72. Becoming a Lean, Fat-Burning Machine and Making It Last For Life – Part 1

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there and welcome to episode 72 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray. And today, I’ve got part one of a two part podcast series that I’m doing called Becoming a Lean, Fat-Burning Machine and Making It Last For Life.

As a sports nutritionist and weight loss coach for runners, I help runners transform themselves into lean, efficient fat burning machines so they can end the yo yo dieting and finally get to their ideal weight. This subject is near and dear to my heart since I gained over 40 pounds in just a few years when I was training for marathons and ultramarathons training for and running marathons and ultra marathons and still gained like 40 pounds.

This did not make sense to me at all. What the heck is going on here? Well, I eventually figured it all out. I dropped those extra pounds, I learned how to keep them off for good this time. And now, I help as many runners as possible to do the same. So in this eye opening two part series, I’ll show you exactly what it takes to become a lean, fat burning running machine and most importantly, how to make it last for life.

But first, if you haven’t already done so, come check out the Running Lean community on Facebook. This is a group of runners who share similar health and fitness goals. You can ask questions, get help and feel supported. Listen, we all need to feel supported, especially when it comes to doing hard things like losing weight or training for a marathon or qualifying for Boston.

Having this community to lean into is so helpful. You’ll find encouragement, inspiration and even motivation from when you’re just not feeling it. Just go on Facebook and search for Running Lean community and join us.

And here’s a recent five star review of the Running Lean podcast from Erica and she says, “My weekly treat. I look forward to Patrick’s podcast each week, my treat over the weekend is to pop in my air pods and go for a run. While I take in the invaluable information of real life experiences. Tough but much needed honesty, encouragement and inspiration that Patrick provides. These podcasts cover a wide range of everyday obstacles you come to in life as you try and navigate your journey to being a stronger runner. And a healthier and happier you.”

Thank you, Erica, that was very cool. Thank you for sharing. And you can share the love too if you enjoy this podcast, it would mean a lot to me if you would just take a moment to leave a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen. I just would love that it just makes me feel good to know that this message is resonating with you guys.

And listen, I also know that all this talk about diets, sports nutrition, weight loss, becoming a fat adapted runner, all these things – it’s awesome. It’s super helpful. But it also can feel a little overwhelming. You probably want to know just like how do I get started? How do I make all of this work? Well, I got you covered as a one on one coach. I can help you make sense of all of this and help you apply these principles to your own life.

Listen, we’re all very different. We all have different metabolisms, different body types, different genetics, different goals, different likes, different dislikes. And there’s just not one approach that works perfectly for everyone. If there was, that would be amazing. It would make my job a whole lot easier, but there is not.

So the way coaching works is we work up a metabolic profile for you. We clearly define your health and fitness goals. Then we put together a plan that is specifically tailored to help you reach those goals. And it’s not just about diet and nutrition either. It’s about becoming the healthiest human being that you can possibly be physically, mentally, even emotionally.

I work with people who’ve been struggling with weight their whole life and they’re ready, finally ready to change for good. I work with runners who are tired of bonking all the time. They’re ready to stop hitting the wall at mile 18, so they can finish strong for a change.

I work with runners who just want to qualify for Boston finally they know in their heads they can do it but they just can’t seem to dial in their nutrition and drop those last 10 or 15 pounds they need to run faster. I work with people who just have an unhealthy relationship with food, they do a lot of stress eating, a lot of emotional eating, and they’re ready to take back control of their thoughts and feelings around food and maybe stop obsessing about what they’re eating all the time.

Whatever your health and fitness goals, I’m here for you, I can be your guide, and show you the way to help you to become the most badass version of yourself yet, yet. So to learn more and apply for coaching, just go to runningleanpodcast.com/apply.

Alright, so I did a similar podcast series around this time last year. So this was episodes 19, 20, and 21. And I thought it was time to revisit this and provide an update because I’ve learned so much in this past year, I’ve helped so many runners become efficient fat burning machines, helped so many people lose weight and improve their running and improve their health.

And I wanted to spend a little bit of time over these next two episodes to share a lot of new information with you guys. So if you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, some of this will be a review, you may have heard some of this before, but I think a lot of it’s going to be new and new and improved just for you. Okay, so lace up those running shoes, pop in those air pods and let’s get into this.

