AIBU to think you CAN outrun a bad diet?

[HotLatteontherunplease]

Well, am I? Runners? Have you been able to keep eating whatever you want aslong as you run enough to burn it off. All advice I have read has been that obese people cannot outrun a bad diet but I know many people whose story is just that. They were obese or overweight, did couch to 5k, got hooked on running and lost half their body weight through running!

Can this really happen or are all the before and after pictures lying?!

Depends if you run enough to put yourself in a calorie deficit. In the end all it boils down to is calories in vs calories out.

@Thinkinghappythoughts

In recent years, the idea of 'Runner's Face' has come under criticism, but a member of my family is a highly respected cosmetic surgeon who says it very definitely is a thing.

Off topic, but he also advises to never spray perfume your décolletage and to always sleep in a bra

I trained for a marathon and put on half a stone. To be fair I did eat A LOT of cake. I've never lost weight from running alone but I certainly put it on when I stopped from injury for a while.

I guess it depends just HOW bad your diet is!!

It does give you a firm bottom and muscly thighs though!

"You can't outrun a bad diet" is often wheeled out by people as back up for their decision not to exercise (and stay overweight)

A mistake imo

Yes, you cannot burn the calories in 6 mince pies that quickly (who eats six?! ) but doing regular exercise/cardia means you can easily have 1 or 2 with your tea, without fearing weight gain

Doing regular exercise/cardio means you can eat carbs (bread, pasta, rice) without gaining weight

Much more sustainable than no-carb diets imo

I do sport 4 times a week, and we all eat cake or burgers after matches, yet nobody is very big

Sport means you can.eat without fear, no fear of carbs or a bit of fat, or sugar.

It does not mean you can.eat 6-8 mince pies as a snack

It is technically possible but obviously depends on your diet and your running! Generally, if your diet is very bad, it’s very hard to run enough to burn the extra calories to make up for it.

But, if you are overweight and your weight is stable (so you are consuming the calories your body needs to maintain that weight) and you start running, you will lose some weight.

I think that what that phrase means is that it’s very hard to reach an ideal weight on a bad diet by running alone, because the closer you get to your ideal weight the fewer calories you need to fuel your body and the fewer calories you will burn by running - so it’s very easy to tank your calorie balance with a couple of doughnuts, and very hard to run enough to burn those extra calories off completely.

I eat load of shit - pizza, chocolate etc. I also do lots of running and am a size 8. So I think yes, you can.

I can't lose weight without exercising. People say it's 80/20 but for me it's more 65/35 I think. If I exercise every day I don't have to be very careful with food and can still lose weight each week.

I also think just being active is something we are getting worse at. Smart homes are making us all lazy! I know consciously try to be on my feet as much as possible. Yesterday I was just doing things around the house and did over 14,000 steps.

That said if I ate crap all day everyday no amount of exercise would help!

Well yes if you burn off enough to have a deficit. To burn off a pound in a week you need a 3500 calorie deficit nicer that week. However you won't be as healthy and you may not be able to sustain running for long on a poor diet.

Over* not nicer

It's not really pretty sinker.

Oodles of articles in runners' magazines about how to avoid putting on weight when in serious training and hungry all the time.

You need a calorie deficit to lose weight. Exercise (not just running) can increase your TDEE, which means you might be able to eat a couple of hundred calories more per day.

But if you keep eating the same crap that led you to increase weight, then exercise (whether running or not) isn't going to work. Because if your diet remains bad, no you're not going to outrun the consequences.

Controlling input is a more reliable way than hoping you can exercise enough - unless of course you have half an hour to spare every time you have a bag of crisps.

I've been a runner or 9 years averaging 40 miles a week. I can eat what I wanted but I don't lose any weight whereas if I ate more sensibly it'd drop off me. This year I've run everyday, I've done two halves and a marathon and I've maintained but I eat a lot of crap and chocolate.

