 or approximately 1990 calories.
This person is a firefighter, so they have days on which they are very active versus days on which they are less active. Therefore, I am using an activity factor of 1.2-1.4.
1990 calories x 1.2 = approximately 2,400 calories
1990 calories x 1.3 = approximately 2,600 calories
This person is following a basic triathlon training plan found online. Most of the workouts are around 1 hour long. Occasionally, this person may do two training sessions per day. In general, a 245-pound man will burn around 700-900 calories per hour, depending on intensity.
In this case, I would add around 700 calories to the above calorie goals and up to 1,000 calories for more active days or workouts lasting longer than 1 hour.
So here are the calorie goals for each:
Rest/Recovery Day, active at work but no workout: 2,600 calories
Day with 1 hour of easy to moderate intensity workout: 3,000-3,300 calories
Day with 1 hour of intense exercise or a workout consisting of slightly more than 1 hour of exercise: 3,300-3,500 calories
Now let's calculate goals for weight loss. For this individual, we are going to be slightly more aggressive with the calorie deficit and aim for a weight loss of 2 pounds per week as a starting point and then adjust this goal as he gets closer to his race. This means that I will subtract 1,000 calories per day. The only exception is his rest/recovery days in which doing a more aggressive calorie deficit puts him under his resting metabolic rate, which I do not recommend.
So here is what I would recommend:
Rest/Recovery days: 2,000 calories
Day with 1 hour of easy to moderate intensity workout: 2,300 calories
Day with more intense exercise or slightly longer than 1 hour of total exercise: 2,500 calories.
This should be enough for this person to lose a few pounds per week, but you can see the calorie intake changes a bit depending on how active they are.
As this person gets closer to their race, it is recommended to slow the rate of calorie deficit to no more than 300-500 calories. Of course, as weight loss occurs, the resting metabolic rate will change, so this will need to be recalculated.
After calorie goals are calculated, it is important to calculate macronutrient goals. I do not use percentages for this because I don't think this works well. Instead, I calculate protein first and then estimate fat based on a percentage, and the remaining calories will come from carbs. This means the percentages will change a bit depending on activity levels. The carbs will be a larger percentage of calories on more active days when more carbs are needed to fuel the exercise.
Here are the steps I take to calculate macronutrient goals:
Protein goals are calculated first. It is important to prioritize a little more protein when someone is trying to lose weight to help provide enough protein to spare any breakdown of muscle tissue. I would recommend about 1.5-1.6 g/kg or around .7-.8 g/pound. For this individual, this would be 111 kg x 1.5-1.6 = 166-178 grams.
The fat is going to be based on a percentage of calories. I typically like to start around 30% of calories from fat. So at the low end at 2000 calories that would be 2000 x .3 = 600 calories. There are 9 calories per gram of fat. So this would be 600/9 = approximately 67 grams. For more active days that would be 2,500 calories x .3 = 750 calories. Then 750/9 = approximately 83 grams.
To calculate carb intake I add the calories from fat to the calories from protein. Since protein has 4 calories per gram I multiply the protein gram goal by 4 to get calories from protein. This is 166-178 grams x 4 calories = 664-712 calories. Then I add calories from fat so this is between 600-750 calories from fat. The range here is 1,264 - 1,462 calories from fat and protein combined. I then take the calorie goals minus the protein + fat. So this would be 736 calories up to around 1,038 calories remaining from carbs. Carbohydrates have about 4 calories per gram so I divide these amounts by 4. So 736/4 = 184 grams and 1,038/4 = 259 grams.
Of course, the percentage of calories from fat can be adjusted up so that the carb goal is slightly lower, but I do caution against a lower carb diet for endurance athletes, as this will often leave the athletes under-fueled for workouts and lead to poor performance. I understand this might be a little confusting so feel free to use percentages of total calories if that is easier. For instance, 40-50% carbs, 30% fat, and 20-30 % protein.
So just to recap, here are the goal ranges for macronutrients for this individual:
Protein: 166-188 grams
Fat: 67-83 grams
Carbs: approximately 180-250 grams. The lower carb intake will be on days in which there is a rest/recovery day or no workout. Of course, on these days the carb intake could be slightly lower than this and the fat intake could be at the higher end because when there is no workout there is less general need for carbohydrates.
The final step in this process is to start logging meals. It is recommended to try to be as accurate as possible, and many nutrition professionals may recommend weighing and measuring food to be as precise as possible. I worry about the meticulous logging as it can lead to obsessive behaviors for some individuals. Obviously, logging meals will be helpful to figure out if you are meeting your macro and calorie goals, but don't worry if you are not able to measure and weigh every morsel. As you can likely gather from my calculations of energy and macros, it is all just that—a calculation or an estimation. There is no way to get these numbers exact in the real world. So by doing some logging and a weekly weight check, you can determine where you are and if adjustments need to be made.
I also highly recommend taking other measurements along the way so that you are not hyper-focused on weight. This could include waist and hip measurements. This could be a DEXA (which can be expensive) or a bioelectrical impedance machine (found in many gyms). Even a skilled professional can do skinfold calipers to measure body fat. The thing about the bioelectrical impedance and skinfold is that you need to make sure this is consistent. Using a different machine or getting measured by a different person each time will likely lead to inconsistencies with the data. Both of these measurements may be off from the absolute value, but if you remain consistent in how you measure, you can track progress over time.
Of course, I highly recommend seeking out professional help if you are an athlete trying to lose weight for your sport. This is a lot like seeking out a coach. I think of myself as a nutrition coach and sometimes as a detective. I am doing all of the calculating for you and also helping troubleshoot issues like hunger or meal planning. Sometimes, when someone is trying to figure out why they are not losing weight, I act like a detective trying to figure out what is going on with either diet or lifestyle (often both) that is preventing someone from reaching their goals. So feel free to reach out to me with any questions or thoughts.
References to consider and included in my research:
Fothergill E, Guo J, Howard L, Kerns JC, Knuth ND, Brychta R, Chen KY, Skarulis MC, Walter M, Walter PJ, Hall KD. Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after "The Biggest Loser" competition. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2016 Aug;24(8):1612-9. doi: 10.1002/oby.21538. Epub 2016 May 2. PMID: 27136388; PMCID: PMC4989512.
Jacquet, P., Schutz, Y., Montani, JP. et al. How dieting might make some fatter: modeling weight cycling toward obesity from a perspective of body composition autoregulation. Int J Obes 44, 1243–1253 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-020-0547-1
Trexler, E.T., Smith-Ryan, A.E. & Norton, L.E. Metabolic adaptation to weight loss: implications for the athlete. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 11, 7 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/1550-2783-11-7
Turocy PS, DePalma BF, Horswill CA, Laquale KM, Martin TJ, Perry AC, Somova MJ, Utter AC; National Athletic Trainers’ Association. National Athletic Trainers' Association position statement: safe weight loss and maintenance practices in sport and exercise. J Athl Train. 2011 May-Jun;46(3):322-36. doi: 10.4085/1062-6050-46.3.322. PMID: 21669104; PMCID: PMC3419563.https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3419563/
Comments