So the problem as I see it for a lot of runners is that a lot of runners are just carrying around too much body fat. A lot of runners are what would be considered overweight or even in the obese category. And we all have this idea of what runners look like – these skinny, super lean, no meat on the bones kind of person, right? This idea of like these elite marathoners, right.

But that is far from reality. A lot of runners just struggle with their weight and they have a hard time losing weight. Maybe they keep gaining weight year after year, like I you know, and running isn’t working to stay lean anymore. It’s just not keeping the weight off anymore.

And, you know, most runners that I know and a lot of the runners that I work with are coming to me because they’re they’re kind of addicted to sugar and carbs, you know, they love their doughnuts, their beer, their pizza, their goos, their gels, their sports drinks, all this sugar, right.

And this is a problem. This is a big problem for a lot of people. You know, running is great. It’s good for you. It keeps you in good cardiovascular shape, it builds endurance, it helps with stress relief, it’s good for your mental health, it’s good for your overall health, right? But running alone is just not a very good way to lose weight.

Even runners who look good on the outside, like you would look at them and go that person is pretty, pretty decent looking and they don’t look, you know, overweight, a lot of runners are what is considered trophies. You know, they’re thin on the outside, but fat on the inside. This was definitely me, you know.

I’ve worked with many runners who have steadily gained weight, they can’t lose that weight. Their doctors have told them that they’re pre diabetic or maybe even diabetic. They maybe even have moved into the obese category. A lot of times doctors will put them on diabetes medicine, like Metformin. And these are people who are runners, and they run regularly.

They’re running marathons, and they’re being put on diabetes medicine. Some of these doctors will tell them that they need to get their blood sugar under control, or they will have to go on medication. So they might be pre diabetic. Or they might suggest that they switch their diet, they stop eating all the sugar and the carbs, they switch them to like a low carb diet, right?

So a lot of these people might look okay on the outside, but they have something very different going on inside right? Inside they’re unhealthy. You know, they’re overweight. They’re at risk for a slew of metabolic diseases like Type Two Diabetes and insulin resistance, heart disease, high blood pressure, even obesity.

And here’s the thing, like a lot of people are just not talking about it. Because it’s like, oh, I’m a runner, so I’m healthy. I can just eat whatever I want. And for a lot of us, that’s just not the case. And this isn’t just an opinion. I get messages from people every single day about this. So here’s a few.

Here’s one. This guy says back in my 40’s, I was 170 pounds and running marathons in two hours and 30 minutes. That’s fast, you know, and he says now I’m in my late 50’s And I weigh in at 213 pounds. Oh my gosh, in 10 years, this person has put on 43 pounds, that is crazy.

Another one is, I’m killing myself running this month to meet a goal and I’m up four pounds, WTF. Here’s another one, I ran my first half marathon and full marathon in the past year, I gained weight training for both. And I’m so confused, and I’m exhausted from the battle of trying to get back to my original weight without ditching my love for running.

You guys, these are just messages I get from people all the time. Here’s somebody that’s like, you know, been training for a marathon, ran a half and a full marathon and cannot get back to their original weight, they gained a bunch of weight.

And then here’s what I got just a few days ago, I was training for my first marathon in 2019. And I ended up gaining around 30 pounds, which was super frustrating, because then it just made running even harder. You know, and I’ve talked about this before I work with someone who’s been on a daily run streak since 2007. This person has like more than 5000 straight days of running. And when I say run streak, this person is running like at least three miles a day.

And in the process gained over 50 pounds. That’s crazy. And if you’ve ever like ran a marathon or half marathon, or you’ve watched one, you’ve probably noticed this trend, right? Sure the people in the front, the leaders, a lot of them are pretty lean and pretty fit. But most of the people you see would be considered, you know, overweight.

And it’s not a judgment. And I’m not shaming anyone here because this was me too. For sure. I was one of those people that was like, you know, fat as a runner as a marathon runner as an ultra runner. You know, I’ve been running marathons and Ultras for like, 15 years now.

And prior to that, before I got into running, I was very overweight, 230 pounds, fat, sick, I drank too much. And I had this big wake up call in 2003 when I was diagnosed with cancer. And at that moment, I decided I had to change my life, I had to get healthy. So I started running and changed my diet. And it really did change my life.

And I went, you know, basically I started eating more vegetables, right? I just went like vegetarian. And then I went plant based, you know, for like 10 years. And this worked for a while. But I slowly started to gain the weight back again, even though I was still running marathons, and ultramarathons. And I was training all the time.

