Marathon Training

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner sports nutritionist, master life coach, and weight loss coach. For runners, I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought. Possible. This is running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 329 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today the top. 10 biggest myths about weight loss. So today I am digging into something that causes a lot of confusion, frustration, and a lot of spinning your wheels. And this is weight loss advice.

All right? Everywhere you look, someone’s telling you what to eat, how to train what you’re doing wrong. But here’s the real question. Does any of that actually apply to you? As a runner, I’m gonna break down the most common misconceptions that keep runners stuck here in this episode, because what works for the average person runners, we are not average or some, you know, influencer on social media.

Doesn’t always translate to endurance athletes who are out there putting in the serious miles. So if you’ve ever been like doing all the right things, but not seeing results, this is going to open your eyes. I’ll show you exactly what’s holding you back, what to focus on instead, so that you can lose fat, get stronger, and become a better runner.

But first, let me ask you something. Are you putting in the miles showing up consistently doing your best to eat right, and yet something still feels off, like your energy isn’t where it should be, or your runs feel harder than they need to be, or your body isn’t responding the way that it should. Deep down, you’re starting to wonder, what am I missing here?

Because it’s not for lack of effort. You’re disciplined. I know you’re a runner. You’re committed. You’re doing the work, but effort without the right strategy, that’s where most runners get stuck. This is exactly why I created the Leaner Stronger Runner Project. This isn’t another cookie cutter training plan or some trendy nutrition hack.

This is a complete system designed specifically for runners who want to transform how they look, how they feel, and how they per. Form inside the program, I’m gonna show you how to fuel your body in a way that supports fat loss and endurance. How to build real strength that actually improves your running, and how to develop the mindset that keeps you consistent no matter what.

Because this isn’t about quick fixes, it’s about becoming the kind of runner who is lean. Strong and in control. So if you’re ready to stop guessing and start making actual real progress, I want you to take the next step. Go to my website running lean coaching.com/ready, and check it out. Let’s get you becoming that leaner, stronger runner starting today.

All right. Before we jump in, I just wanna let you know that this is a replay episode. I pulled this one from the archives because this message here, it’s just as relevant today as it was from when I first recorded it, maybe even more. So. There’s still a lot of confusion out there around weight loss, especially for runners, and I see people getting tripped up by the same myths and misconceptions over and over again.

So instead of reinventing the wheel, I wanted to bring this one back because it does a really solid job of cutting through the noise and getting you focused on the things that actually work. And as you listen here today, you’re going to start recognizing some of these patterns, things that you might be doing right now that are quietly holding you back, but more importantly, you’re gonna walk away today with a much clearer. Simpler approach to losing fat and improving your running performance. All right, let’s get into it.

Okay, so let’s get into this topic today. So today I am talking about the top 10 biggest myths about weight loss. The reason I wanted to talk about this is really because of the first thing I’m gonna talk about, number one on my list of 1, 2, 10 things I wanna talk about.

And then I realized, oh, I wanna talk about this as well and this as well. And I said, there’s like 10 things I wanna go over here. So I just lumped ’em all together here and, um, uh, and, and you know, just kind of put together a, a. A podcast that’s, you know, combines all these 10 things. The thing they all have in common is that they’re, they’re myths about weight loss.

And this first one that I’m gonna talk about is one that keeps coming up for me, and I keep hearing about it. I keep reading about it, I keep hearing experts talk about it, and everybody talks about this as if it’s such a no-brainer. But I’m gonna just tell you that I don’t think it’s as straightforward as most people think.

And so number one is it’s all about being in a calorie deficit. Like if you wanna lose weight, you gotta be in a calorie deficit. So I have heard people say that this is absolutely true 100% of the time, always and forever. And I’ve heard other people say it’s just total bs. Don’t even listen to those people.

And I personally am probably somewhere in the middle because there is some truth to the fact that if you want to lose weight, you cannot be. Over consuming food. I think that we would all sort of agree on that. Like if you’re somebody who is over consuming food, if you’re a chronic overeater, which was something that I always had a problem with, I still do.

I still struggle sometimes with eating too much food. Um, you know, I work out a lot and then I want to justify it and say, well, I’m bulking up. So I need more food and, and I can sit down and I can eat a big old steak for dinner and, and feel good about it. Um, but the thing is, I think if you’re a chronic overeater, that that’s going to be very hard for you to lose weight.

