Linda Gardner's Blog: “Marathon Training Made Me Fat”

Becki Ledford gained 25 lbs over the course of three years

Before and after

Still not convinced that the dogma “eat less, run more” is outdated? Well, here is more anecdotal evidence that it just doesn’t work.

A few women laced up their shoes and started marathon training in belief that it would help them lose weight. To their surprise, the complete opposite happened… they gained a lot of weight, while running for hours per day.

New York Post: Marathon Training Made Me Fat

It’s a clear illustration of the fact that you can’t outrun a bad diet. But how is it possible to actually gain weight?

Awful advice

Unfortunately, the recommended diet for athletes is often atrocious. Even the article above keeps it up, with a few old and very, very bad pieces of advice near the end:

Eat carbs before exercise,
eat more carbs right after exercise,
and don’t forget to eat some “runner candy” while you exercise.

I suspect that’s precisely how these women ended up gaining weight in the first place. This obsession with eating carbs all the time – even when we’re not hungry – is likely exactly the wrong advice. Unless you do want to gain weight.

Exercise is good, of course. But it’s not a reason to constantly eat bad carbs. There’s a better way (check videos below).