And this picked up pretty quickly. You know, in the last few years here for me, you know, I started gaining weight, like crazy. So I started running more to try to run it off, you know, and it just wasn’t working. And I was still running a lot, you know, one to two marathons a year.

Several Ultras, every year, I would work out at the gym like three times a week. I was walking all the time, doing yoga, very active lifestyle, and still gaining weight. And by the time I had put on over 40 pounds, and I was up to almost 200 pounds again, I was like, I’ve got to do something about this, you know.

So I did, I changed a bunch of stuff that I was doing, you know, but really the biggest change was with my diet. I’m going to talk more about that in just a second. But I was able to drop those 40 pounds in a very short amount of time. And I’ve been able to keep it off effortlessly. And today, I’m 54 years old, I’m 165 pounds. I’m leaner and stronger than I’ve ever been in my life. Like I feel amazing. I have a ton of energy all the time. Running is amazing. I’m still running because I love it.

I’m running because I love it, not because I have to run to try to maintain my weight. And that’s like the biggest issue right? There’s like, running alone is just not enough. It’s not enough. So the biggest problem I see really is that, you know, people use running as a way to try to lose weight and it’s just not a very effective weight loss strategy.

Okay, we’ve been told for over 40 years now that in order to lose weight, and stay healthy, you have to just eat less and exercise more. This is called the energy balance theory. And it’s called a theory because it’s just that – it’s a theory. So the energy energy balance theory says that it really doesn’t matter what you eat as long as you burn more calories than you consume. You’re good. Right?

That’s it. That’s the end of the story. Just burn more calories in your eating and you’ll be fine. This is fine if you’re like a combustion engine, right but we’re not combustion engines. The human body is much more complex. There’s a lot more going on here that has to be addressed.

Even a combustion engine will break down with the wrong kind of fuel. Have you ever put diesel gasoline or diesel fuel into a gasoline engine and see what happens? The whole thing starts smoking and just explodes, like it does not operate properly. And I think that’s kind of what’s happening here.

We’re putting the wrong kind of fuel in our body, it does matter. Calories do matter a little bit, you know, calories play a role, for sure. You know, you can’t eat 4000 calories a day, and not exercise and expect to lose weight so that’s just not going to work, right?

But it’s not just about calories. Okay? And it’s not, it’s not like running is terrible. Like you shouldn’t run or anything like that. Don’t get me wrong about that, running is amazing. It’s so good for your cardiovascular health, for your mental health. It’s a great way to like release endorphins and dopamine and feel good running actually makes you feel happier.

But as a weight loss strategy, just not very effective. So what’s going on here? What’s this whole energy balance theory, why isn’t it working? So it’s not just about the calories in versus calories out, right? In order to lose weight, what do you have to do? You’ve got to burn the fat, right?

That’s what we’re trying to do when we talk about losing weight, we’re not talking about losing muscle, we want to lose the fat. Okay, so in order to lose weight, we’ve got to burn fat. The part that most people don’t understand is that in order to get into fat burning mode, you have to remove the body’s preferred source of fuel, which is sugar, so your body will burn sugar first, and as long as there’s sugar available to burn, you will not be very efficient at burning fat.

Okay, the goal here is to transform your body to change your body from a sugar burner to a fat burner. Okay, so the main regulator of this process in your body is a hormone called insulin, when you eat sugar, or carbohydrates, so sugar is just a concentrated form of carbohydrate. It’s like a pure form of carbohydrate.

Okay, so when I talk about carbs, I’m talking about sugar. When I talk about sugar, I’m talking about carbs all the same thing. When you eat carbs, your blood sugar goes up. Insulin is then released to bring your blood sugar down. Blood sugar goes down. Everything’s cool, right?

But here’s the problem. Insulin has all these other effects on the body. So when insulin is elevated, your body is put into this state of fat storage mode. So insulin is like the security guard that keeps the fat inside the fat cells. And as long as insulin is present, the fat is going to stay right where it is. Okay.

So all of that energy from the carbohydrates that you’re eating, it can’t all be used right away. So insulin sends signals telling your body okay, store some of this energy as fat, we’re going to use this later. Okay, and then we’re going to lock it up in here, and we’re going to hold on to this fat and we’ll use some of this later for fuel. This is fine as the way our bodies are designed to work.

