There is a lot of research out there which points towards amateur endurance athletes being fat.
No, not really fat but certainly having higher body fat than they should considering all the training that they do.

There are many reasons for this.

It could be that the body is going in to starvation mode because you are burning too many calories through exercise each day.  The body may panic and worry how it will sustain itself and hence stop burning fat.

It could be that through the shear quantity of aerobic exercise and stress you are putting on your body you are producing too much of the powerful hormone cortisol, which is known to encourage fat storage.

It could be that your body has slowly but surely eaten up its own muscle which is one of the factors responsible for setting your metabolic rate.

The truth is that it could be for a whole host of reasons and it probably isn’t one of the above.

In many cases though it is quite simply that through doing such a quantity of exercise we can fall victim to the need to reward ourselves.

Unfortunately society encourages us to reward ourselves through food and alcohol.

So we do something that is really good for us (exercise) and then do something that is really bad for us (eat junk and get drunk – nice rhyme there!)

I know that I have fallen victim to this sort of cycle in the past which vastly leads to underperformance in a sporting way but you also don’t reap the benefits of looking as good as you should do naked.

So what is the answer?

There is nothing wrong with reward but instead of treating yourself like a dog and having a treat give yourself something which is good for you.

Maybe buy yourself a new Garmin, a new pair of trainers, get your hair done, have a massage or better still invest in my coaching services!

Reward is important but remember, you are not a dog!