OVERWEIGHT MARATHONER: GAIN, LOSE OR MAINTAIN

dawnna76

I have read that while training for a marathon most people gain weight. I am already 35 pounds over my goal and am in the 4th week of training for a marathon in june. I would like to lose about 20 pounds before then. I get that its calories in, calories out seems simple enough, but is it? Or is the statement that most gain while marathon training just applied to already thin people who are just eating that much more?

My calorie goal is 1800 to lose 1 pound a week. I lose very slowly (VERY SLOWLY) to begin with. I most often dont eat my exercise calories back except on days where i run in excess of 7 or so miles, heck we all need a little more fuel for that. normally I workout 6 days a week. MON and WED are running for 40 minutes with 40 minutes of weight training after. TUES is cycling, THURS is zumba and Friday is cross circuit HIIT training. Saturdays are my long runs. 1800 a day is fueling me well enough and I feel satisfied at night when i go to sleep, some days I feel like I cant eat all 1800 but I do it anyway.

should I expect to see weight loss the way I am going or is there something I should be doing to promt more weight loss as I train? side note I havent lost a single ounce in the last three weeks dispite not changing my diet much and uping the milage.

SueInAz

I believe the reason many people gain while training for a marathon is just that they are a lot more hungry. if they aren't calorie counting it's very easy to eat more calories than were burned running.

I was able to reach my goal weight while training for a half marathon by simply staying within my calorie goals. As long as you do that while training, you should be able to lose weight.

prattiger65

I admittedly know little about this, my thought would be to listen to your body. I have never ran a full, but have ran some halfs. The training gets pretty tough towards the end and I would think your training may suffer, but I just don't know for sure. I guess I am just thinking out loud and not offering advice. I want to follow this to see where it goes though. Good question.

rybo

Many people gain because they see marathon training as a license to eat unlimited quantities of food. And many overestimate the burn of running.

Peppermynthe

You'll be hungrier, because you're running more. If you haven't been strength training, you will gain muscle, because you're running more.

Be careful about eating at a high calorie deficit, because you don't want to hurt your training. Some sources (see the book racing weight) recommend weight loss in between training cycles, not during. However, remember that if you are overweight, that is also a detriment to your training: more stress on your joints, and each pounds lost calculates to time shaved off your mile. So, plan accordingly.

Make sure you're getting enough protein. Try to resist the urge to eat a giant muffin after your long runs. You may experience, as your long run gets closer to the 20 mile mark, a severe lack of hunger the day of - and then feeling extremely hungry the next day as a result of not eating. Make sure you get enough protein after your long run. A protein shake maybe. Peanut butter or nuts will help get you to your calorie goal that day.

cheshirecatastrophe

rybo wrote: »

Many people gain because they see marathon training as a license to eat unlimited quantities of food. And many overestimate the burn of running.

This. Not quite unlimited quantities of food, but I definitely ate to and past my hunger. Incidentally, the problem for me was overcompensating on easy days, not for my substantive runs.

Track calories closely, and you'll be fine.

Jolinia

Extra pounds puts more pressure on your joints.

From a google search of the matter:

A: The correct answer is e: 4 pounds. Every extra pound puts 4 times the stress on your knees. Studies show that losing as little as 11 pounds may improve joint health and reduce your risk of osteoarthritis of the knee by 50 percent.

SueInAz

Peppermynthe wrote: »

Be careful about eating at a high calorie deficit, because you don't want to hurt your training. Some sources (see the book racing weight) recommend weight loss in between training cycles, not during. However, remember that if you are overweight, that is also a detriment to your training: more stress on your joints, and each pounds lost calculates to time shaved off your mile. So, plan accordingly.

Agreed. While losing weight while training is certainly possible, marathon training isn't the time to try to lose a substantial amount of weight. Mine was around 10 pounds, which was all I wanted to lose, and it was done over the course of 6 months.

You need to fuel your body properly to run well. You may find that as you get closer to the race that you need to switch to maintaining your weight rather than losing in order to have enough energy to run the miles necessary.

TimothyFish

Many people who are doing a lot of exercise believe they can eat whatever they want. Because it also makes them hungry, they end to eat more than they should, causing them to gain weight.

Packerjohn

Peppermynthe wrote: »

You'll be hungrier, because you're running more. If you haven't been strength training, you will gain muscle, because you're running more.

Distance running is a very poor muscle builder.

SueInAz

Packerjohn wrote: »

Peppermynthe wrote: »

You'll be hungrier, because you're running more. If you haven't been strength training, you will gain muscle, because you're running more.

Distance running is a very poor muscle builder.

It does allow for newbie gains, though. I definitely saw an increase in muscle in my calves when I started training for half marathons. If they were getting firmer from fat loss they'd be getting smaller, not larger, and they increased by 1/4".

szkodzt

I am overweight and training for a half marathon and have been steadily losing with my training, however, I am watching my calories which I was not doing previous to the training. So far hunger and energy have not been a problem for me. However, my run is at the end of May and therefore my training schedule has not gotten TOO intense as of yet. Next month my mileage will be increasing by quite a bit each week so I am guessing I will need to compensate with higher calories. Depending on my energy levels I may or may not switch to maintenance.