But when insulin is elevated all the time, your body is constantly in this state of storing fat. And now we’re getting to the gist of the problem, you’ve got to get your body out of that fat storage mode and get your body into fat burning mode. Okay?

So insulin is high, you’re storing fat, the fat cannot be used for fuel, we got to bring the insulin down so that you can start burning the fat. And don’t just take my word for it. There’s a fantastic book out there that lays all of this out, it explains the science in great detail. It’s called The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung. Awesome, awesome book.

So it’s not just about the calories you’re eating, it’s more about what types of calories you’re eating. So when you’re eating a diet that’s high in sugar, and high in other highly refined carbohydrates like flour. This is going to keep you in that fat storage mode because insulin is always going to be high.

So when we remove those problematic carbohydrates from your diet, this helps switch off the insulin signals and helps to get your body into the fat burning mode. All right. My whole coaching program is built around helping runners become fat burning machines. Okay.

Everything we do is like we want to be burning fat. Fat is a great source of fuel for running, and it’s how you lose weight. But here’s the problem. Here’s what it looks like for a lot of runners. A lot of runners will eat a very high carbohydrate diet, right?

So they’re eating pizza and ice cream and donuts and you know drink a lot of beer and stuff like that. So you’re just like consuming carbs all the time, your body is just full of carb energy. And so carbohydrates get turned into glucose, which gets stored in your muscles as glycogen, you know, so glycogen is great. This is what fuels you know, running and things like that.

But the problem is, if you’re fueling up on carbs all the time, your glycogen is like always topped off. And so a lot of that energy has to get stored as fat. So typical runners eat tons of carbs, and they’re just, you know, a lot of the energy they’re eating is getting stored as fat. Okay.

And then, you know, in the days leading up to a long run or a race you like do carbo loading. So you’re eating even more carbs, you know, pasta, spaghetti dinner, you know, and all this. And then, you know, before your run, before you head out the door, you’re fueling up with, you know, pancakes, or bananas, or what other other carbs that you need energy drinks in order to top off, you know, your carbs stores are even more.

And then while you’re running, you’re sucking down the goos and the energy drinks and all this sugar. And you’re using carbs as fuel while you’re running. And then when you’re done running, what do you do? You replace all those carbs, you burn with more carbs, more pancakes, and, you know, more energy drinks, and recovery drinks and all this stuff.

And you’re only ever burning carbs, you’re just like in carb burning mode all the time. And a lot of that energy cannot be burned, so it gets stored as fat. So you’re burning carbs, you know, almost exclusively. And storing a lot of that energy is fat, and you never get into the, into the fat you never get into fat burning mode. Right.

This is why you can run a million miles and still be overweight. This is why you gain weight a lot of times when training for a marathon or an ultra marathon is because you’re just overloaded with carbs. Okay. And again, like my whole program here is to help you become a more efficient fat burner.

And the two reasons are number one, fat is an amazing source of fuel for running. So fat delivers more energy per gram than carbs, like you get nine calories of energy per gram of fat. Whereas from carbs and protein, you only get four calories of energy. So this is more than twice the amount of energy from fat.

Also, your body can only store a small amount of carbohydrate in the form of glycogen in your liver and in your muscles. So it works out to something like 100 grams or so of glycogen in the liver and around 400 grams of carbohydrate in the form of glycogen stored in the muscles.

On average, you know, the average runner can probably store around 2000 calories of total energy in the form of glycogen in the body. Once that’s depleted, you have to keep adding more or you’re going to bomb this is when you hit the wall because you’ve run out of fuel.

Whereas your body can store an almost unlimited amount of energy in the way of fat. So I’m pretty lean, I have around 15% body fat, which equates to around 20 pounds of fat on my body. And if you wouldn’t know that by looking at me, but there’s about 20 pounds of fat on me, which is good as healthy, right?

That’s over 9000 grams of fat, or, like 81,000 calories of stored energy available at any given time, like I could not run enough to blow through all that energy. So not only does fat provide more than twice the energy of carbs, but you’re carrying around an almost unlimited supply of fat all the time, even for the leanest of us right.

So when you become a fat adapted runner, meaning you’ve adapted your body to burning fat more efficiently, you’re burning fat as your main source of fuel. When you do this, when you make this switch, you become virtually bonk proof. Because you always have plenty of energy on board. You just can go okay, so that’s number one.