Arnold swarzaneggar said in his book, you have to mix your exercise is up as your body gets used to certain exercises so it needs a shock sometimes. I think new runners would probably lose more weight than me.

Also my local running club has a lot of overweight runners, loads!

The only time I've been able to eat what I like and not put on weight was when in was training for a marathon and exclusively breastfeeding a

I can't.
I need to watch my calories and fat intake to be healthy.

especially after I moved to a region with very lovely regional cheese

Depends how quick you run also.
Some people run at almost walking pace which burns naff all.
Eg I run 4 miles in 33 minutes which is around 6 to 7 mph but I've seen some people take an hour to do this.
If you burn more than you eat you will lose weight but doing a few small slow runs a week will do nothing for anyone unless they change diet also.

In my 20s, yes.

In my 40s, no.

I eat more than I did before I ran, a lot more, but I don't overdo it. I also do some strength and conditioning work which helps to create muscle mass and then you burn off more calories sitting still.

But while you may be fit and slim, that doesn't mean you are healthy inside, if you eat rubbish. You can still have a high blood glucose level if you eat too much sugar, for example. My blood pressure is surprisingly high and it makes me wonder how high it would be if I didn't run.

Nope, I gained weight marathon training 😂😂 I run 30ish miles per week and my body shape has changed running and I'm much more toned but I don't lose weight unless I watch what I eat. Look at the diets of top runners who are running hundreds of miles per week, even with their calorie burn they still each very restricted diets

I tried exceriseing every day to allow for my bad diet. 3 months later I didn't lose anything! I changed my food now I'm slimmer. Diet is key. Look at your favourite meals and look for healthier substitutions. Only treat yourself once a day e.g. piece of chocolate or crisps.

Scientifically no. Nutrition is the most important factor in weight loss and you'd have to run a LOT to burn off enough calories from that alone.

Cardio doesn't just burn fat, it burns muscle too, so it's also not very healthy if you're losing weight just from running and obviously good nutrition is important for more reasons than just weight loss, so not a very healthy attitude either IMO.

while you may be fit and slim, that doesn't mean you are healthy inside, if you eat rubbish. You can still have a high blood glucose level if you eat too much sugar, for example. My blood pressure is surprisingly high and it makes me wonder how high it would be if I didn't run.

I'd agree with this as well. Dr Michael Mosley relates a case in one of his books of a fit, slim, vegetarian woman who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. She was gobsmacked as she never over-ate and she exercised a lot, but she was eating things like jacket potatoes with beans and other sugary/carby meals.

An ex colleague of mine was the same - he cycled miles to work and back every day, ran loads and was very slim. He was diagnosed with heart disease and prediabetes in his late 40s. He ate an appalling diet though - things like pie sandwiches!

Running makes me ravenous, and I struggle to complete a long run without a big meal and a lucozade before. So I'm probably eating back everything I burned off. Certainly for me though, running burns off more calories than a gym session.

Not running but I've done huge amounts of exercise whilst not changing my diet...think two or three gym classes a day. Didn't lose weight...although I got fitter.

Some people run at almost walking pace which burns naff all
Eg I run 4 miles in 33 minutes which is around 6 to 7 mph but I've seen some people take an hour to do this

It takes me an hour to run 4 miles but my heart rate is high all through and I burn a lot of calories. If you're fat and unfit then running even slowly burns plenty of energy

It's clearly possible to outrun a bad diet it just isn't realistic for most of us. When in full training Redgrave and Pinsent needed to eat 6000-7000 calories a day. You'll burn 10,000 calories a day climbing Everest. But most of us don't have the time or inclination to do the amount of exercise to significantly alter our calorie requirements.

Reading through this thread, I think there's also a hidden 'danger' - the belief that if you exercise hard/run a lot, that you can eat what you want. As some PP have said, it's also about the quality of your diet to make sure that you're not just losing weight (or maintaining a slim body) but eating good nutrition to stay healthy.

Using the exercise to justify consumption of pies or crappy junk food is not a great idea!