RunningAHEAD - Topic: Trying to run off the pounds

mellamoray

posted: 4/25/2009 at 11:09 PM

Hey guys, I just joined this forum, never been on a running forum before, only for my mustang! Name is Ray from NY and I am trying to lose the weight. Sick of looking out my extra 30-40 pounds. I kicked myself in the butt and started hitting the gym hard and really watching what I eat this past week. I'm 25, played D-3 soccer and tennis and baseball, but since school (SUNY Martime) somehow the weight started to pack on! I can run, I ran 8 miles today in roughly64 minutes today (4 at lunch time, 4 after dinner) and a good chest workout in between along with 300 crunches. Anyone have any pointers or put me in the right direction. My arms and legs dont have any fat and are pretty solid since I do lift. It's the belly! I just had a Met-Rx Protein bar after the workout, good bad or in between? I am no slow poke and like to push myself hard. Thanks guys!

Tchuck

SMART Approach

posted: 4/26/2009 at 8:18 AM

There are no secrets just keep doing what your doing. One caution would be to not do too much too soon. Gradually get into the running and don't hammer yourself. Give yourself some rest time. Maybe initially you run one day, do machine cardio the next day etc. You can't hammer everyday or you will get hurt. Be smart about this and do your runs at comfortable pace for most part and can mix in 15 sec faster spurts at times to mix things up. Take your time -be patient and make this a permanent lifestyle.

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mgerwn

Hold the Mayo

posted: 4/26/2009 at 8:42 AM

Watching your food intake is smart. Adding more exercise (running, or something else) is also good for weight loss. WIth the running, don't push yourself to go fast. As many here will attest to from personal experience, that will lead to injury. If you want to be in it for the long haul, take it slow. Those of us who run by effort refer to the "talk test" to gauge if we are going slow enough. That means you should be able to converse with a partner or sing out loud without straining. If you only get a few words out at a time and are huffing and puffing, it's too fast. Not to say you can't go fast sometimes - fast is fun. Mix it up if you want. But doing them all fast will lead to you being hurt and not doing anything. And that's a sure recipe to pack on more pounds.

"You're Not Winning"

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ChakaKahn

Are we there yet?

posted: 4/26/2009 at 9:03 AM

It's all about consistency... I too was 30 lbs overweight and played soccer in high school. Look back at my log when I started running Oct. 1st. Then I progressed to a marathon by Feb. 14th. Set a race in the future and it will become your primary focus then the weight loss naturally happens and will be secondary as you will be able to eat whatever you want because your calorie output will be higher than the input. It's all about consistency... alcohol has a lot of sugar. Wink

EGH3

posted: 4/30/2009 at 9:42 AM

Quote from mellamoray on 4/25/2009 at 11:09 PM:

just had a Met-Rx Protein bar after the workout, good bad or in between?

Bad. Just my humble opinion. The carbs in these types of bars are primarily maltodextrin. It's sugar. And a lot of it. Goes right to the belly. The conventional wisdom of needing an insulin spike post-workout is way overblown. Post workout, simple chocolate milk would work well. After weights I'll add a little whey protein but I try to get my nutrition from whole foods. I've even mixed whey protein with steel cut oats ground up in a coffee grinder for a post weights workout shake. I also saw you did a "chest workout". Unless you're a bodybuilder trying to build a "peak" somewhere or add definition to some small muscle that a judge is looking for, you shouldn't really be doing an isolated chest workout. Take a look here. I've done 5x5 workouts and get much better results in far less time. It's very challenging and more beneficial. The core of the program is to squat, bench, deadlift, row and overhead press. There's some ab work but your core gets a lot of work with the squatting and deadllifting. 300 crunches is way too much IMHO. More muscle=more calories burned, more weight lost. And you build more muscle - functional muscle - with compound lifts like the squat. Wish someone had pointed me in this direction when I was 25. But now at 41, I have more muscle on me than when I lifted 6 days a week as a 20-something.

xenoplastic

posted: 4/30/2009 at 10:09 AM

Sounds to me like you need to focus on lowering your calorie/fat intake. If you can lift and do 300 crunches, then odds are you already burn a fair amount of calories from exercise. If that is still getting you a belly, then eating less is your best bet. Eating less is not necessarily conducive to building/keeping muscle, though. Running can also make powerlifting a bit difficult to keep up with. Adding running onto lifting in order to lose the weight may be the most athletic and overachieving way to drop pounds, but it is probably the hardest and most injury-prone way to do it, too. So what exactly are your goals? Do you simply want to drop the weight? Are you willing to lose muscle along the way?

kcam

posted: 4/30/2009 at 10:24 AM

Portion control! I'd bet that's your problem. Learn to eat smaller portions at B, L and Dinner. Even though it's girlie to the weightlifting set, move over to the cardio section of your gym. Do an hour every day on an elliptical - it won't injure you the way just going out and starting to run at 8 mile a day would.

Swedish Fish

posted: 4/30/2009 at 10:34 AM

First, welcome to RunningAHEAD! You will find a wealth of knowledge in these forums as well as runners from all levels of ability. Second, I suggest making your running log public. This will be especially helpful to those who may be able to help you now, but definitely later if you have an injury or other running question. I've seen this suggestion put to many "newbies" (myself included) and thought I would pass it along to you. I started running in order to increase my level of physical fitness and also to help me lose weight. I also used Weight Watchers, which has worked very well for me. I have gone from weighing almost 300 lbs at the beginning of this year to being nearly 230 lbs. now. I have also gone from running next to nothing to running around 15 miles/week. I don't lift weights or do hundreds of reps of anything, but I do a mild ab workout 3 times a week to help build core strength and I am also doing the 100 push-up challenge to build a little upper body strength. Several things that you will hear in the forums are: 1)take it slow 2)build miles gradually 3)have a good mileage base before being concerned about speed. I am still a relative newbie myself, so I post with that caveat. Listen to the running veterans-they didn't start running 40 mpw (or more) right away. It is a gradual process. Good luck!

Matt

2010 Races:
March: Irish Jig 5K - 24:31 (new PR)
May: 5/3 Riverbank Run 25K - 2:34:12 (new PR)
June: Brian Diemer Amerikam 5K - 23:39 (new PR)
June: Reeds Lake Run 5K - 24:48 (this race has kicked my butt two years running)
September: 2010 Mackinac Bridge Run - 36:59
September: Park2Park Half Marathon - 1:57:26 (new PR)

jEfFgObLuE

I've got a fever...

posted: 4/30/2009 at 10:53 AM

The calculator on this site is pretty good. Bottom line, to lose weight, you need to brun more calories than you take in (duh). The calcualtor takes your running into account and tells you how many calories you can injest and still lose weight.

On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.

Trying to run off the pounds (Read 898 times)