Topic: Maintaining a girlish figure

[Dan Elric]

Isn't every pound of fat I burn off one less pound I have to carry around?  Sure it had its place back when food wasn't as common, but now it isn't hard at all to find food.

Considering my goals are to be both an endurance runner (5Ks) and a traceur with a high level of strength, a type of body that has very little excess weight is optimal.  But of course I realize and agree that not everyone has these same goals O.o.  I dunno about you guys, I'm aiming for 6 - 7% body fat.  I've all ready shed off ~ 10 lbs. of fat and put on 20 lbs. of muscle, leading me to a total of 160 lbs.  May seem silly at first, but when you realize that 1 lb. is an extra 1 lb. of force I have to throw down to run at the same speed (just a guess, I don't know biomechanics) and say I have 6000 strides in a 5k that's 6000 extra lbs. of force total I have to exert.  The energy used would have been better spent making me go even faster :/

[Chris Salvato]

If your 5k running is on level ground then the extra weight isn't too bad.  1lb of weight requires only a minimal amount of extra force because of how bloody efficient the ankle is at generating power, especially dynamically.

If its uphill, though, then the biomechanics are much less favorable.  In general, its best to be as light as possible, but I just wanted to be clear that the ankle joint is remarkable at translating force and you dont need 1lb of force generated for a 1lb increase of weight on flat surfaces so long as the weight is evenly and proportionally distributed (this latter point is why weight vests feel a LOT different than running with 10lbs of extra muscle/fat on your body.)

[Dan Elric]

If your 5k running is on level ground then the extra weight isn't too bad.  1lb of weight requires only a minimal amount of extra force because of how bloody efficient the ankle is at generating power, especially dynamically.

If its uphill, though, then the biomechanics are much less favorable.  In general, its best to be as light as possible, but I just wanted to be clear that the ankle joint is remarkable at translating force and you dont need 1lb of force generated for a 1lb increase of weight on flat surfaces so long as the weight is evenly and proportionally distributed (this latter point is why weight vests feel a LOT different than running with 10lbs of extra muscle/fat on your body.)

That's really good to know, thanks Chris.