I will say though that I think there is a HUGE difference between training for a half and training for a whole!

dawnna76

Jolinia wrote: »

Extra pounds puts more pressure on your joints.

From a google search of the matter:

A: The correct answer is e: 4 pounds. Every extra pound puts 4 times the stress on your knees. Studies show that losing as little as 11 pounds may improve joint health and reduce your risk of osteoarthritis of the knee by 50 percent.

Yes I know this, but this wasnt my question. I am not new to running. I have been running for years, completeting numerous 5ks, 10ks 15ks and halfs. my knees sometimes hurt but not often. I have built strength by weighlifting and focus on legs and havent had any issues even when i was 20 or more plus pounds heavier than now.

SueInAz wrote: »

Packerjohn wrote: »

Peppermynthe wrote: »

You'll be hungrier, because you're running more. If you haven't been strength training, you will gain muscle, because you're running more.

Distance running is a very poor muscle builder.

It does allow for newbie gains, though. I definitely saw an increase in muscle in my calves when I started training for half marathons. If they were getting firmer from fat loss they'd be getting smaller, not larger, and they increased by 1/4".

Not a newbie runner and I dont expect to gain muscle by running, hell my legs are muscular enough from the years of weight training I have done. I would like to lose some even LOL

meritage4

Ok I ran a marathon. I trained with a group. We also had personal consultations with a registered dietician specializing in athletes. I had hoped to lose weight during marathon training.
The dietician advised me not to. Just focus on eating healthy and doing all my training. She was right. Weight stayed the same but I did a marathon!

TimothyFish

Packerjohn wrote: »

Peppermynthe wrote: »

You'll be hungrier, because you're running more. If you haven't been strength training, you will gain muscle, because you're running more.

Distance running is a very poor muscle builder.

Probably not if your goal is to run a marathon. Not everyone wants to be a body builder. Runners tend to build muscle more gradually, but they do build muscle over time.

lbetancourt

i gained about 12lbs. i did exactly what someone up there mentioned. just simply ate way more calories than i was running. but, my goal at that time wasn't to lose weight.

kozinskey

I gained ~5 lbs both times I trained for a marathon. I blame a combination of muscle gain, fatigue that led to things like not biking to work and using elevators, and not tracking what I ate. I do think it's important to eat back some of the long run/speedwork calories, but keep in mind that gels, gatorade, and post-run snacks (v. important!) are all extra calories you wouldn't take in otherwise.

Also, calories burned are just an estimate. The whole point of training is to make your running more efficient, so someone who's in marathon shape likely burns less than someone who's doing C25k. At any rate, I have a hard time believing that anyone needs to eat their daily goal + 2000 calories even if they did run 20 miles that day. This training cycle, I plan to add a post-dinner snack on long run days and a bigger, protein-heavy breakfast the next day, but otherwise keep my diet the same.

PurpleYFronts

Hi, Im training for my 2nd marathon and I'm deliberately seeking to lose weight for it this time around. Last year I maintained the same weight but was still too heavy. I thought since I was training hard I could eat what I wanted as I was bound to be burning it off. Of course, that wasn't the case, I didn't manage the calories and was ultimately a stone heavier than I ought to have been doing my marathon. This took its toll out on the road, on my joints, muscles and tendons and made the run much harder than it really needed to be. #
Using MFP correctly when training should allow you to strike a balance between eating sufficient calories, maintain a good deficit and reducing weight up to your race day. The bottom line is that you will need to eat more, it just a matter of carefully monitoring what your intake is to ensure you drop weight.
Add me if you like so we can compare progress, my marathon is in May:)

lemurcat12

I gained (not a lot -- went from about 125 to 130 or so) when training for a marathon years ago, but I wasn't tracking calories. The reason why is the training schedule was weird for me. I'd do a long run and feel like I could eat all day, and that would kind of throw me off for the week so I'd feel like eating more the other days.

I trained for two half marathons last year while losing (and tracking) and before the first one the uneven schedule started weirding me out again so I switched to TDEE method, although I was okay with going over a little on my long run days still. But it was a much more even schedule. Worked well--I lost really well while doing it, and enjoyed it--but I'm not yet ready to do full out marathon training--half marathon seems much more similar to regular, since you can just keep a 10 mile long run pretty consistently and then go up a little when ready to train. (Or so I'm telling myself, when not really training for my mid March half.) ;-)

StaciMarie1974

I started training for a half marathon shortly after reaching maintenance. Continued to count calories, though allowed in a little more approximation than when I was losing. And accidentally continued to lose a little more weight - probably because of the increased running activity.

With planning you'll be able to do your marathon training AND still lose weight I think. Just make sure you're properly fueling your body, especially as you increase your long run.