Why are so many formerly competitive runners huge and fat now?

This thread is actually like a standing ovation to many of the 50+ runners on this board. Continuing to run after HS and college is a real challenge. I’ve managed to do it, but there were sometimes a couple of years of no exercise whatsoever, was very fortunate to get back out running or I would be in the same boat. I tried to look up info on my fellow runners (Athlinks, google, Facebook, linkedin) from HS and college(D1), to see if they were still running; not a one that I could fine. Even the guy who made the US Olympic Team wasn’t running anything any more. I see a lot of people on this board give older runners, hobby joggers, and slow distance runners a hard time, like they will be immune from commitments, responsibilities, and life’s trade offs, and run hard and consistently for ever. I wish you could, and don’t forget to admire those who’ve demonstrated that they have.

Earlier today, there was a thread making fun of hobby joggers getting ready for the Memorial Day 5k. Now this thread is questioning fat former runners. Maybe instead of mocking hobby joggers, we should praise them for staying active and trying to manage their waste lines.

holiday hobby jogger wrote:

and trying to manage their waste lines.

Plumbers usually take care of that.

Anybody want to go out for sundaes, my favorite flavor is Hershey and Nabisco s’mores. The problem is, delicious food required to fuel intense pedestrian travel becomes a serious liability during any significant stretch of time wherein aforementioned bipedal locomotion and exertion does not occur! When we were passionate runners we were chiseling away master pieces. Alas now the world has defeated us miserably and we sit as misers enjoying a delicious berry sundae, wailing about those Glory Days, as the boss used to say.

Ill Mitch wrote:

'Murica. Basically everyone is fat, man.

Yep, that’s how i explain it too.

The mainstream of america (where even many former D1 runners now live, how shocking):

- sedentary job

- grocery stores full of junk food

- restaurants full of junk food in humongous portions

- sedentary means of transportation and often long commutes

- coping with crappy things in life, through too much food or alcohol or something else mildly destructive

The list could go on, but America has gotten about 35 pounds fatter, each person, over the last 30 years or so.

Im actually surprised that most retired marathoners i can think of, do not look like they sit on the couch eating cookie dough. Deena Kastor is not pudgy. Joan Benoit Samuelson is not pudgy. Utta Pippig is not pudgy. (Those are the first three that come to mind—not a big sample size admittedly.)

Stopping running is extremely easy. Cutting back on the amount of food you were eating while training is easy to forget. Especially for the first few weeks after quitting when your appetite probably hasn't changed at all. Before you know it, the weight starts piling on.

CindySalsa wrote:

They come to the realization that other things in life are more important than running.

Yes. They grow out...I mean up.

CindySalsa wrote:

They come to the realization that other things in life are more important than running.

Apparently not their health though

Realize that training and exercise are two different things. A scholarship runner or someone chasing an Olympic trials qualifier hasn't exercised a day in his life... he's just trained.

When his big goal is off the table, achieved or not, do you think he's going to suddenly start doing something (exercise) that he's never done before in his life? Health, fitness, and weight management have NEVER been on this person's radar, and in many cases, never will be.

I know a lot of "formerly competitive" and none of them are fat. Some are still running at a recreational level. I'm talking roughly 40 years old. You're probably more likely to notice when someone changes a lot then when they stay roughly the same. False premise.

Another thread started by a young punk who puts other people down to feel better about himself.

I was a world class racewalker in my 20s, 6-foot, 163 pounds but muscular with 4% body fat measured at the Olympic Training Center biomechanics lab in Colorado Springs.

At 29 I got chronic fatigue, stopped competing, struggled to work out at all, then finished college, started a family, had

a demanding career, ate a bowl of ice cream most nights, and worked in an office where people regularly brought in donuts and filled candy dishes. I gained about 2 pounds a year (more like gained 5 pounds each winter and only lost 3 pounds each summer). By the time I was 44, I weighed 199. I was not unlike any other typical American.

So I gradually started eating better, biking to work, entering triathlons, making small lifestyle changes, but it wasn't easy. Eventually, I lost almost all the weight, set some age group walking records, won some World Masters Athletics medals, and at 59 I just ran a fairly hilly marathon in 3:04:59 last week in northern Wisconsin, not great, but good for me.

So I'm not fat anymore, but I was, and I understand how it happens. When you are young, you can't imagine the other demands that gradually take over your life. In fact, when you are young and starting insulting threads like this, you can't imagine any reality other than your own, because you have not developed empathy.

The Grim Reaper visits all men someday.

Tons of great responses here. And of the best of them, it was mentioned that priorities change. I am in my mid 30's, former D-1 runner who was mediocre but ran at a strong program. In my early 20's out of college, I continued to train and work. It consumed my personal life and I could still go out and run 15:20 or so relatively easy. It was fun for a while.

In my late 20's more serious work took over. As my salary, responsibility and relationships increased, my prioritization of running decreased. I however didn't change my eating habits all too much and those rich work dinners followed by wine/beer pack on the pounds in ways they didn't used to. At 6'3 I got up to a solid 220 or so.

Recently, after about a 7 year hiatus I've started running again and been more cognizant of the foods I put into my body. I cut most of the carbs and processed sugars and am back down to a muscular 185 which I am satisfied with. I have started running again 3 times a week and no more than that. I lift on the other days I have time. I've found this strikes a healthy medium between my work, personal and social life. I ran a 5k in just under 19 minutes the other day and was happier and had more fun doing it than I ever did running under 15 minutes.

Everything in life is the lens you view it through. Don't miss out on the wonderful experiences life has to offer getting caught up in competitive running. Also, as you get older, you'll start to realize the errors of those high mileage weeks when everything starts to hurt in the morning ;)

...just my two cents.

I need to hire you as my personal therapist, thanks in advance for taking the job - I cannot pay you.

dfhdflhflkhdsf wrote:

I know a lot of "formerly competitive" and none of them are fat.

Someone's never met rojo.

You don’t get this?

What part you don’t get? The part that they don’t care anymore about dieting exercising , etc because they are not into it anymore?

Or the part that you are just too stupid to understand that ?

It's hard to get it to be the same even if you felt like doing it. Running is both reasonably time efficient (from a calories burned perspective) and is easily repeatable/can be readily done for an extended time. Compare this to other "more efficient" exercises like the ones seen in this article:

https://www.self.com/story/exercises-that-burn-more-calories-than-running

Are you really going to jump rope for an hour, or go cross country skiing each day, or swim aggressively for an entire hour? If you don't take to something like cycling or workout classes like MMA and do them everyday you won't replicate running's weight maintenance benefits. You're right that health is important, but keep in mind running is the most convenient exercise you could possibly engage with.

Running into your 40's and 50's is hard, (heck running at any time is darned hard.) Try doing it after a knee surgery or two.

Like others have said, other stuff gets in the way and becomes a priority (as it should.) If you've run a sub14 5k and you know the work it takes to get there, are you going to show up at some local 5k and shuffle along at 19 or 20 min? What's the point? Ego is real. As a 51 year old it's HARD for me to accept that the goal paces I have to train for now used to be my resting easy pace, but time is undefeated. That can make you wonder why you are ever trying, it's humbling and not exactly motivating.

And yes the irony of threads like this on LR is not lost on me. LR is a place where Masters runners are ridiculed for still competing into their 40-s and 50s, but then if someone were to retire from the sport they are called out for being fat and out of shape.

Life is long

Your goals as a person change

Injuries

Getting used to eating a lot of calories

Mental burnout

Work

Family

Not being able to accept that you are slower than you used to be

Moving on