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Boston Marathon Study Reveals Hidden Risk: How Low-Calorie Training Impacts Performance and Health
I get excited whenever I see a Boston Marathon research paper looking into performance variables linked to marathon finish time. This is one, and the results are important for all runners.
The study team consisted of top physicians from Boston area medical teams that treat runners, members of the Boston Marathon Medical Team, and other international marathon experts.
They sought an answer to this key question: How do runners perform in the Boston Marathon if they have been consuming too few daily calories in training? This is known as Low Energy Availability (LEA).
In the researchers’ own terms: “This is the first large study conducted at a mass-endurance event linking athletic performance and medical risk to self-reported problematic LEA.”
Some marathon runners deliberately follow a weight-loss diet in training because they believe lower body weight will make them faster on race day.
Of course, everyone wants to run their best when they get to Boston.
Results: A survey of 1,030 Boston entrants found that 42.5 percent of female runners and 17.6 percent of males reported a calorie intake that would be considered LEA. Compared to similar participants of the same body size and training, those with LEA “had much slower times on race day,” said first author Kristin Whitney.
In addition, the LEA runners were 1.99 times more likely to require race-day medical attention and 2.86 times more likely to experience “a major medical encounter” on Boston Marathon day.
Therefore: “Our novel findings support the negative athletic performance outcomes and increased medical risks associated with LEA-I in both female and male marathon athletes.” More at British J of Sports Medicine with free full text.
The authors also found that LEA runners were more likely to miss training days due to illness or bone and soft tissue injuries.
A paper in The FASEB Journal (free full text) reported on a crossover experiment in which well-trained female runners reduced their caloric intake by more than 50% over a two-week period.
Result: Time to exhaustion on a treadmill test was reduced by 18.9% after 2 weeks on the low-cal diet. During that time, subjects lost 4.1% of their body mass. Strangely, a number of exercise measures didn’t change, including glycogen supply and “muscle 02 utilization.”
The researchers were left wondering “whether LEA per se affects aspects of training quality/recovery.” Or if there was something else going on.
RELATED ARTICLE: Marathon Training Diet: What To Eat While Training For A Marathon
The Problem With Standing Desks
Standing desks and treadmill desks enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame a decade ago. They seemed an easy solution to the problem of sitting too much, which many of us faced for long periods of time each day, mainly at work.
If you stood up at your desk, the theory went, you would at least be engaging muscles that might burn a few calories and release healthy enzymes. And if you actually moved by walking slowly at your treadmill desk, that could have bigger and more positive effects.
Since then, research and personal experience have added some clouds of reality to the early thinking. I tried a “walking desk” and found it disorienting. I’m sure I could have adopted, but it wasn’t going to be easy.
Instead, I used a standing desk for several years. Then I got tired of it—literally tired. I’m back to sitting at my computer now, making sure to get up for some pushups and stair climbing every 30 minutes or so.
A recent study of 83,000 individuals concluded that standing does little to fight heart disease. In fact, too much standing could lead to circulatory issues like varicose veins, orthostatic hypotension, and other blood-flow concerns. Sitting more than 10 hours a day is particularly “deleterious.”
Why don’t standing desks work better? Because you aren’t moving. You need to move to stimulate your muscles and, ultimately, your health.
Walking at a treadmill desk? That’s probably fine. It just requires an investment and an adjustment period. More at International J of Epidemiology with free full text.
RELATED ARTICLE: The Ultimate Active Home Office: 7 Ways To Upgrade Your Workspace
Older Runners Can Help Change Social Norms
A recent paper presented at the Georgia Sociological Association will strike a chord with many runners past 50. And, I suspect, younger runners as well.
It’s titled “Running past Fifty: The Habit and Joy of Movement.” It asks the basic question: Why do some runners keep running into older age and slower performances?
After all, as University of Georgia professor James Dowd writes: “The reality of aging is clearly evident. Older runners are slower, less vigorous, and without the striking beauty of the young.”
Across the population at large, older individuals are viewed as “nice but incompetent.” In particular, they don’t do weird things like running 5Ks, half marathons, and marathons. Most choose the rocking chair and TV.
Dowd finds two principal reasons to explain persistent, older runners: 1) Running has become a habit for them, and thus a “foundational part of their identity,” and 2) Running brings them “joy and a sense of profound well-being.”
Joy and profound well-being? Who doesn’t want that as the biological clock ticks past 50, 60, 70, and beyond?
Dowd bases his findings on long interviews with 61 runners over the age of 50. Reviewing the interview transcripts, he quickly noted that “the joy of running derives from the actual movement of one’s body, but also from the opportunity of joining with friends on practice runs or at races.” This is the social component so often mentioned in healthy-aging articles.
There is also “the pure pleasure of being in nature,” whether a forest trail or “a bosky suburban neighborhood filled with the ambient sound of birds and the rustling of leaves.” I appreciate Dowd’s observation that you don’t have to live next to a state park to appreciate the natural environment.
I’ve always believed in running out my front door rather than driving to some special location. But once out the door, I quickly steer to the greenest, most serene streets and neighborhoods.
Ultimately, Dowd wonders if older runners can change the national narrative on aging and loss of health/vigor. He acknowledges that this won’t come easily. Yet he concludes with several powerful, lyrical sentences.
“The common struggle of runners to finish the course creates the seedbed for a generative impulse that, like the flow of water in a creek, will gradually but surely change the shape of that creek. Unwittingly or not, runners are agents of positive social change.” More at Research Gate with free full text.
RELATED ARTICLE: The Older You Are, The More You Need To Strength Train
SHORT STUFF You Don’t Want To Miss
HERE’S WHAT ELSE YOU WOULD HAVE RECEIVED this week if you were a subscriber to the complete, full-text edition of “Run Long, Run Healthy.” SUBSCRIBE HERE.
- Complete guide to the ultimate “Feel Good” training plan
- A high-benefit workout that also provides optimal recovery
- How to heal (and prevent) shin splints
- Can you change your muscle fiber type?
- A supplement that can prevent post-marathon letdown
- Even runners need to avoid more than 10.6 hours of sitting per day
- What Thomas Edison knew about temporary failure vs ultimate success
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. See you again next week. Amby
