IMO the worst groups seem to be women’s distance runners and pole vaulters however there are plenty in other groups too.
LR1400 - 10 April 2008 03:04 AM
I really don’t understand how this can happen with collegiate athletes. It seems pretty ridiculous to me with the workload most are doing. Here I am, old, not a collegiate athlete, train 6 days a week but run a business everyday as well, have a wife and kid and I can maintain visible abs? For the most part I’ll eat healthy, but every week I eat an entire large pizza, drink a beer or two or six a day, eat some cake, cookies, or fries when I want. And I DO NOT have a fast metabolism.
How the hell do these kids have a muffin top with their workloads?
The ones I see here in the south are pretty lean. There’s one or two female sprinters who have the muffin top and still insist on wearing the little outfit like the other girls do but the sprinters and jumpers are pretty lean. The distance guys look sick like anorexic girls.
It’s because you grew up active and on a healthier diet and they grew up inactive and with a much more sugar and fat laden diet. This has a long term cascade affect….they lay down fat cells early and once you have them you don’t get rid of them (other than liposuction)...the only thing you can do is get them smaller. And even then, it’s still more likely they’ll blow up again. Also, they’ve been desensitized to insulin and have insulin resistance which only compounds the problem. Add to that, a sedentary lifestyle for 21 hours of the day and a couple Crisco and bacon cookies and voila….magnificent muffin top.
There are pretty much 2 reactions distance chicks would have when reading this.
1. Read, cry, eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s…
2. Read, cry, then become anorexic
Most of the good ones seem to do the 2nd. I’ve actually met very few distance chicks who are good that are not anorexic to some extent or have been at some point in their life.
As women’s coach, this is an area only discussed behind closed doors. End of story. I can’t tell you what to post publicly but I know my team reads this forum.
I’m not saying it is healthy or appropriate, but a fact of life. In fact, I’d like to hear how coaches address the bodyfat and weight issue WITHOUT making girls turn anorexic. I don’t know of very many who do it well, so I’d like to hear how you guys do it.
Cruel though it may seem, I’m with Davan and Winnesota. If girls need to lose some weight for performance’s (or health’s) sake, they need to be told so. Are people (women especially in this case) so mentally weak that a comment about their weight will cause them to develop an eating disorder? If so, they have bigger issues to deal with than their weight and should seek counseling.
A coach should never have to worry about causing his athletes to develop a potentially life-threatening disorder by telling them the truth.
Cruel though it may seem, I’m with Davan and Winnesota. If girls need to lose some weight for performance’s (or health’s) sake, they need to be told so. Are people (women especially in this case) so mentally weak that a comment about their weight will cause them to develop an eating disorder? If so, they have bigger issues to deal with than their weight and should seek counseling.
A coach should never have to worry about causing his athletes to develop a potentially life-threatening disorder by telling them the truth.
If they are eating so poorly that they look like that when they workout that much, they may have bigger issues to deal with like poor diet which will cause problems like heart disease or cancer.
As women’s coach, this is an area only discussed behind closed doors. End of story. I can’t tell you what to post publicly but I know my team reads this forum.
I agree Coach, these guys don’t have kids or daughters so they don’t understand, If a Coach ever told my sister or daughter they needed to loose weight that would be his ass.
This is an old posted from me:
You cant tell women they are fat, I would use the word “conditioned” and help them understand that by being in better conditioned it will improve there performance, health and many other things. Also stress the nutritional plan should be healthier and never in reduction of cal. You can add other low int stuff like 40min incline tempo walks, med ball circuits, bb circuits, and tell them to take the stairs and don’t look for the close parking spaces.
Hey RJ how would you feel if you had a Coach who told you to give ur sport up because you suck and wouldnt have any success in the sport OR your ankles are too fat so maybe you should take up a sport like ping pong.
if the high school girls I coach don’t make state because they aren’t anorexic, I will consider my job as a coach well done.
How do I address the issue? I don’t feel a need to. Nobody’s high school (or hell, even college) track performances are worth causing those kind of problems.
and RJ, telling someone to lose weight for performance sake should be in the realm of professional athletes. For health’s sake, different issue, but I don’t think that’s the kind of problem we’re talking about in the thread. A muffin top is not a “health concern” issue. Anorexia in younger girls/women is.