Like these are why I’m talking about fat burning, why it’s so important. Number one is fat is an amazing source of fuel for running. Okay, and the second reason why it’s so important to become a fat burning machine is because there’s this amazing side benefit to burning fat, you lose weight.

When you start burning fat instead of all the sugar, you’re actually able to lose weight. You’ll burn through the extra fat that you have on your body. It is very, very difficult to lose weight while eating a high carbohydrate diet. Okay? If you ditch the sugar, ditch the refined carbs, like flour, and lose weight, it’s going to become so much easier for you.

And here’s a question I get a lot from people. It’s like, don’t I need carbs for running? And like, yeah, a lot of people have been, you know, coming to me with this, and I just need the carbs to run. I need the carbs to run. And this is kind of old school thinking it goes back to like the 70s.

There was a guy, Professor Tim Noakes, who wrote a book. This was like the runner’s Bible it’s called the Lore of Running and he talked about it. He wrote a whole section in there about carbo loading, for running and how you need the carbs to run, and how carbs are so great as fuel for running, and not too long ago.

But it was many years ago that he did this, but he completely had an about face around all of this. He’s like, you know, carbohydrates are a problem for a lot of people. And he totally changed his tune. He’s like, you know, runners really don’t need carbs to run, they can really fuel themselves very, very efficiently, with fat instead.

And they will reduce all these metabolic issues. He was a tofi. He was one of these guys that was thin on the outside, but fat on the inside. He had run like 70 marathons and was diagnosed with type two diabetes.

And so he did this thing, he was at a book signing, and he very dramatically, like, tore out that chapter from his book on carbo loading and said, This is irrelevant. Now I’ve learned that there’s a better way to go.

So just, you know, he tore it out of the book, I think that’s really cool. So, you know, it’s kind of old school thinking, you know, it goes back for, you know, 40-50 years or whatever. And yeah, carbs will give you fuel for running, but they have this big side effect, they make you hold on the fat, like they’re storing fat. And some people can handle this, some people can handle a high carbohydrate diet, you know, there’s something like maybe 15% of the population who can tolerate a very high carb diet.

Most of us though, cannot. Most of us are what is considered carbohydrate intolerant. That means that when we eat carbs, we put our body into this fat storing mode that we just cannot lose weight and we gain weight incessantly.

So if you’re a part of that 15% or whatever that number is great. Eat all those sugary gels. You want carbo load with pasta before your races, eat all the bread, drink the beer and enjoy. Like you’re you’re one of the few, okay. But for the rest of us who have tried that, and it doesn’t work, or maybe it used to work when we were younger, it’s not working anymore, we need to take a different approach.

So I’ve been following a pretty low carbohydrate diet for a while now. And I have to tell you, I’ve never bonked, I’ve run several marathons, I even ran a 50k without the need for any goos or gels. I don’t use calories for my runs, and it feels amazing. Honestly, I feel like I can run all day. I’ve run two marathons and 50k all on zero calories just using my own stored body fat as a source of fuel. That’s it.

And it’s not just me that thinks this is a better way to go like there are a bunch of new elite runners, even elite ultra runners who are turning to a low carbohydrate approach to fueling for running. Tim Olson, years ago, he won the western states 100 miler following this low carb diet and he was one of the first people to do something like this and people are like, what is this guy doing?

Zach Bitter held the world record for running the fastest 100 miler up until recently. His record was broken recently, but he ran 100 miles in 11 hours and 19 minutes. Holy smokes, this guy is fast. And he does basically a very low carb diet. And, you know, he’s setting records and he still holds the record for the 12 hours, you know, running the most miles in 12 hours.

Mike McKnight this guy is known for winning like 200 mile races like this is his, you know, preferred distance is that – 200 miles. And just for kicks, he ran 100 miles on zero calories just to show that you can do it as a fat adapted runner, you know.

Dave Scott six times, six time Ironman champion. He now trains athletes on a low carb approach. Even Michelle Hearn, Michelle Hearn is so awesome. She’s a registered dietician, and she’s the author of a book called The Dietitians’ Dilemma. So she had this dilemma where she was working as a diet registered dietitian in hospitals.

And she was forced to, to give diabetic patients, you know, orange juice and bagels and sugary breakfast and pancakes with syrup and all this stuff. Like this was what she was told to give these people. And it was just making their diabetes worse, and they would just have to up their insulin that they were giving them and all kinds of problems. She was just like, this is crazy. Something has to change. If you guys want to read a really interesting book, it’s very eye opening, Dieticians’ Dilemma.

