Running and Weight Loss (Read 2913 times)

Hi All

I am quite new to running (after a break of too many years to mention!) and I wondered if anyone else had come across this in their early days of training.

I started running last summer then due to other commitments lost off again around November. i started in ernest again last month and am currently running 3 - 4 times a week gradually increasing distance and also trying to work with a HR monitor following recommendations in various articles I have read regarding fitness & weight loss.

Although I am taking care what I eat and given the increase in exercise I notice that my weight is sticking or even creaping up - is this normal or have I got some bizarre sort of reverse metabolism?

If anyone can give me advice on what I should be doing to help me attempt at losing a few lbs while increasing my training I would much appreciate it!!

Thanks

I started running with the intent to lose weight...I will be the first to tell you that it's not easy. Once I started training for races it became really difficult to lose AND train well. In order to lose you need a deficit of calories, but if you aren't eating enough to fuel yourself it becomes very difficult to run as well as you might like.

Right now I'm trying to kind of compromise...which means losing VERY slowly (never was a fast loser, anyhow) and really scheduling my caloric intake to higher amounts a day or two before my long run and then scaling-back on the calories more the rest of the week. So far it's working fairly well, in that I've lost ~9#s since the beginning of the year. I have 10+ to go to be to my goal weight, but this will likely be pretty slow-going from here on out.

Come join us in the Jiggly Joggers group (link is in my signature). Today was weigh-in and next week we are starting a Spring weight loss challenge--5% body weight down for everyone! We're a pretty motivated and supportive bunch and we keep each other on track!



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Quote from Geordie Girl on 3/12/2007 at 8:54 PM:

Welcome! I was so hungry my first couple of months of running, and I started tracking my food to make sure I wasn't eating too much more than usual. (I used sparkpeople.com, which is fairly geared toward weight loss, though it helped me when adjusting my intake to account for increasing levels of exercise.) My weight didn't change much, but my body shape sure did. Scout's right about the fit test!

Quote from Geordie Girl on 3/12/2007 at 9:41 PM:

That brings up another point - to make sure you are getting enough calories to fuel the exercise. Too much calorie restriction just signals your body to hold onto those calories. Bouncing around within a calorie range is much better of a strategy than sticking to very low calories. Also, Kirsten is totally on it about weight training. Just doing 20 minutes or so of weight training with hand weights every few nights will make a big difference (after a few weeks).

Quote from Geordie Girl on 3/12/2007 at 8:54 PM:

It is amazing how few calories we need. When your metabolism revs up, your body becomes more efficient at using the calories you take. Try not to supplement the calories you use for running AND use your ideal body weight to calculate your daily calorie needs. I am a 5'9 male and I estimate that the most I need in a say is 1800kcal, and can get by easily on less than that during weeks in which I am not running.

Some musings I have posted in the past on nutrition and running -

To run, you need calories.

To propel yourself at speed, you need stored glycogen, which is the storage version of carbs. At any given time your body stores a maximum of about 2000 cal of glycogen. Your body does not particularly care how it gets those carbs (i.e., there really is no such thing as junk carbs in terms of glycogen storage, however complex carbs are less likely to be easily absorbed from your GI tract and therefore less likely to replenish glycogen or to make you gain weight). French fries and potato chips help replenish glycogen as well as pasta, but bring with them extra fat. High fructose corn syrup may be more likely than other simple carbs to form abdominal fat when consumed in excess. Whether you run or not, your body uses up about a third to a half of its glycogen just to keep you alive as you sleep at night, so you are constantly using and replenishing your glycogen.

To sustain and increase muscle mass you need proteins. To do this, you need to consume the variety of amino acids that serve as the building blocks for protein. As long as you are able to find and eat the diversity of needed amino acids, including the ones that your body cannot manufacture on its own (the so called, essential amino acids) then the source does not matter. If you like tofu, so be it. Egg whites, great. Steak or fish or chicken, bring it on. As long as you are getting all the needed amino acids in sufficient quantity, you should be fine (see the article on proteins in this past month's TN Running magazine).

To sustain yourself when not running at maximal pace and to support your running at that pace, you need fats. You are always burning some fat, even when running at maximal pace; the proportion of calories supporting your effort coming from fat simply drop as you increase your effort. One pound of stored fat is enough to propel most runners about 80 miles, provided that there are also enough carbs around to support the fat (or that the runner is running slow enough that the carbs are not the major energy source). There are lots of different fats out there, and some are better than others. The fats that are bad are considered so because they damage your body in ways that the better fats do not, and some of the good fats actually protect your body. Trans fats inflame arteries. Saturated fats do the same, and increase your risk of cancer. Cholesterol fills the walls of the inflamed arteries. As we are learning more about fats, it seems that the more natural fats (e.g., olive oil, butter, grain oils) have fewer troubles than the relatively synthetic ones. The major problem with snacks and fast foods is that they are made using the synthetic oils that contain the trans- or saturated- fats. Eating out at nice restaurants, you often will encounter just as many hidden fats and bad fats as you will at a fast food restaurant, so don't be fooled by ambiance or price.

However you choose to eat, you need to do it in a way that is sustainable. If you feel like you are eating special on a diet, or feel like you do not have energy then you will not sustain that type of intake. If all you eat is fast food, you will balloon up, feel terrible and then get sick and die, also not sustainable. A nice balance of interesting foods, including a healthy and well balanced base with occasional snacks and meals out is generally sustainable and inexpensive. Making your own foods helps you be in control, cut cost, and ensure that you get the needed calories to support your running.

You do not need to eat salads only, and can loose weight eating pasta and bread and rice, so long as you balance those things with proteins and healthy fats, and keep the portions in balance with your energy needs. You can use on line sites like nutritiondata.com to figure out how many calories are in a serving of food, and match your running miles (~100-130 cal/mile) and your living calories (~1500-2000 cal/day) with what you eat. If you weigh, for example, 160 lbs and you run 20 miles per week, you need approximately 1800 cal/day to live and an additional 2600 cal/week for your running. No more.

Quote from Trent on 3/16/2007 at 12:15 PM:

Hi Trent:

Can you explain the "provided that there are also enough carbs around to support the fat" part? You need some carbs (or glycogen?) present to burn fat?

Btw, you always post really good stuff on nutrition. You should write a book or at least start a web site.

Regards,

Quote from Trent on 3/18/2007 at 5:53 PM:

Yes, I understand. Thanks!

Besides ingesting carbs during a run, how can a runner move the bonk point? Does it automtaically move as a runner becomes better trained? That is, as a runner's body becomes better trained, it becomes more efficeint at burning carbs?

Trent thanks for re-posting this!