So I think there is some truth to being in a calorie deficit. The problem. Well, I have several problems with this. One problem I have with just saying it’s all about being in a calorie deficit, is that number one. Um, as, as a runner, you don’t really want to be in a calorie deficit like you need. Calories in order to fuel and refuel from really tough workouts, especially if you’re training for any type of endurance event like a a half marathon marathon, anything of significance, you know, five or 10 K, you can probably get away with it.

But once you get into these longer distances. It makes it very difficult to repair and replace the energy that you expended from running. So I, I think that you don’t really want to be in, in a calorie deficit or much of a calorie deficit as a runner, especially if you’re training for something. Um, the other thing to keep in mind here is that when people talk about like just cutting calories, just like cut, cut your calories, it, there’s more to it than just.

Calories, like I think you have to look at the foods that you’re eating as well. And how are these foods affecting you? How are these foods affecting your hormones, for example, and I’ve talked, uh, a a lot about the effect of the hormone insulin on, uh, fat loss. So insulin is a hormone that gets produced when your blood sugar goes up.

So insulin is a, is a naturally occurring hormone. And, and when your blood sugar raises, insulin gets produced to lower that blood sugar. Well, when insulin is present, when you continually, uh, produce insulin. It seems to be the thing that keeps your body holding onto stored body fat. So having insulin present in your blood constantly seems to be, um, uh, and there’ve been books written about this.

If you want to take a deep dive into it, read the Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung. Great book, and you’ll learn a lot about this. But, but as long as, uh, insulin is present, then you, uh, have a very hard time. Burning fat. You just can’t burn the fat as long as, you know, we got, uh, insulin present. Another way of looking at it is that if you’re eating anything that, that spikes your blood sugar continually.

So that’s any type of, uh, sugary food. So that’s gonna be, basically, it’s gonna be carbohydrates, but it’s on a spectrum, you know, a, uh. Uh, a sweet potato isn’t going to raise your blood sugar as much as drinking a a can of sugary soda is, I think we all can agree on that. Um, ’cause the, the sweet potato comes along with fiber and it’s slowly released and it’s not as concentrated a form of carbohydrate as you know, high fructose corn syrup.

So when we are eating foods that continually spike our blood sugar, that’s what’s causing the insulin to continually be there, and that’s what’s making it hard to lose. To, to burn the fat. Okay? So that’s another way of looking at it, like cut the carbs and you drop your insulin levels and you’re able to burn fat.

Your, your body also pervert prefers sugar as fuel. So as long as you’re feeding your body sugar constantly and sugar, I mean carbohydrates, then you are going to be constantly burning the sugar and your body’s gonna burn the sugar before it starts burning the fat. Again, if you wanna burn the fat, you gotta like, just lower the amount of sugar you’re eating and your body should be able to start tapping into that stored body fat as a fuel source.

Okay, so this is, this is like so much more than just about calories, right? I know. And so these people that say, oh, it’s just about calories. I just have to kind of disagree with that, you know? I think there’s more to it than that. It’s a little bit more complicated, you know, they’ll be like, oh, you can just eat uh, all Twinky diet and you’ll be able to lose weight.

Do they still make Twinkies? Is that even a thing? As soon as I said that out loud, I was like, is that something from the seventies that just is still around? I don’t know. They probably still around. The ones from the seventies are probably still around ’cause they got all those preservatives in ’em.

Anyway, uh, I’ve heard people say that it doesn’t matter what you eat, as long as you’re in a calorie deficit, you’ll lose weight. And I think that’s just sort of dumb to think about it that way. You know, let’s, let’s eat food that actually is good for us. Let’s not eat Franken foods. Let’s not eat hyper palatable foods that are, that are causing us to be addicted to them.

You know, I remember being a kid and eating Twinkies, and I could eat 10 of those things at a time. Love those things, you know? Um. So there, it’s more than just about being in a calorie deficit. And the other thing to consider is that when you’re in a calorie deficit, uh, you, you do run the risk, especially if you do a, a pretty low calorie diet for an extended period of time.