But Michelle Hearn is also an ultra runner. And she recently ran a 50k in like 3 hours and 56 minutes, like she’s super, she’s badass. And she does like a carnivore diet, like she is just like a zero carb person. So she’s really cool.

I think something like 4 of the top 11 ultra runners in the world back in 2020, we’re following some sort of a low carb approach. And they were doing it not because it was like, weird, or you know, fringe, but they were doing it because it enhances their running performance. They were performing like, these are some of the top runners in the world. And they’re following this approach. Because it’s good for running. It really is amazing, right?

So a big question a lot of people ask me is like, how do you make the switch? Like, how do you switch from being a sugar burner to a fat burner? Like I get it, Patrick, I want to be a more efficient fat burning machine, right? How do I do this?

So really, the, the, the way you get started is pretty easy. It’s not. It’s simple, but it’s not easy. I’ll say it that way, you’ve got to stop eating the most problematic types of carbohydrates. This is mainly sugar, and flour. These are probably two of the most unhealthy things you can eat.

Sugar and flour are in everything. And it’s really hard to get away from this stuff. But if you can, then you will absolutely begin to change the way your body works, you’re just going to feel amazing, I promise you. Sugar, flour, and vegetable oil, these things are really bad for you. Try to stay away from those three things, okay? If you could just make this one change, it will help you so much, you’re gonna you’re it’s gonna go a long way to becoming healthier.

And, you know, like I said, it’s a simple thing to do, just stop eating sugar and flour. But it’s not easy, because in order to become fat adapted, you reduce your carbohydrate intake, and then you’ve got to train your body to adapt to using fat for fuel, this is the part that people don’t like.

Because fat is not as easily accessible as fuel. At first, it takes a little while for your body to adapt to this. And it can take anywhere from like two to six weeks. And a lot of people who start with they’re like, this sounds like a great idea, I’m going to do this. And then they start, they cut out the sugar, and they start running and they keep running and then all of a sudden running becomes hard. And it’s uncomfortable.

And a lot of people just quit, they can’t hang, you know, running is gonna be hard for a few weeks. And what I need to say to you guys right now is that if you want to do this and you want to give it a shot, you got to stick with it, you have to stick with it, because the results of the things that you get on the other side of this adaptation process are amazing, okay.

But it is uncomfortable. And it feels like you have no energy because you don’t, your body is not used to using fat for fuel. So you have to train it to do that. And the way you do it is you just go out there and run.

And I work with my clients on this and believe me they have issues like it’s, it’s challenging, you know, but it’s a little different for everyone. Okay, everyone’s a little bit different. Everybody has different metabolisms, different fitness levels, different goals and stuff. So, you know, I work with my clients and put together a very personalized plan that works for them.

And some people can get through this tough part pretty much unscathed, like they can handle the first few weeks and get through that tough period. Other people it takes a little bit longer, but we tweak things and we’re always trying to make it a little bit easier. There’s a few things you can do to kind of alleviate some of this discomfort you know, during those first few weeks.

But I will say this, and I tried this a few years ago on my own it was very hard. I had a very hard time doing this. And most people trying to do this on their own just can’t do it. They just give up because it kind of sucks. Learning is hard for a while. But I promise you, if you stick with it, the resort the rewards are like so worth it, it’s truly life changing.

So some of the things you can experience when you become a lean fat burning running machine, when you try, you know, transform yourself from a sugar burner to a fat burner, obviously, you lose weight, because you’re going to give your body a chance to actually start burning the fat instead of storing it right, you won’t feel hungry all the time, you’ll feel more full and more satisfied for longer you won’t be, you know, obsessing about food all the time.

Because when insulin is high, it kind of jacks up your hunger signals and your satiety signals. So when we can bring insulin levels down, those things start working properly, okay, you’re not going to need to eat every, you know, one to two hours, like when you’re eating a high carb diet, because you’re like, I’m hungry all the time. Right?

That’s, that’s not normal, right? You can go 8 or 10 or 16 hours without food, and you’ll be fine, you know. And you can kind of get off of that, you know, addictive response that we have to sugar and carbohydrates. You can still have them here and there. But you won’t feel like you need them, you won’t be obsessed about them.

Some of the things you can experience when you become more efficient at burning fat is you don’t really need to bring fuel on the long runs, right? I always take water and electrolytes with me, but I don’t have to bring goos. I haven’t had a goo and a year and a half.

