"You can't get fat"

I am a generally active person, and I am a runner after all. Unfortunately, I am a greedy, greedy, disgusting pig if there is food in front of me. 

I hear this sentence, all the time: “You’re a runner, you can’t get fat.” 

It actually really bothers me when people say that.

In my experience, a lot of casual runners have a complicated relationship with food. I mean, a lot of runners have diagnosed eating disorders. On a less serious scale, if you have no self-control (like me), running is a way to allocate some of those ingested calories. Unfortunately, it’s easy to get caught up in believing you’re invincible.

I mean, on a day that I go out and run 10 miles, I don’t think twice about spending $20 on Taco Bell. I’ll go to Dunkin Donuts and buy enough donuts to feed an entire office, and eat them all myself. I go crazy at family functions. I constantly avoid the inevitable “What are you doing after you finish college?” question by efficiently shoveling scoops of potluck food into my mouth hole. 

I work at a Mexican restaurant, and I get a free shift meal every time I work. I devour burritos the size of 7-week-old puppies more or less every day. 

People notice, too. The chef at my restaurant commented, “For a skinny girl, you eat a lot.” Constantly, people ask me where all the food goes. My mom’s friends encourage me to eat, so I can keep on running. I listen to them. It’s a cycle. I eat a lot, and I’m encouraged to eat more.

Shit gets real when your jeans won’t fit or your shirt rides up your belly. The worst is when my boyfriend used that horrible, horrible word: voluptuous. That poor, poor boy.

The fact is, you can get fat as a runner. Running might actually make you fat. When I started training for the marathon, I gained a lot of fat because I overestimated the calories I was burning. This is a common thing. To quote Admiral Ackbar: It’s a trap.

Obviously, healthy eating habits are encouraged. If you want to be a great runner, you need good fuel (like your vegetables and all that stuff). But if you’re lazy like me, just remember that a daily run isn’t a free pass. Keeping in mind that the rules still apply might be enough to keep you out of the plus size section.