You run the risk of lowering your metabolism, you slow your metabolism down, and then losing weight becomes very difficult because your body cannot continually, uh. Slowing down your metabolism or else, you know, you’re just, you’re just gonna, you’re not gonna have metabolism basically, right? So if you’re eating 800 calories a day, your body’s only gonna be burning 800 calories a day at some point because you’re, you’re continually, uh, not giving your body enough energy.

And so there’s, there’s so little energy coming in that your body wants to slow down that metabolism to match the energy that’s coming in. This is called homeostasis. Your body always wants to be in balance, so as long as you, um, are in a, a super deficit like that, like the people in Biggest Loser. Right.

They, they cut their calories drastically. They all lose a hundred pounds and they all gain it right back again because it’s not sustainable, what they’re doing and cutting their calories like that really slows down their metabolism. It makes it very difficult for them to continue to lose weight. It’s gonna stop working at some point.

And then what do you do? Okay, so we, we cannot be too drastic. I think that when you’re eating a diet that’s lower in carbs. Lower in sugar, higher in protein, higher in fat. You tend to not be as hungry. You tend to be more full. You tend to not eat as much, so there might be a little bit of a calorie deficit thing going on there.

Doesn’t matter, but your, your blood sugar’s gonna be nice and chill. Not gonna be all these spikes and crashes and your blood sugar. You’re not gonna have insulin present all the time. So you don’t have to worry about that. You’re not gonna be, uh, super hungry all the time. And so I think that naturally you’re just going to eat less.

Um, but when I say you’re gonna eat less, I mean you’re gonna be eating the right amount of food for you. Okay. We’re probably most of us just eating too much in general, so I think we could all do with a little bit of like scaling back on how much food we’re eating. So just cut the carbs, uh, increase the protein, the fat.

Um, and just stop, stop eating when you’re like 80% full. Like just, you don’t need to eat until you’re stuffed, you know? Just stop when you’re about 80% full. This is a, a good plan. Okay? Okay. So it’s not just about calorie deficit, like we gotta consider, there’s a lot more going on there. Okay? So that was number one.

That was what kind of sparked this whole, um, topic today. Alright, number two. So another myth, the the second myth I’m gonna talk about is that losing weight is a linear process. And I work with people all the time who get on the scale, and I encourage them to do this. Get on the scale every day. Get on the scale, get used to the fact that your body weight will change day to day.

It’ll go up, it’ll go down, it’ll go up, it’ll go down. And as long as you understand that, and that’s normal and that’s just always gonna happen. You’re good. But as soon as you get on the scale and it goes up and you go, oh my gosh, this isn’t working. I’m a terrible person. This is never gonna work for me.

I’m never gonna lose weight. I’m horrible. I hate myself. Because you gain two pounds of like water weight overnight or something, you know? Um, and then when we lose two pounds, we’re like, oh my gosh, it’s so great. I’m, everything’s working perfectly. I’m a great person. I feel good about myself. Like we, we.

Tie our identity. We tie, we tie our emotional state on the number on that digital device in our bathroom. Like that’s so dumb. Like, don’t do that. Okay? We call that scale drama. Stay away from all the scale drama instead. Remember that losing weight is never a linear process. You are not going to. Lose, you know, two pounds every week and from now until the time you reach your goal weight, it’s gonna go up, it’s gonna go down.

You’re gonna, you’re gonna do well on your plan, you’re gonna not do so well, or it’s gonna work for you for a while and then it’s not gonna work and you gotta change something. Like, who knows? There’s so many factors, hormones, you know, especially women, you know, different times of the month they retain more water, you know, or they, they need more food or more carbs or whatever.

Like, we just have to understand that this is all normal. Losing weight is never. A linear process. So stop thinking that it is okay. It is a very crooked process. It’s not a straight line from, you know, here you are at, at your weight today, and then you draw a straight line down to your ideal weight. It never happens that way.

I’ve never seen it happen that way. Okay. Um, and a better way of like looking at your week to week progresses, um, weigh yourself every day. Sure. Don’t get caught up in scale drama. But then take an average of your weekly weight and compare that to the previous week’s average. That’s a better way of, uh, uh, seeing like where you are and if you’re improving week to week.

Okay, so that’s number two. Number three, uh, is eating more often is going to improve your metabolism. So this is one of those sort of, I call this a gym bro, uh, bro science, uh, thing that guys at the gym always talk about, like, you gotta eat six times a day to get your, you know, keep, keep the metabolism burning hot.