Quite frankly, I question if some of you have any experience around girls at the levels where this is more prevalent.
Quit track - a disgrace?
Just tell them the truth? Should I explain to my slower runners that they will never run on varsity - that they just don’t have the talent for track, maybe they should take up violin?
I sincerely hope that those of you making such idiotic comments are not coaches, or ever consider coaching. When Track at these “lower levels” becomes so focused on performance that we OK something like anorexia, let me know.
And Mike, I’ll just say I’m disappointed with the way this thread has turned, but it started somewhere. In the short time I’ve been reading this site, I’ve come to expect better.
Cruel though it may seem, I’m with Davan and Winnesota. If girls need to lose some weight for performance’s (or health’s) sake, they need to be told so. Are people (women especially in this case) so mentally weak that a comment about their weight will cause them to develop an eating disorder? If so, they have bigger issues to deal with than their weight and should seek counseling.
A coach should never have to worry about causing his athletes to develop a potentially life-threatening disorder by telling them the truth.
I’m not saying that you tell them that at all. I stated the facts of life—what happens. I’ve seen it with many different girls—a coach tells them, generally in a way I thought was rather respectful and nice, to try and lose weight. Result was always some sort of crying, with some turning anorexic. That is not at all what we’re looking for, but it what ends of happening. Anyone who has been around a lot of chick XC runners know there are plenty that have had issues with eating, so the last thing you want to do is call them fat, but you still need to address it. I think UT’s “conditioning” comment is pretty good, but I’d like to hear some more as well.
if the high school girls I coach don’t make state because they aren’t anorexic, I will consider my job as a coach well done.
How do I address the issue? I don’t feel a need to. Nobody’s high school (or hell, even college) track performances are worth causing those kind of problems.
and RJ, telling someone to lose weight for performance sake should be in the realm of professional athletes. For health’s sake, different issue, but I don’t think that’s the kind of problem we’re talking about in the thread. A muffin top is not a “health concern” issue. Anorexia in younger girls/women is.
Quite frankly, I question if some of you have any experience around girls at the levels where this is more prevalent.
Quit track - a disgrace?
Just tell them the truth? Should I explain to my slower runners that they will never run on varsity - that they just don’t have the talent for track, maybe they should take up violin?
I sincerely hope that those of you making such idiotic comments are not coaches, or ever consider coaching. When Track at these “lower levels” becomes so focused on performance that we OK something like anorexia, let me know.
And Mike, I’ll just say I’m disappointed with the way this thread has turned, but it started somewhere. In the short time I’ve been reading this site, I’ve come to expect better.
I was the first one to mention anorexia and if you read my post, I never condoned it. I think you need to read over what people are saying before responding, so that you can best address their comments.
Also, how can coaches beyond maybe the early high school level NOT address body composition and diet? That is completely ignoring a very important point for performance.
This might sound stupid, but when did we get to the point where we can tell a guy he needs to lose weight but we can’t tell a girl, if they really need to?
On the opposite end of the spectrum, how does one go about confronting someone you think is anorexic/ bulimic? There is a girl on my team that I honestly wonder how she functions because she is so skinny.
UT, why can’t you call women fat? Are they so frail that this will drive them to hurt themselves? I believe in treating everyone equally, and if I can tell a guy to lose weight, I should be able to tell a girl to lose weight as well.
And about your comments towards me, I do get told I suck at sprinting, and my ankles are a full 10” around, but I don’t let it stop me. Nor should a girl getting told she is fat (especially if it’s true) let that stop her. Regarding ping pong though, not many ping pong players can throw down 360 dunks.
Madison, I don’t want the girls to become anorexic, but how weak are people that telling them to lose weight will cause health problems?
Davan, I guess we don’t agree then. If a man or woman needs to lose weight, they should be told and they should not cry or develop a disorder in the process.
I’ve found the issue best left alone. Hell I even brought it up in a consult with a former coach (female coach) of an athlete of mine then she never responded to me again (despite that fact that it clearly was an issue).
On the other hand, I don’t understand why girls get so upset about something they can (relatively) easily remedy.
