A friend of mine is a triathlete who posed an interesting question to me this weekend.
She watched the Kona webcast until the seventeenth hour, the NBC show on Saturday and then browsed through the pictures at ASIorders.com.
She then asked me: “how can you be fat and do IronMan?”
I told her that I thought that being fat actually might make the swim easier, it isn’t really that detrimental on the bike provided the course was relatively flat you were powerful enough but that it would make the run harder.
She then responded: “no… I mean, how can you do the training and miles necessary to do an IronMan and still be fat… like obese fat?”
It’s an interesting question because everyone I know loses weight during training for an Iron-distance race so I thought for a second and then told her I guess maybe those people just ingest a tremendous amount of calories (and it’s probably a lot of crap calories) which offsets the substantial calories burned during training.
Truthfully that’s the best answer that I could come up with, but I guess I’m curious now as well. Any other thoughts as to how or why?
perhaps they are less fat now than they were before they started training?
one of my teammates is certainly not skinny. however, he’s lost over 100lbs since he started riding and eating properly a few years ago. he puts out a ton of power and is still losing fat.
Dude, you just have to slog your way through a 6:30 mary and you’re golden. Plenty of people do it…
I understand you can damn-near cruise the whole thing and finish within the time limit, but her point was that you had to train for it, regardless of how fast you eventually raced it, and all that training burns a lot of calories…
I’ve wondered this same thing. The only conclusion that makes any sense is that they were REALLY fat before they started, and although they’ve lost weight, they’re still fat.
I’ve noticed this too and it still confuses me a little. I guess some people eat junk calories, don’t do ‘all’ the training that is suggested, and maybe their bodies just have a hard time using fat as an energy source. I am sure there is a better explanation out there - anyone?
train at high intesity most of the time and eat heaps of food! Some people have shocking diets, and can put away a heap of food - even those doing a fair amount of training and those that are fat! I know of a few that decided to train for IM - they were over 130kg (290lb). Even at 12-15hours of training they did not lose weight (or much fat). They could eat!!
Some people do minimal training for an Ironman. Just enough to get through the bike before the cut off and then walk the run. 4-5 hours per week of training is not really that much. If you are shooting for a 17 hour finish, you could probably finish an IM on that amount of training.
Ok I’ll bite these comments only pertain to my personal experience:
as a formerly 360lbs person whom decided that IM was a reasonable goal 2+years in advance. I started training and could run for about 10 minutes-
I kept at it learned alot about nutrition-how to live good cals bad etc
I did imlp in 15:40 and walked half of the marathon-
When i did lake placid I was still fat by triathlete standards-10-11%bf
but I knew when I took my first step toward Ironman that i was not going to win or qualify. I wanted to do the training and the race arrive at both ends of the day healthy-
All that being said- It kind of pisses me off that you sat on your couch making judgements about people and their personal battles with weight.
I assure you that I can sit and make judgements about how weak and feable you are in the weight room-
“wow how can someone go to the gym 4 days a week and only bench 110% of their body weight”
It is all about what you train for and the genetic lottery-
I pulled the carry heavy things short distances ticket when they made me- but I decided to try something that would push me. Like ironman-
the converse of my decision would be for a naturally gifted triathlete whom hovers around 5%bf to put on 50lbs of muscle and become a power lifter—I could sit on my couch and talk about how you did all of your training and you are still so skinny.
I hope that next year when I do florida i will be less fat but even if I am not I will still hear the wonderful words “:YOU ARE AN IRONMAN”-
notice they don’t qualify that be adding adjectives
Not EVERYONE loses alot of weight while training for an IM. I have a female friend that struggled to lose any weight during the hardest part of IM training…sure a few pounds (over the course of all her training) came off but nothing huge. That is good. Why would you constantly subject your body to a calorie deficit during the hardest part of training in order to drop alot of weight? Fuel right but don’t neglect your body’s need for nutrition. Turns out that dropping tons of weight while training for an IM isnt’ a given for some people. I know some folks that save weight loss for the offseason when they can really hit the gym and race performance is not impacted.
On the other side, I know plenty of people that are works in progress and would still be considered fat by judgemental people . You can only follow the path you are on with the love and support of those people that understand your body shape has nothing to do with nothing. It ain’t you.
At Kona the answer has to be the lottery. At any other IM it is just people trying to finish to cross it off some life list. If they shortened the cut-off to 15 hours, I think you would see alot less out of shape people and the races would not fill up so quickly.
"…how much training do you really need for THAT? "
Well, not much if you are genetically gifted. Not everyone is, and that is a point that often gets lost on and around this board. Some people have mental gifts, others physical, some both and some none at all. For you this may be a simple feat, requiring next to no training. Congratulations, you are wonderful.
I’m no IM, but I did do a 1/2 IM in 2003 … when I started training I weighed 248, race day 258 (I’m 5’11").
I trained my butt off (clearly not literally). After I crossed the finish line I decided I had a new goal - lose weight … the fact that the sign in person asked if I was there for the super sprint and if it was my first tri was the final straw.
I am no longer obese … in fact I have just a few pounds to go to a normal bmi.
How did I train for the 1/2 and gain weight - simple - I ate too much. I did what my super skinny tri friends did … I ate during my long workouts and ate a protein shake immediate after. I was training for a 1/2 IM … who needed portion control - clearly I did but didn’t realize it.
Personally, having gone through the weight loss and met a lot of others who have as well there are many stories of people who find you can’it hard to lose weight doing long endurance sports. Gaining weight during marathon training is common among those trying to lose weight too. Maybe it’s a genetic thing.
Gordo has an interesting article about body composition and fat burning abilities. Explains the difference in an elite’s ability to use fat as fuel vs a BOP’er. http://www.byrn.org/gtips/bodycomp.htm
BOP, MOP, FOP, it’s all about diet. I can go on a four hour ride, and eat enough through the day (and I can do this with brown rice, chicken breasts, & Oatmeal, or with Ice Cream, Pizza, Cake, and Beer ) and eat FAR more calories than I burn. The only ‘Free Ride’ I get on diet comes on the hard 6+ hour days in the hills. Every other day, I need to be counting calories.
Jon, that is so true. The two words “diet & exercise” are like peanut butter and jelly…you can’t have one without the other.
I have a little a little elitist confession to make. I recently did IMFL and was sitting on the beach people watching with my wife. (We live in the midwest where it seems that 80% of the people are obese.) I commented to her that this is what the population is supposed to look like…being a small percentage of people are ripped (elite/pro) a large percentage are ideal body weight (MOP) and a small percentage are overweight (BOP). The words felt sharp when I spoke them but they ring true in a perfect world.
jk.