From the August 2004 issue of Runner's World
The Calorie-Deprived
You burn many more calories than you eat.
There are two types of runners who fall into this camp. The over-trained, over-worked athlete who dips too deeply into energy stores during high-mileage training and starts losing weight unintentionally. Then there's the individual who intentionally uses running to lose weight by cutting calories and increasing mileage simultaneously. As our sample population illustrated, many more runners fall into the latter category.
Boosting mileage while dramatically cutting calories is a simple, yet dangerous, equation. "Depriving your body of the fuel it needs to carry on its normal daily business as well as the added calories it needs to perform physical activity forces your body into a state of cannibalism, where it is actually breaking down muscle for fuel," says Dolins. "This is obviously not good in the long term for your health or your running performance."
Change your ways:
If weight management is a concern, make healthier food choices and eat small meals throughout the day to keep your metabolism revved. Regardless, no active woman should eat fewer than 1,500 calories a day, and an active man should not take in less than 1,800 calories a day.
Increase your calories by a couple hundred two days before a race, on race day, and the day after, to maximize performance and recovery. Make those calories high-quality and high-carb.
Don't think of food as calories, think of it as fuel. You shouldn't be running so you can eat--you should be eating so you can run.