And I have heard so much about this, that that’s such a dumb idea because what happens is if you’re forcing yourself to eat six times a day, and a lot of people that I. I’ve worked with, have done this in the past and it is completely backfired for them. So they’re, they are forcing themselves to eat all throughout the day.

Even though they’re not hungry, even though they don’t feel like eating, even though they feel, you know, satisfied and full, they’re forcing themselves to eat because they gotta keep their metabolism going. And a lot of people just gain weight doing that. And if you’re a bodybuilder and you wanna bulk up and you need to eat 5,000 calories a day, that’s probably a good plan for you.

My guess is that if you’re listening to this podcast, that is probably not you, you’re probably a runner. You might have 20, 30 pounds to lose. You may struggle with, you know, trying to make all this work for you, and that is not a good plan. I’m just gonna tell you right now, that is not a good plan. Eating less often seems to be really helpful for regulating hormones, for regulating blood sugar, for keeping insulin levels low, for improving fat burning.

You know, we do this thing called intermittent fasting where, you know, when you go to bed at night, you don’t eat during the night, and then you wake up and you don’t eat until later on in the morning or maybe lunchtime, you just kind of skip breakfast basically, and, and you’re not gonna die doing this, I’m just gonna tell you, it may be the best thing you’ve ever done for yourself.

Try it, see how it feels. It may not feel good on day one or day three, but I’m telling you by day five or seven you’re gonna feel amazing. And so we, we fast, you know, for 12 hours or so every day, you know, from the time you, you know, you’re done eating dinner until you eat breakfast in the morning typically.

So all I’m saying is extend that out another four or five hours or something, you are gonna be fine. Your running will actually not suffer. It’ll actually improve. It’ll be burning more fat. You can use that fat as fuel for running. Your body produces more adrenaline in that fasted state, which means you’re gonna have more energy for your workouts.

Your body produces more growth hormone in that fasted state, which means not only you have more energy for those workouts, but you’ll recover faster. So there’s no reason why you shouldn’t try this, and if you want to just, you know, not be eating as much. If you’re somebody that has a problem with overeating, this is a great way to just kind of curb that.

You know, you’re still gonna eat a couple times a day and you’re gonna eat until you’re satisfied. But you know, you don’t need to eat first thing in the morning. That whole idea that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That was just a marketing thing from the cereal companies like Kellogg’s back in the whatever, thirties or forties or something.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You know, they told you that because they wanted you to buy more cereal. That was it. There’s no date data behind it. There’s no science behind. Um, so try that. Try eating less often and see what happens. I think you might see that your metabolism actually gets way better when you’re eating less often.

You know, ’cause your body is, uh, burning fat. You know, I don’t think your metabolism is gonna slow down from this process. It’s actually going to improve because you’re gonna be burning the right fuel. Okay? Alright. Number four, if you’re a runner, you shouldn’t try to lose weight, especially if you’re training.

And I hear this one all the time from running coaches or from from fellow runners, like, oh, you can’t lose weight. I mean, I’ve heard people like freak out about this. Like, you can lose weight if you’re running, don’t, don’t try to lose weight. And what they’re thinking is that the purse they’re thinking of is, is going to go into some super big calorie deficit and then they’re not gonna be able to lose the weight.

Or I’m sorry, they’re not gonna be able to, to have the fuel they need for running. Um. And it’s unhealthy. And, and I hear this all the time and it’s just such bs. It is such BS because I work with runners all the time who are training for stuff and we’re losing weight at the same time. And they feel amazing and they’re running improves.

Like there’s a right and wrong way to do it. And I guess a lot of people are just doing this the wrong way. And if you’re, if you’re afraid of losing weight while you’re training for something, I’m gonna tell you right now, uh, number one. You gotta know what you’re doing. First of all, you can’t just go into a calorie deficit like that is not gonna work.

We talked about that already. Um, so don’t do that. Um, but if you start to change how you’re fueling your body and, and you stop eating constantly throughout the day. There’s just a couple of tweaks you can make. Just lower your carb intake, increase your protein and fats. Um, don’t eat constantly throughout the day.

