Help with eating and Triathlon training

pgray007

I'm back to serious Tri training, and working with a coach am up to 8-10 hours per week of swim/bike/run. My fitness is increasing so that's going great, but I'm struggling to maintain weight loss and I'll have weeks where I'm down 1-3 lbs, and weeks where I'll jump up 2-6. I track all workouts with a Garmin and HRM and am generally below my calorie allocation (1700 c + 50-100% of "burned" calories), but particularly on days where I'll burn over 2000 calories and eat 2900 or so, my weight bumps up.

Any tips for keeping fueled enough to handle lots of cardio, without wild weight swings, or should I just suck it up and wait until the season is over?

Djproulx

I'm no expert, but my coach set me up to eat 6 meals/day, or about every 3 hours. My cal count is 1800 on the easy days and up to 2400 on days where i did doubles (swim/run,etc.) or weekend days since those were my long workouts. (long bike Sat, long swim/run Sun)

Typical meal timing: 5am breakfast 9am snack
Noon llunch, 3pm snack
6pm dinner 9pm snack

Couple things that help me manage the hunger (though not always perfectly) : 1- good source of carbs is a baked sweet potato. They are filling, a bit sweet and that helps to satisfy cravings. 2 - In evening - protein drink with Casein based protein (chocolate or choc peanut butter in almondmilk) This not only satisfies my craving for sweets, but casein is a slower dissolving protein that seems to help me maintain satiety over night.

I am currently heading into the middle of a 16 week HIM training plan and so building volume makes the hunger a constant companion for an eater like me. With that in mind, I will lapse into eating PB out of the jar occasionally at night, especially after long swim/run days, so I'm a work in progress.

Good luck in your training.

sarabushby

I do a similar amount of tri-training to yourself. My maintenance without exercise is probably around 1600 but because I do a lot of exercise I'm regularly eating up to 2,500ish, I'm at the lower end of a healthy weight so I'm not trying to drop weight but equally I wouldn't want to gain. Currently I'm quite relaxed about what I eat and I have plenty of snacks in between meals. I love Eat Natural Peanut Protein Bars, they're really good and 10g in each. If you want to fuel properly but not gain then it's all about clean eating, get your carbs from the right wholegrain/natural sources and have plenty of lean protein. If you PM me I'd be happy to share a nutrition plan that was done for me by a pro based on 2,100cal/day. It's based on carb cycling so high training days you have more carbs. The weight fell off me when I followed it strictly, these days I just try and incorporate lessons I learnt from following it as I don't want to lose that much weight. You could easily amend it to add more calories if you need.

keelsmarks

I've been training for a 1/2 IM while losing and keep to my calorie range on light days where I don't burn a lot i.e.: weight training or swimming. On big days like a 4 hour ride or 90 minute run, I'll eat back everything including exercise and my regular calories EXCEPT for about a 750 deficit. I've lost 6 lbs in 3 weeks while getting stronger and faster so it worked for me. I also make sure to eat well with great protein sources and quality starches. I still have weight to lose, but so far so good.