When I line up at the start of a race, even in the pokey wave, I feel a bit self-concious about my Clydesdale physique. Most runners are thin. Most of us who take up running to get in shape aspire to being this state. I am not there.
But it's not a cure all, as this
excellent article points out. Running yourself ragged will not necessarily lead to rapid, almost disconcerting weight loss. You still have to do the hard work of creating a calorie deficit.
If just pushing your body to its limits was enough, then triathletes would probably win the low body fat contest. But they don't. A trainer once told me that she was amazed at how many triathletes (we're talking the weekend variety, not the kind with sponsorships) are a bit on the heavy side.
There are two times in my life when I've lost 50-plus pounds. The first was when I was seeing a nutritionist in an effort to control high blood pressure due to my sedentary life as a newspaper reporter. I walked an hour a day, but more importantly I created a calorie deficit.
Fifteen years later I had a gall stone attack, the details of which I won't boor you with again. Well, at least not in this post. I could hardly eat for three months.
I told my GI doctor at the time that I thought my illness had changed my metabolism. My weight loss had stopped, and I was maintaining my current weight, but I was sure my metabolism had changed. After all, I was pooping twice a day now, not once. (I know, TMI, but it's important to this anecdote).
"No," he said. "You are pooping twice a day because you don't have a gall bladder. You lost weight because you weren't eating, and now that you are eating you aren't losing weight."
You know, he was right.
