Forums >Health and Nutrition>New to forum---Mileage/Weight/Nutrition question
Hi All,
Forgive the long post, but I believe this all to be relevant. I do have a question and need some help.
I began running in September. I've always been an athlete, and was pretty fat, but pretty active as well. I was 238 pounds. So, on September 1, I ran 1.1 miles My easy pace was just under 10:00/mile, but I would have had trouble breaking a 27:00 5k. Again, very active, but no cardio or muscular endurance. I increased my mileage by .1 miles each day, until mid-December, when I finally hit 6 miles per day (there were some recovery weeks in there), 5-6 days a week. In January, I ran 140 miles and I was a little over that in February. Pretty much going with 6 miles a day, varied types of workouts, and a long run thrown in probably 3/4 weeks per month. I ran a half the other day and averaged like 8:32, but it was a fairly flat course and about 22 degrees farenheit, so pretty much ideal conditions for me.
My issue is related to weight loss though. I was down to 207 by January 1. In my first month, September, I probably dropped 15 or so pounds due to water weight and being fairly new to running as a form of exercise. I weighed in today at 203, having lost only one pound in February. My main goal in running is general fitness, but I'm trying to get down to 185 (5'10", 9-10% body fat, which was my playing body comp during college) (hockey).
Here is the crux: I am having trouble getting enough calories to feel like I am not running myself down, but a 2000-2500 calorie/day regimen has pretty much slowed my weight loss to a complete crawl. I'd like to be dropping an average of .75 pounds per week, and given that it is down to about .25 pounds per week is pretty discouraging. So, I'm looking for advice on how to: continue to run 6-8 hours per week, fuel my body properly, and speed up my weight loss. I xc ski 2-3 times a week and do some weight training, but I had a former life as a gym rat, and I now hate every lift I do. I try to do 30 pullups and 200 pushups a day, but that only happens 4-5 days a week.
Thanks in advance for the help!
HEy, you are making good progress. Good for you.
How much are you putting on muscle? To the extent that you are gaining muscle and losing fat, your weight reduction may not show much change but you are getting healthier.Muscle atually weighs more than fat, so while you are getting more fit, it may not appear so based solely on how you much weight you are losing. Keep this in mind.
Diet/nutrition is also very important. This is a big subject but a couple of relevant points is that you want to lose fat and not lose muscle mass. There are entire strategies built around this but making sure you get enough protein is essential so you do not canobalize your muscle as your body seeks energy sources. Some body builders and weight lifters i know who perennially have this problem turn to BCAA supplementation. IF you are going to get down to some serious caloric deficits i would look into it, but i am not a calorie counter and i don;t know if the 2000- 2500 calories/day you are taking in throws you into this category or not. But it is an option.
But here's the heart of my message: time your calories so that you can address your issue, which is "feeling run down" while maintaining your current level of activity and still meeting weight loss goals through caloric restriction. Timing. Do this: you need to maintain an overall caloric deficit but still fuel critical workouts. Recovery runs, rest days, etc. can be while under a caloric deficit. But before key workouts, eat a little more carbs at least an hour or two before those workouts. Also make sure to get post workout recovery snacks to avoid depletion of glycogen stores. Both of those involve timing, getting a little more carbs at those times to fuel the most important workouts and to aid in recovery, but otherwise maintain a caloric deficit over the course of each week.
As for nutrition: carbs as fuel, protein to build muscle and connective tissue, and maintain some good fats intake as part of a balanced diet.
From my own experience, this is not hard to do. In fact, the problem i had was in cutting so many calories that i lost the energy to maintain the hard workouts.
Great advice from Seattle Prattle. I'd only counter one thing and say forget the BCAAs. Luc Van Loon, maybe the world's leading authority on protein and exercise says “in short, there is absolutely no evidence that BCAAs enhance performance or recovery if supplemented at any time”.
Eat as much protein as you can get. There's little downside to eating too much and it will help you maintain muscle. Counting calories can work, but you have to ground-truth the numbers.
Sounds like you're doing great, just a little plateau in weight and dip in energy and motivation now.
Did you run a half-marathon race? A let-down in energy and motivation is very normal after a race you've been looking forward to. And that's a great time.
Maybe target a new race a few months from now to give you a goal other than weight.
Finally, do as I say, not as I do. I tend to crash and burn and lose control of my eating and gain weight after a big race or after hitting a weight loss milestone. If my bad month was losing 1 lb, I'd be thrilled.
Good luck.
have you looked into intermittent fasting? I think its a great way to eat and some people do really well with it, especially guys. Not sure what time of day you run, but it could be something to jump start your weight loss again.
Misinformation Officer
I suggest using a free food tracker app and accurately documenting your intake. If you use one like My Fitness Pal, be sure to track net calories burned, not gross calories. You will gain weight w/ their formula if you use the built in “calories burned” estimator.
I’m no expert, but I’ve maintained a 45 pound weight loss for 5 years, and in the last 18 months maintained my goal weight while dropping from 48% body fat to 24% body fat (female). I pay close attention to lean protein intake and lots (lots) of fresh veggies.
As Trent used to day, “Eat real food, not too much, mostly fruits and veggies.”
