Great 5K PR. Man, you’re fast. Wish I had that kind of foot turnover!

Ernesto – I’ve jokingly told a lot of people that I run so that I can eat,
and there is actually a lot of truth to that. Running lets me be a little
less careful with eating (and drinking) the things that I like, and I don’t
necessarily think that’s a bad thing. And you’re right, it makes me much
more conscious of what I put into my body – every pound does count over 26.2
miles, Thanks for the comment about the 5K PR, but I’d say the same thing
about your marathon time at Baystate!

Pete

Wow, haven’t had a comment on this one in a long time! I pretty much agree with all that you say here Paul. Well put.

Kristen – Thanks for the comment! I checked out your blog and saw that you
were Ernesto’s wife – made for some fun reading! My wife is also a runner,
though she has had some hip issues lately that have slowed her down a bit
(being 4 months pregnant doesn’t help either…). I love that we can both
be active adults – it sets a great example for our little ones (ages 4,
almost 6, and soon to arrive in April!). -Pete

I just read the article, and for me the point its making is not that exercise is useless in weight loss. But that too many people compensate the exercise with additional calories (often bad calories as a treat for ‘working out’) and negate the calorific loss from the exercise.

The ‘now i deserve it’ menatality is fine as long as you are aware of just what calorific load you burnt off and what your treating yourself with.

I see a lot of begginer runners starting off with the goal of weightloss, and while the exercise is important for its many health benifits, most of them will see bigger effects from controlling their diet more closely and seeing the exercise as the ‘cherry on the top’ rather than something that allows them to be ‘bad’ occasionally.

Im also not entirely sure that you can allways contribute the success of runners in weight loss just to their running, along with the runnign often comes a desire to be more healty in general which is often accompanied by a modification to diet.

But i dont contest that those of us who are ambitious runners find it easy to maintain our weight. The though of the extra weight that the family pack of M&M’s will create for your next race is usually a pretty good motivator for asserting your will power and putting it back on the shelf…. usually…because as the article mentions sometime i am feeling so hungry after a long run that i say bugger it … I deserve them. ;)

After all since starting running Ive dropped my weight by over 40 pounds… now if i can just cut a further 5 before the next marathon… damn you Mars Inc and your M&M’s

Michelle,

Thanks – I’ve been thinking about this post for awhile, and reading everyone else’s stories inspired me to go with it!

Pete