Just back to running and need to lose some weight- a couple questions!! (Read 1180 times)

I am back to running and want to share some things before my questions. I'm 34, large frame, 5'10 and 218 lbs. I quit smoking (still fighting it!!) and am very motivated to make some lifestyle changes. My wife does the sprint triatholons and is in very good shape. She is also the person who is motivating me, along with our kids. I have just gotten to the point that I can run 2 miles without walking. I'm doing a 2.4 mile route. My question is this: What is the correlation between weight loss (at this point 38" waist), and increased mileage. My goal is to run some 5k's in the near future. My pace is 9:45 currently and I am not real concerned about the speed at this point.

Thanks for your response. I am guessing that I need to lose 10-15 lbs in order to increase my distance. I feel like I am carrying too much weight to increase much. I believe the extra pounds are adding to my lack of distance. I think I should be adding 10% per week....or is that too aggressive?

It's somewhat a chicken and egg thing--the lighter you get, the easier the mileage becomes, but running more is the best way to lose the weight. I can say that when I was 15 pounds lighter, my "easy" pace was 45-60 seconds faster than it is currently. Actually at 218 you are burning 172 calories for every mile. So 172 x your weekly mileage = the extra calories you are burning by running. Figure that roughly 3000 calories equals a pound of body weight. So, assuming your diet remains the same, then the # of additional calories you are burning per week running, divided by 3000 = your weight loss per week. I am kind of in the same boat--getting back to running after a long layoff. I'm at ~40 miles per week now heading higher and at this mileage level I am dropping about a pound per week.

Hi, I think it's great you're able to put in 2 miles at a time. Congratulations on being a non-smoker too! A couple of suggestions that might help you from getting discouraged. 1. Don't worry about distance or pace. Simply set the goal of running a specific amount of time. I know that might screw up your log but just guess at the distance you ran and put in the actual time you ran. I'd suggest doing 20 minutes a day 3 x/week, then 20 minutes a day 4 x/week. After that, start to increase your time to say 25 minutes. After a month, you will be amazed how much easier it is. 2. Don't worry about having to take walking breaks. If you are struggling to run, stop, walk briskly for 60 seconds, then start running again. Jeff Galloway uses that method to get anyone to run a marathon. It can significantly help you from getting burnt out. 3. In my opinion, diet and nutrition are important but... If you're running, you will lose weight. If I were to go on some weird diet, I'd probably get frustrated with everything, say "screw it" and quit it all. When I'm running a lot, I eat better without even trying. I think it's because I know if I have a run later in the day, I will avoid heavy or greasy foods. Finally, get a running partner. He/she will keep you going when you don't feel like going out on your run. Hope this is helpful to you. Good luck! Ken

I also found it helpful to not worry about speed/pace at all. It is more important to slowly but surely too increase the distance and time on your feet. Running faster foes not burn significantly more calories - it just gives you injuries.

Like Sabre11 said, Sparkpeople can be really helpful. Sparkpeople is not so much about dieting, but on acquiring a healthy lifestyle. (I joined Sparkpeople in July because I wanted to loose some weight, and merely because I wanted to move a little bit more but seemed not to be able to be consistent.... After 6 week at Sparkpeople I started running, and I haven't skipped one run yet. Last week I reached my goal weight.)

Sparkpeople.com has a great Nutrition Tracker. You enter in all the food you eat in a day and it breaks it down so you see how many calories your getting. How much Protein, fat and carbs. You can track things like sodium or choloesterol too. That alone helped me lose 25 pounds this year to reach my goal weight. I'd never realized just how much I was actually eating before. It was kind of shocking actually. Teresa (tbarton at SparkPeople.com)

Sparkpeople scare me. Wait. That's pod people. Never mind. http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Science-Theater-3000-People/dp/6304203985 The guy who started thread started it so long ago he's probably wearing a size zero by now and looking fabulous in a bikini ...