Alex Hutchinson wrote an interesting article about overtraining and undereating in the Globe and Mail. The main point is that when athletes overdo it in their training, their appetites can fall short of their calorie needs, causing them to inadvertently overeat. This can be exacerbated for someone trying to lose weight and thus deliberately restricting calories. I’d talked about overtraining before, but wasn’t aware of this link to overeating. You may need to subscribe to Globe and Mail to read the article, so here’s his summary:

“Also for the Globe and Mail I wrote about an interesting study by an international team led by Trent Stellingwerff of the Canadian Sport Institute, about the overlap between overtraining and undereating. Overtraining syndrome has long baffled scientists because there is no single reliable way to diagnose it except by ruling out other possible causes of a long-term decline in performance. One exception that scientists sometimes overlook is an inadvertent calorie deficit, because appetite cues don’t necessarily give you an accurate idea of ​​what to eat during strenuous exercise. In fact, Stellingwerff and his colleagues found that in 18 of the 21 previous studies of overreach/overtraining, the subjects were not eating enough to fuel their increased exercise load. This doesn’t mean that overtraining isn’t a real phenomenon in itself, but if you’re concerned about it, make sure you’re eating enough first.” He refers to this research. (If you like this kind of info from Alex, you can subscribe to his newsletter for free here).

Conventional wisdom about overtraining (https://www.myithlete.com/what-is-hrv/avoid-overtraining/prevent-overtraining/). Note that there is no question of controlling the athlete’s diet, so I’m not sure how well known this association is.

My main symptom of overtraining is that when I increase the amount of training I do, it feels great, up to a point. After that, I start to feel crumbly after exercise or I don’t recover as quickly. And I get grumpy. Since fun is one of the most important points of exercise for me, it’s time to cut back. But next time I might also check if I might not eat enough…

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Published by BionicOldGuy

I am a mechanical engineer born in 1953, Ph. D, Stanford, 1980. I have been in the mechanical CAE field for decades. I also have a lifelong interest in outdoor activities and fitness. I had both hips replaced and a heart valve replacement due to a genetic condition. This blog describes my adventures to stay active despite these bumps in the road. View all posts from BionicOldGuy

Published March 12, 202210 March 2022

This post Overtraining vs. Undereating – BionicOldGuy was original published at “https://bionicoldguy.home.blog/2022/03/12/overtraining-vs-undereating/”