You don’t need to be snacking and stuff like that. You might find that running. Well, first of all, running will probably feel hard for a week or two because your body’s getting used to burning more fat. But once you get through that process, oh my gosh, that feels amazing. And you’ve got tons of energy.

You feel so good. This is what it’s called, getting fat adapted. You have become adapted to using fat as fuel. That’s what that means. So if you’re a runner and you want to try to lose weight, then that is the approach that I suggest that you take as opposed to just cutting calories and hoping for the best.

And, and most people who cut their calories, they just don’t do it the right way. And you know, they end up really messing themselves up, especially runners. So don’t do that. Don’t do it the wrong way. Um, so that’s number four. Number five, uh, of the 10 biggest myths about weight loss is that carbs are the enemy and you should never eat carbs.

And I completely disagree with this. I think that there are good carbs and bad carbs. I really do. I think bad carbs would be liquid sugar. It’s probably the worst thing that you can do for yourself is to drink your sugar, um, because. In a can of soda, there is something like 14 teaspoons of sugar. Is that right?

Teaspoons or tablespoons? Teaspoons, I believe of sugar and I might be wrong. I might be 18 or 20, something like that. It’s a lot. If you just tried to eat 14 teaspoons of sugar, you’d probably make yourself sick. If you ate food like let’s say donuts that had 14 teaspoons of sugar in it, that’s gonna be really hard to do really hard.

Okay? But if you just take that and you drink it down, it just goes down in three seconds, like it’s done. Not hard at all. Extremely easy to do, ’cause your body does not have. Any sort of mechanism that can sense that there’s that much sugar going into your system all at once. You start eating a dough. I ate a donut recently and I’ll tell you, it was so good.

Um, and my favorite kind of donut, by the way. It’s very weird, but it’s hard to find. But I found a place here that, uh, in Cincinnati that makes these blossom donuts in Montgomery. Thank you for making the best sour cream old fashioned donut. It is like a cake donut, but it’s, uh, a little funky looking and it’s got icing on it.

That’s all it is. It’s just a very simple thing. It’s, it’s, but it’s. It’s so good. Um, I cannot eat these very often. I maybe one every six months or something. The last time I went to that place was probably in the summer, so it’s been like maybe eight months since I’ve been there, but I had one recently.

And I gotta tell you, just taking a couple bites of that thing, I was like, oh God, my teeth hurt. Like I’m gonna get a cavity from this. There’s so much sugar in there. Um, it was good, but I mean, I can only eat one of those things and I’m done. You know what I mean? But if you were to, you know, take a couple cans of Coke or whatever and, and just drink that stuff down, oh my gosh.

It goes down so fast ’cause your body doesn’t have a sensor to turn off the intake of that sugar. With, with, uh, whole Foods though, if you’re eating foods that have carbs in them, like berries, uh, fruit, you know, um, sweet potatoes, anything like that, your, your body has a turnoff mechanism like your, you can only eat so much of that stuff and you get full pretty fast.

And, uh. When you’re eating foods high in sugar, uh, it tends to increase your hunger signals and, and it decreases that fullness hormone called leptin. So leptin will, will sense that you’re full and there’s no leptin response when you’re eating sugar. So you just keep eating and keep eating and keep eating, okay?

So that’s why you can drink your calories and drink your sugar. Uh, to excess. So I know so many people that, that drink these giant monsters or mountain dews or whatever they are every day to get their day started, and it’s just pounding, you know, 20 teaspoons of sugar or something like that. It’s crazy.

It’s crazy. So not all carbs are the same. There’s good carbs and bad carbs. The su, the, the liquid sugar carbs are a problem. Any kind of concentrated, refined form of, of carbohydrate, like table sugar or, um, you know, high fructose corn syrup and then even other refined grains, you know, would be a, a refined form of carbohydrate like flour.

You know, for example, all those things are going to spike your blood sugar much more than something like eating an apple would. You know? So just be, be, be mindful of the kinds of foods you’re eating. Carbs are not the enemy, okay? We, we need carbs. And carbs are great for runners. Carbs are are good fuel for runners.

Just do the right kinds of carbs. Eat, eat, eat a banana before you go for a rut. Eat a sweet potato the night before. You know, eat some rice, eat some oats, eat some berries, you know, eat some fruit, um, some dairy, if you can tolerate that stuff. It’s got a few carbs in there. You know, all these things are good forms of carbs.

