Skye Moench - Race weight

We don’t really know the true details of their coaching/athlete relationship, so it is really not appropriate to comment beyond generalities. However, I do think my story is a perfect example of why cutting weight through caloric restriction is a bad idea. I was a collegiate runner who temporarily destroyed my body in pursuit of being faster so I know all too well what happens when you go over the edge. At 6 feet 2, my natural "fit body weight is about 175. My triathlete racing weight is about 165-167. My best running races were down at around 16-163 lbs, but I had cut my weight down to 147 pounds and had a body fat of 2.7 percent measured by hydrostatic weight testing. I was running around 120 miles per week, but probably undereating by at least 1000 calories per day. I would eat lots of fruit and veggies to “trick my stomach” into feeling full. I would often get really bad headaches at night from being really hungry. I went from being a 14 minute 5k runner to 16 minutes, developing anemia, depression and suicidal ideations. At 21 years old, I could barely even get an erection. It made me realize that I was not meant to have the physique of typical elite distance runner, and along the way I found triathlon which I was a better fit for anyway. I developed some iron rules for myself so that it would not happen again:

  1. When you are training hard, you should never feel hungry. And I mean never. If you eat (mostly) healthy foods and appropriately consume carbohydrates during long hard sessions, your body weight will reach a natural homeostasis over time.
  2. Weigh yourself at most once per month. There are too many things that can result in weight fluctuations that have nothing to do with body fat.
  3. Ignore body fat measurements from scales. They are useless, especially for elite athletes.
  4. NEVER compare your weight or physique to other athletes. Some people have a genetic predisposition for extremely low body fat/thinness. One of my collegiate teammates was close to 6 feet and 140 lbs. He was very thin, but ate well, drank beer and didn’t ever obsess about his weight. He was (and is) also a very fast runner.

These apply to elite athletes who are usually training greater than 8-10 hours per week and burning 4k plus calories per day. Obviously if you are only training 3 times a week and carrying a spare tire on your belly, caloric restriction and dieting may be reasonable.