Marathon training and calories

janejellyroll

I personally can't train for a marathon on a 500 calorie a day deficit. Could someone? Maybe. But I find it hard to believe that something wouldn't suffer.

GaryRuns

That's a pretty big deficit. Why so big?

Anyway, I think it would depend on where you're at in your training plan and what your fitness was like before you started. Early on in a plan I think you'd probably be fine. Just listen to your body and if you find yourself fatigued beyond reason trying upping your calorie intake. If you're pretty fit to begin with then that would help too, since your body isn't building muscle to accommodate the fitness regimen. Can't really build muscle well with a large deficit like that.

The last half of a plan I think it'd be a bad idea to keep that large of a deficit. You need to feed your body so it can repair itself from all the miles associated with the second half of most training plans in addition to just having enough fuel to run those distances.

loopyedmonds4

Well I started the weight loss goal a few weeks before starting my 20 week marathon plan. I would consider myself pretty fit, ran 5 half marathons, and work out 5-6 days a week, elliptical, running, nautilus 600, free weights, videos. But I didn’t think it would be right to keep the same calorie goal when training for a full marathon as to before that, that’s why I am searching for advice. This is my first Marathon and I’m in my fourth week of the plan. Thank you for your advice!

BrianSharpe

I'm going to suggest that maintaining a caloric deficit will be doable in the early stages of your training plan but as the runs get longer you need fuel (for both the run and recovery) If you're eating at maintenance you should be ok and won't need to worry about putting weight back on. If you follow the conventional wisdom of carb loading the week before the race don't be surprised if you put on a kg or so but that's water weight (1 g of glycogen bonds with 2 g of water when stored in muscle)

TavistockToad

I can't gold a deficit at all once my long runs get over 10 miles... the runger is real!

cwolfman13

loopyedmonds4 wrote: »

My daily allowance is 1200 calories, but when I run 6 miles it adds roughly 600 calories to my daily allowance. I’m not wanting to do the marathon training weight gain, so not sure I should really eat 1800 calories a day.

Uh...yeah, you can't really fuel marathons and marathon training with 1200 calories. This is like one of the worst ideas ever...

Do something else...don't do a marathon if you're going to eat like a sedentary person.

cwolfman13

Tacklewasher wrote: »

Not the OP, but am curious. If I'm training for a half, should I give up on weight loss, slow down to 1/2 lb per week or what is the suggestion?

Plan is a half June 10th. Just figuring out the training plan now (have done 1 10K and another this upcoming weekend, so not starting from scratch) but I also would like to lose another 10-12 lbs. Are the 2 goals too hard to do? I want to get to about 195 (I'm ~207 now).

Thanks

I was cutting winter weight when I did my first 1/2 century training and ride...early on, it wasn't a big deal and I lost some of the weight I was trying to cut...as training progressed, it got really sucky even with eating my calories back so I just went to maintenance. I had cut most of the weight anyway and was at a decent riding weight for the ride, though I was hoping to be about 5 Lbs lighter.

Stoshew71

If you are marathon training and following a marathon plan (I'm assuming that's what you are doing). And maybe you're doing one of those 18 week plans? (I am not crazy about the canned 18 week plans by the way.) But if you are, you are going to be heavily increasing your weekly mileage and doing something each week that your body has never done before. You will be tearing your body down and you will need the right nutrition in order to recover after each workout. Because of that, you are actually going to be more and more hungry because your body is going to crave that nutrition that your body needs to recover from the wear and tear on your body. Because of that, weight loss will be much more challenging.

Your body is going to need more protein to help make your muscles stronger. It's going to need more calcium and vit D to make your bones stronger. It's going to need more iron to build hemoglobin so you can carry more oxygen in your blood. You will be making your heart stronger, building more blood capillaries, bigger mitochondria, creating more hormones to utilize fat for energy, building your joints and tendons and ligaments, ect. So your body will need more nutrition. You also will need to keep a good amount of glycogen in your body so you can perform your next workout in your plan. All of this building to make your body stronger makes weight loss harder.

Your body is horrible at building and losing at the same time. But it is possible. But just very hard.

My suggestion, is that you focus on your marathon training, be very strict about your diet to make sure you're getting the right amount of nutrients. Be careful how much food you take in that has poor nutritional value. In your early part of your plan, you can do a small calorie deficit, but as you move further into your plan, be more at maintenance than calorie deficit. If at any point you feel that your calorie deficit is holding you back, be more at maintenance.

Be very careful how you fuel on the run. I would only experiment with your fueling techniques during your long run days. And don't be afraid to run some of your long runs fasted and without refueling (just take water and maybe electrolytes on those particular days). On the other runs during the week, don't refuel on the run (i.e. Gatorade or gels and what not). This is just a small tidbit of info I can provide when it comes to marathon training.

Tacklewasher

Is there a good group for someone looking to train for a half? I've got a few questions.

TavistockToad

Tacklewasher wrote: »

Is there a good group for someone looking to train for a half? I've got a few questions.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/94-long-distance-runners

spiriteagle99

Tacklewasher: I started running at 54, lost a lot of time due to injuries my first two years of running, but did my first marathon at 58. I qualified for Boston at my 3rd marathon. So if it is something you think you might enjoy don't let age stop you.