You get carbs from. Beans and from, uh, other types of vegetables, you know, that’s all stuff. This is all whole food, you know, and so if we get a few carbs here and there from eating foods like that, it’s completely fine. It’s completely fine. But stay away from those highly refined, um, easily consumable carbs that, uh, we all know are not good for us.

If you’re, if you’re eating something and it hurts your teeth, it’s probably not something you wanna eat too often. That’s why I don’t eat those donuts too often. Okay, that was number five. Number six, you have to lose weight. You have to suffer to lose weight. You don’t have to lose weight, but in order to lose weight, you have to suffer.

That is a myth. Like you don’t have to suffer your way to weight loss. I think that once you start eating the right kinds of foods, um, you don’t need to be sitting there white knuckling all the time. I think the reason a lot of people white knuckle it is because they’re trying to cut their calories, but they’re eating tons of sugar and stuff still.

And it’s really hard to, to, uh, regulate that. It’s really hard to turn off those hunger signals. The more carbs you eat, the more carbs you crave. And so if you’re just trying to cut your calories, but you’re eating all the same sugary foods and stuff, it’s gonna be really difficult. That’s gonna be really hard, and you probably will suffer.

And that’s what pre people get this myth in their heads where it’s just, you’re gonna suffer. So instead of doing that. Focus on protein, make that the priority. Good fats. Um, you can eat some carbs here and there, but stay away from the sugar and stuff like that and you won’t suffer. It won’t be that hard.

Um, skip breakfast and then you’re gonna find that it is really easy to, uh, eat a couple times a day. You eat delicious food with, you know, you can prepare however you want to make it super amazingly delicious. Um. I, I made a steak the other night. I had steak and some broccoli with butter on it, and salt, and it was so amazing.

Like, I’m like, this is so, I love broccoli. It is so, so good. And it’s funny because in the past I would never eat that stuff because it, it didn’t, you know, light me up the way that pizza does or something like that. So, but now I can eat something like that and it tastes so good. And I don’t have to, I’ve not suffered in the last five, six years since I started this last, when I decided I was not gonna go back to this thing where I was gaining and losing weight all the time.

I one and done like I wanted to be done with all that. I have not suffered through any of this, and I occasionally still eat the donut, you know, and it’s okay to do that, so you don’t have to suffer your way to lose weight. Uh, but it does require you to make some changes, you know? It does require and change is uncomfortable.

So, so there’s a little bit of discomfort at the beginning, you know, just to understand that. But it’s not a suffer fest. It doesn’t have to be that. If, if it is that way for you, then I think you might be doing it wrong. Okay, that’s number six. Number seven, eating fat makes you fat. And I think we’ve d done, they’ve done so many studies on this and, and really proven that fat isn’t the problem.

Sugar is the problem. Like fat is not the problem. So back in the, in the seventies and early eighties, they changed our food guidelines and they basically said, Hey, fat is bad. We’ve gotta take fat out of everything. If you eat fat, you’re gonna get fat. If you eat fat, you’re gonna die of a heart attack.

And people just became fat phobic. And I even had, uh, a client that I was working with who told me I wasn’t allowed to stay fat adapted because she was so afraid of the word fat. And I was like, it’s not the same thing. You know, we’re talking about burning fat here. Anyway, she, she was awesome, but, uh, eating fat.

Does not make you fat. It’s the sugar that makes you fat. It, it’s overeating that makes you fat. Um, the fat is good. It’s part of our diet. We gotta eat fat. Fat is good for us. Like there’s two essential, uh, macronutrients that we have to get in our diet. And there’s other micronutrients and, and minerals and things like that that we have to get like salt.

Like we have to have salt in our diet or else we will die. We have to have fat in our diet or else we will die. We have to have protein in our diet or we will die. We don’t have to eat carbs, which is interesting. There’s no essential carbohydrate, so there’s nothing in our, in our human body that says if we don’t eat carbs, we are going to suffer and die.

There’s nothing in there about that. Like you never have to eat carbs. I’m not saying suggesting you do that, but just to understand that it’s not an essential nutrient. That is protein is. Don’t be afraid of fat. Fat is good for you. You need fat. Every cell in your body has fat in it. Every cell in your body has cholesterol in it.