Runs like a dj mixing songs while wearing festive outfits.5k PR 5/31/21 24:21
10k PR 5/23 54:43
HM PR 1/2024 1:59:10
I’m no expert, but I’ve maintained a 45 pound weight loss for 5 years, and in the last 18 months maintained my goal weight while dropping from 48% body fat to 24% body fat (female).
"Maintained"? Do you mean "reached"? An average to large woman would have to lose 50 - 70 lbs to drop from 48% to 24%.
No, maintained. I dropped the weight, and I’ve kept it off. I later focused heavily on macros to shift from “goal weight and flufffy” to “goal weight and fit.”
If you put on 40 lbs of muscle in 18 months while simultaneously losing 40 lbs of fat, they will be writing books on you. I'm confident that has never been done before by anyone ever in history. A 20 year old male taking steroids could maybe put on 40 lbs of muscle in 18 months, maybe, but definitely not while also losing fat.
You were smart and built up your mileage gradually. Your weight is going in the right direction, so what's your hurry?
Eat wisely, enjoy your food, keep on running, and I believe that your body will reach the weight at which it's happiest at the rate that is safest for your health.
I suggest using a free food tracker app and accurately documenting your intake. If you use one like My Fitness Pal, be sure to track net calories burned, not gross calories. You will gain weight w/ their formula if you use the built in “calories burned” estimator. I’m no expert, but I’ve maintained a 45 pound weight loss for 5 years, and in the last 18 months maintained my goal weight while dropping from 48% body fat to 24% body fat (female). I pay close attention to lean protein intake and lots (lots) of fresh veggies. As Trent used to day, “Eat real food, not too much, mostly fruits and veggies.”
Big thumbs up for using a food tracker app that breaks down the diet into %/gm Carbs vs. Prot vs. Fat. I use My Fitness Pal also, like it a lot.
Great advice from Seattle Prattle. I'd only counter one thing and say forget the BCAAs. Luc Van Loon, maybe the world's leading authority on protein and exercise says “in short, there is absolutely no evidence that BCAAs enhance performance or recovery if supplemented at any time”. Eat as much protein as you can get. There's little downside to eating too much and it will help you maintain muscle. Counting calories can work, but you have to ground-truth the numbers. Sounds like you're doing great, just a little plateau in weight and dip in energy and motivation now. Did you run a half-marathon race? A let-down in energy and motivation is very normal after a race you've been looking forward to. And that's a great time. Maybe target a new race a few months from now to give you a goal other than weight. Finally, do as I say, not as I do. I tend to crash and burn and lose control of my eating and gain weight after a big race or after hitting a weight loss milestone. If my bad month was losing 1 lb, I'd be thrilled. Good luck.
Great advice there. I'd just counter a bit that it is possible to get into trouble with eating too much protein, it can overload and possibly damage the kidneys if they are not working great already. This paper, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1262767/ , suggests there shouldn't be a problem if the kidneys are healthy to begin with, but I wouldn't take as the be all and end all results from any one paper (it does reference other papers that state the opposite, i.e., that high protein diets can hurt the kidneys even when they are working properly).
Yeah, no need to overdo the protein.
What i've come to understand is that it's easy enough to look up the guidelines for how much your body can use, but beyond, that, you just pass it out. There's an RDA (recommended daily allowance) but athletes are generally recommended to take a little more, and body builders/weight lifters tend to push the upper limits.
For practical purposes, about 0.8 grams per pound body weight per day is along the high end necessary for athletes. And that would be about 120 grams or so for a 150 pound guy.
Another thing to consider is the rate your body can metabolize it, and 40 grams per hour is the limit. So it doesn't make sense to try to get all your protein in one meal, or load up on some mondo protein shake and think your done for the day.
I'll also reinforce the idea of tracking everything you eat, which includes being precise in weighing/measuring the amounts. It is really easy to underestimate the calories you are eating if you aren't careful. (I.e. how big is your medium potato or your medium banana? There can be a 50 calorie difference there. Is your cup of cereal really a cup, or more like a cup and a half?) Usually when people say they are eating under their calories but aren't losing weight, it's because they are eating more than they think.
Trails
If you are feeling run down I'd suggest a blood panel to include iron and thyroid levels. I'd always been active, never had weight issues but I got tired and felt like crap, lost weight at an alarming rate and found I had hyperthyroidism. If you are tired it could be low iron. And you can get into trouble with too much protein as mentioned IF you have kidney issues. My thyroid problem caused chronic kidney disease in me and I have to watch my protein intake.
Hi y'all - I hope I'm right that I should put this in this thread rather than a new one, I sure hope I'm not hijacking, sorry to Iphudak (OP) if so
I'm wondering about how to lose this +/- 5 lb spare tire of fat around my lower abdomen without compromising my "running nutrition". I could do it easily by just eating less if I weren't running, but I'm feeling good about my running progress and I don't want to compromise it.
Overall I'm doing OK, my BMI is 22.3, I'm running about 4 times a week, my times are getting faster, VO2max and lactate threshold improving a smidge per Garmin, I do some upper body work … it seems like to lose some weight I have to cut net calories (either eat less, run farther, or some combination), but something tells me that doesn't match up well with trying to keep my running times improving - it's either one or the other … is that true, or is there a way to make both things happen simultaneously?
Thanks for any thoughts!