Weight Loss for Ultrarunners with Stephanie Howe, PhD #212
Episode overview:
Stephanie Howe, PhD is a CTS Pro Coach and nutritionist. She has a PhD. in Nutrition & Exercise Science from Oregon State University and a Sports Nutrition Diploma from the International Olympic Committee. She is also the 2014 Western States Endurance run champion.
Episode highlights:
(25:43) Weight loss for performance: nutrition for performance and nutrition for weight loss are at odds, keep training volume low, start making changes well before your goal race, hormonal effects of undereating and sex differences
(37:23) Macronutrient breakdown: dependant on goals, maintaining lean muscle mass, increasing protein relative to carbohydrates, using MyFitnessPal
(55:34) Eating as a social activity: diets that limit certain food groups are generally unsustainable, some diets work in the short term due to practical caloric restriction, weight rebound after diets, food should be fun, sustainability of diet is the most important
Our conversation:
(0:00) Introduction: weight loss as a topical consideration after the holidays, introducing Stephanie as a CTS coach and nutritionist, moving past taboos around body composition
(2:30) Taboos around weight loss: banter, terminology, bad practice in coaching
(4:06) Weight loss and coaching: pushing extreme weight loss and pushing food are both unhealthy extremes, know your audience, know how to talk about body recomposition
(6:07) Bringing in experts: coaches may not have the skillset to help an athlete with disordered eating, food is marketed to us, the complexity of eating for health and performance
(8:28) Weight loss terminology: fat loss, body recomposition, fat and fat free mass, weight is a number and composition is what you are made of
(10:40) Calories in, calories out (CICO): an oversimplification, homeostasis resists changes in metabolism, high fat and fiber diets, physical activity, hormonal control, body size, muscle mass, energy expenditure
(13:35) Energy expenditure: resting metabolic rate, interconnected factors that affect energy in the body, counting calories is not an accurate representation of energy exchange
(14:48) Energy intake: counting energy intake is horrifically inaccurate, banana example, you can know relative but not absolute amounts
(17:48) Weight loss and the holidays: setup, many athletes seek nutrition advice after the holidays, brining in expert counsel
(19:30) First steps: identifying why an athlete wants to lose weight, healthy and unhealthy reasons, DEXA scan, energy availability
(21:40) Recap of first steps: articulate your “why”, identifying the scope of weight loss goals, athlete background, parallels to coaching
(24:12) Weight loss scenarios: optimizing weight for a singular performance versus general body recomposition
(25:43) Weight loss for performance: nutrition for performance and nutrition for weight loss are at odds, keep training volume low, start making changes well before your goal race, hormonal effects of undereating and sex differences
(28:02) Skin fold analysis: find an expert to quantify body composition, defining skin fold tests, measuring the thickness of skin fat, gold standard tests
(30:13) Smart scales: sometimes precise but not accurate, example of drinking water on a smart scale
(31:40) Evaluating goals: individuality and athletes’ relationship with food, food is more than numbers, logging your food, analyzing macronutrients and food distribution, making changes, gauging energy availability and subjective feedback first, timeframe of weight loss
(35:28) Changing your food intake: food log, calculating energy needs, Harris-Benedict equation, work with an expert
(37:23) Macronutrient breakdown: dependant on goals, maintaining lean muscle mass, increasing protein relative to carbohydrates, using MyFitnessPal
(39:01) Analyzing trends: challenges with measuring macronutrient intake accurately, valuing trends over absolute numbers, know who you are working with
(40:53) Weighing your food: examples, a time consuming process, unnecessary and potentially unhealthy, use cases and the social-psychological aspect of eating
(43:22) Check-in: changes, sustainable weight loss, how the athletes feels, evaluating goals, weekly qualitative check-ins, 4-6 week quantitative check-ins, lifestyle changes
(45:55) Progress is nonlinear: caution against extrapolating weight loss data, no changes in the first few weeks, more change at the beginning, reasons why weight make oscillate
(48:27) General body recomposition: framing general recomposition goals versus specific performance goals, examples
(49:55) Body recomposition and training: concurrent recomposition and training, eating better and being active will result in weight loss, 2-3 month timeline rather than daily scrutiny of intake
(51:39) Differences between general recomposition and performance goals: performance goals require greater specificity and attention to macronutrients, highly trained versus new athletes
(53:45) Subjective feedback: value for performance goals, the importance of recognizing how the athlete is feeling, setting yourself up for sustainable life changes
(55:34) Eating as a social activity: diets that limit certain food groups are generally unsustainable, some diets work in the short term due to practical caloric restriction, weight rebound after diets, food should be fun, sustainability of diet is the most important
(58:23) Pitfalls: superfoods, orthorexic attitudes, examples, being overfocused on the wrong things
(1:02:43) Menstrual cycle: changes in water retention during your cycle, maintaining enough energy availability for a healthy menstrual cycle
(1:05:33) Energy deficits and the menstrual cycle: significant changes in cycle duration are a yellow flag, absence of the menstrual cycle, you can handle it but it might not be healthy
(1:07:52) Sustainability: you can handle extreme weight loss but that doesn’t make it healthy, The Biggest Loser example, revisiting your “why”, weight loss is not best for everyone
(1:09:45) Cases for increasing weight: stressful events, altitude and training camps, 200+ mile races, you need to have the energy to handle the stressor
(1:12:05) Err on the side of more energy availability: starting a hard ultra underweight with an energy deficit is worse than starting overweight with an energy surplus, weight and performance are more correlated at short distances, there is no “race weight”
(1:15:33) Wrap-up: being healthy with weight loss, slow and sustainable progress
(1:16:36) Outro: giving thanks, where to get in touch with Stephanie, reach out or visit trainright.com if you are interested in coaching, free coaching consultation
Additional resources:
Dynamic Energy Balance Figure Example of factors that impact EI and EE (Full article)
My Fitness Pal most user friendly to track intake
USDA Food data central. Most accurate database for food composition
SUBSCRIBE to Research Essentials for Ultrarunning
Buy Training Essentials for Ultrarunning on Amazon or Audible
Information on coaching-
Koop’s Social Media
Twitter/Instagram- @jasonkoop