You need fat and cholesterol in order to live. So don’t completely cut that stuff out. Some people feel better. They do better on a lower fat diet. Okay, that’s fine. But don’t cut out all fats. I certainly don’t go to the Franken fats, you know, the margarine and the seed oils and, and all that stuff. That stuff is not good for you.

Right. But what they did back in the eighties or whatever, they took the fat out of everything and they replaced it with sugar. They replaced it with all these seed oils and stuff and, and everything just. You know, everybody was gaining all this weight and they’re like, what’s going on? Well, they took out the fat, the good stuff, and they replaced it with sugar because it tasted like crap when they took out the fat.

And so people were like, oh, this tastes great, this low fat yogurt, but it’s got, you know, 14 teaspoons of sugar in it, you know? So that’s not good for you. So just read your labels. How about that? But we do need fat. Um, and if you’re somebody that’s, uh, fat adapted, then the fat that you eat, you, you burn a lot of that off too.

So you’re not, it’s not going into your, you know, uh, arteries and clogging them up or anything like that. You know, you’re gonna burn a lot of that stuff off. So that’s good. Okay, that’s number seven. Eating fat makes you fat and it does not. Number eight, you just have to run more. Just run more. That’s the problem.

Listen, I think it’s pretty clear from what I’ve talked about for the last five years on this podcast. Did you know that this podcast has been going on for five years? I started it and uh, January of 2020, so it’s been a little over five years now. That sort of came and went and I didn’t even really think about it.

But hey, happy anniversary to the Wrangle Lean podcast. Um, so you just have to run more, right? I think we all know that you cannot outrun a bad diet, like you’ve gotta change your diet. I think that’s really important. Um, other things that are important, like you gotta do some sort of consistent strength training, like that’s gonna be something that’s really key to help improve your metabolism, improve your endurance as a runner to help you stave off injury as a runner.

Um, and running more is really not the answer. And there, you know, there’s all these apps that are like, oh, you know, uh, track all your food and then track all your exercise. So people will put all their food in there. Let’s say they ate 2000 calories, then they ran, you know, 10 miles or whatever, like, oh look, I burned another.

Thousand calories. That means I get to eat another thousand calories today. And they do that and they don’t understand why they keep gaining weight. Well, the running more, it’s not a one-to-one ratio as far as, you know, if you burn this many calories, you get to replace it with this much food. It just doesn’t work that way.

I did that for years and it did not work for me, and I had to. Stop doing. It just became too frustrating for me. I was tracking everything. Every little bit of exercise I did, I tracked it and I’m like, here’s my baseline metabolism. Here’s all the exercise I did today. I should be able to eat 3,500 calories every day.

And I would do that and I kept gaining weight and I’m like, this is not working. Um, so running more is just not the answer. Running is great. Keep running. I love running. Love it. It is good for you. You know, it might help you to maintain weight a little bit. It might help you to lose a pound or, it’s not the answer though.

You gotta change your diet. You really have to change your whole attitude. You know, you gotta change your whole, you know, identity around all this stuff. If you really wanna lose weight and keep it off, it can’t be something that you’re thinking about as like a diet that’s temporary, you know? And running more is just by itself is just not gonna work.

Okay? So you gotta combine all these things. There’s more to it. It’s more complicated. Like I said at the beginning of this whole podcast, it’s more complicated than just talking about calories. Okay. Um, number nine, the goal is to be skinny. And this one I could not disagree with more. Like, I think it’s so dumb that people, uh, still have this like skinny mentality.

I think that, you know, maybe back in the seventies or something that was chic or cool or whatever. That’s really not it anymore. I think what is uh, more, what is healthier and more widely accepted now is to be fit. And that means that you’re gonna have some muscle on your body. And to have a little bit of muscle on your body, uh, sure.

Lose the body fat. Sure. You can get down to. You know, whatever percentage body fat you want to get to, um, never say zero because that is impossible. You can’t be at 0% body fat again, you’ll die if you get there. There are people like the minimum, uh, uh, amount of body fat, uh, of essential body fat that men have to have, or they, they, their health really will suffer is 3%.