You know, you don’t have to have sugary carbs with you every 30 or 45 minutes during a run I do all these long runs up to 50k. So up to 32 miles so far, unfueled, you know, with just running on my own body fat, zero calories, right? You don’t have GI distress from all the sugar that you’re eating right. A lot of people have GI problems when they’re eating a lot of sugar.

You basically have limitless fuel on board, right? So you become virtually bonk proof. There was this couple Meredith Loring and Sammy Innokin. And they were rowers. And they set a record by rowing from California to Hawaii in a rowboat, in 45 days. And they did this on zero sugar, zero carbs, they follow a low carb diet. And they did this without all the sugary fuel, you know what I mean?

So like, there’s just unlimited things you can do. You know, when you make this switch, you will improve your body composition, for sure. Because you’ll be preserving lean muscle mass, you’ll you’ll be able to build and keep more muscle tissue, you’ll be able to increase your power to weight ratio, which means you can be a more powerful runner, a faster runner, you’ll have more sustained energy throughout the day, you won’t be crashing from these, like when you have to eat a bunch of carbs in the afternoon.

Or you know frappe or a Jamba Juice from Starbucks in the afternoon. Because you’re just like, I need some energy, you know, and then you come crashing down and you take a nap after that like that just goes away. Also when you’re burning fat, you have more mental clarity, more mental focus, better concentration, because your brain actually needs fat to work properly.

And a lot of people experience this, they’re like Patrick, I don’t have this brain fog anymore. Like I didn’t even realize I was so foggy in my brain. But now I feel you know, like, everything is more clear to me now. And listen, you’re just gonna feel better about yourself, because you’re becoming healthier overall, you know, so you’re optimizing your health and your happiness.

And you know what? Running becomes more fun when you lose weight and you and running is lighter. Like if you’re 30 pounds overweight, carry around a 30 pound weight with you and run with it. This is really hard to do. You know, I imagined myself carrying around one of those 45 pound weights from the gym, you know, trying to run with that home. I got up but I was running with that not that long ago, throw that weight down and start running and how much easier is it going to feel? Oh my gosh.

So here’s a little secret for you guys. This is not really all about weight loss or even being able to run all day without bonking. Those things are awesome, though. But this is about becoming the healthiest human being that you can possibly become right? It’s about becoming fit and healthy and not just for a little while.

Not just you know, for a month or two, but this is like, what this is what we want for the rest of our life. Being healthy is not some destination you’re trying to get to, it becomes a way of life. It’s about Running Lean for life. So here’s the thing, the most challenging part of all of this is how do I make it last for life? How do I sustain this? Making it last.

This is like the biggest challenge that I help my clients with. This is the biggest challenge with any kind of diet, any kind of lifestyle change, the number one issue people have with sticking to any kind of healthy eating program losing weight, whatever it is, anyone can follow a diet for like, a minute, anybody, you know, follow weight loss program for a few weeks, or maybe a month or two, but several years? Most people just can’t do it. Most people give up, they quit, it’s too hard.

So this is a huge, huge part of what I do. This is why I’m a coach. I give people the tools and I teach them exactly how to make it last for life. This is the work that we really do together. I’ll help you break all those old habits and establish new healthy habits that just become part of how you live your life going forward and becoming healthy becomes who you are. It’s who you are. And it’s what you do. Making it last is so important.

It’s such a big topic that I’m doing a whole other podcast episode on just this part of it. Okay. So, you know, be on the lookout for part two of this discussion, which is going to be all about how do we make this last for life. Listen, I’m always striving to become more, I’m always striving to become healthier. I’m always striving to become, you know, to learn and grow. And I want that for you too.

I want you to become the most healthy, most badass version of yourself yet. Because I’ve done it. I know what it feels like. It’s amazing. I’ve done it for myself, I help other runners just like you do this every single day, and I want you to want this for yourself.

I want you to do this because you are worth it. Your health for the rest of your life is so worth it. I want you to make being healthy, just part of who you are what you do. Okay, so making it last. That’s all coming up in part two. So if you haven’t already done so be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you get part two of the discussion as soon as it comes out.

All right, I talked a lot today. I hope you got something out of this episode today. And if you did, please consider sharing it with a friend. I love you all, keep on Running Lean. I’ll talk to you soon.

If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.