So. If you go below 3%, that’s considered to be very unhealthy for men and for women it’s 12%, 12% body fat is considered about as low as you would ever want to go. And below that you’re gonna be very unhealthy. Um, so we all wanna be above that, those numbers. Okay? And if you’re older, if you’re in your forties, fifties, sixties, whatever, you’re probably gonna be above and it’s okay.

It’s okay, but a little bit of body fat is okay, but we want to be, we want to be kind of lean and fit. We wanna be strong, we wanna have muscles, right? So we, it’s not about being skinny. And, and a lot of people have this mis misconception about, oh, you’re too skinny. Like, no, I’m not. I, I, I’m at like 20% body fat, you know, I don’t, I’m not too skinny, believe me.

Um, or whatever number you want to come up with. So really the goal is to be fit. It’s not about being skinny. Um, and, and being a 0% body fat, you know, being away or whatever. Like the, the goal is to be fit and strong and healthy. Uh, that means our cardiovascular system works properly. That means we’re strong.

We can lift weights, we can carry things. That means we’re mobile, that we’re flexible, uh, we’re functional. Um, and, and it means that we’re not carrying around a ton of excess weight, you know? Um, so that is really the goal is to be fit. Okay? Number 10, if you struggle to lose weight, there’s something wrong with you.

Have you guys heard this before? Has anybody ever talked about that? I hear this sometimes like you’re just not doing it right. You just need to be more disciplined, whatever. Listen, we all struggle with this. This is really hard for a lot of us. Um, I shouldn’t say we all, but a lot of us struggle with losing weight, and I did for many years and until I figured out the right formula that worked for me.

Then it, nothing was gonna work for me. You know, I tried all the diets. I tried running a lot more. I was doing training for ultra marathons and gaining weight, whatever. But to basically shame somebody and say like, oh, you’re, there’s something wrong with you if you can’t lose weight. You know, if you’re, or if you struggle, you’re not doing it right, or you’re undisciplined, or something like that.

No, it just means it’s hard. This stuff is hard. We’re getting all these mixed messages from experts. We’re getting all this, you know, um, uh, pressure from social media and from our peers and stuff about what we should and shouldn’t do. Um, there’s nothing wrong with you if you struggle to lose weight. You are so normal.

Let me just tell you that you’re normal. Okay? We all, hmm. Most of us struggle with our weight at some point. I can’t say we all ’cause not everybody does. Um, and I know, and I know like these, uh, dieticians or nutritionists who have never struggled with their weight and they’re trying to teach people how to eat properly and stuff.

I’m like, listen, you don’t get it. You know, they’re just like, oh, just don’t eat so much. Well, it’s hard for this person because for 45 years of their life. They’ve been an overeater, and so it’s very difficult for them. And, and this person over here who’s 20 years old and never been overweight in their life, they don’t understand.

They’re just like, well, you’re not eating the right things or You’re not disciplining whatever. Again, are, are we listening to these influencers on TikTok or are we, you know, trying things for ourselves? You know, use common sense here. Okay? But if you’re struggling to lose weight, there’s nothing wrong with you.

You are so normal, and I applaud you. For maybe being here and listening to this podcast, looking for some tips. I’m hoping that this episode has helped you. I’m hoping that you’re gonna take some of the things I talked about in this episode and try them for yourself, okay? But there’s nothing wrong with you.

You’re a perfect human being because you are born. Because you exist, you’re worthy, and you’re perfect. Um, and that’ll lead me to number 11. I have a, an extra one in here today. And that is that you are an experiment of one and that you have to just try this stuff and see what works for you and what doesn’t work for you.

Because not everybody’s the same. We are all different. We all have different, uh, bodies and different metabolisms, and we come from different backgrounds and different cultures. We have different families of origin. We live in different places. Um, we all have different, uh, fitness goals. Or, or weight loss goals or whatever.

We all have different food preferences and, and, um, food restrictions and allergies and all kinds of stuff. So you cannot do what this person over here is doing. You’re not gonna do it the same way. So stop trying to mimic what other people are doing and try to figure this out for yourself. And if you want help, obviously reach out to me.

I will help you. We will get this all figured out. We always do. But I wanna encourage you to take action and start learning what works for you. Try some things and see what works for you. There’s an answer there, okay? There’s nothing wrong with you. You are perfect. That’s all I got for you today. Love you all.

Keep on running lean and I will talk to you soon.