Weight Loss during Marathon Training
SuzJok85
Posts: 14 Member
Hello all,
I’m training for my second marathon, which will be mid-June. I’ve run on and off for several years, and still consider myself a novice. (Literally using Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 again.)
I’m 5’6” and about 146 lbs, now that I’ve lost 6 lbs on MFP in the past couple months. Since I just want to lose a little more (perhaps another 6 or so), and I hate feeling deprived, I’ve been setting my calorie goal to have me lose .5 lb a week. I’ve seen advice to other people here to not train for a full marathon on a larger deficit (500 cal), which I could understand.
I’m wondering if there are any more seasoned runners out there who have any advice or experience about losing weight during marathon training. So far, I thought I would keep this deficit until my long runs go over 13/14 miles or so, and then begin eating at maintenance. Would eating at a 250 cal deficit put me at risk of under-fueling?
I’m training for my second marathon, which will be mid-June. I’ve run on and off for several years, and still consider myself a novice. (Literally using Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 again.)
I’m 5’6” and about 146 lbs, now that I’ve lost 6 lbs on MFP in the past couple months. Since I just want to lose a little more (perhaps another 6 or so), and I hate feeling deprived, I’ve been setting my calorie goal to have me lose .5 lb a week. I’ve seen advice to other people here to not train for a full marathon on a larger deficit (500 cal), which I could understand.
I’m wondering if there are any more seasoned runners out there who have any advice or experience about losing weight during marathon training. So far, I thought I would keep this deficit until my long runs go over 13/14 miles or so, and then begin eating at maintenance. Would eating at a 250 cal deficit put me at risk of under-fueling?
0
Replies
-
The Novice 1 program doesn't have a lot of long runs in the early weeks. I think you can continue to aim at 1 lb a week for that part of the plan. The mileage shouldn't be very different from what you were running before starting MRT. When you get to week 10 or so and have a ML run and a real long run, then you might eat more if you're hungry.
I lost weight last year while marathon training. The main loss was in the early weeks. Then I switched to maintenance but continued to lose because i was actually burning more calories than MFP told me. This year I am maintaining as I again go through MRT. I pretty much let hunger be my guide. If I'm starving at the end of the day, I'll eat. If I'm hungry the day after a long run, I eat. On my easy or rest days, I watch what I eat. The biggest time to be careful when marathon training is during taper and immediately post race. I find that my appetite is still high, but I'm not burning many calories, so I can easily gain a few pounds. That's when you want to be careful in choosing what you eat, so you pick the foods that are most filling. OTOH, I don't stress if my weight goes up a couple of pounds because I know I can lose it easily once I'm running normally again.2 -
Absolutely everything @spiriteagle99 just said.
Make sure you're paying attention to your body, especially in those last few big training weeks, taper, and recovery weeks.2 -
With only 6 lbs. to lose, it's going to be hard to be precise. In marathon training, my day to day weight fluctuates with water gain and loss associated with building and depleting glycogen stores. Overall, I tend to lose a pound or two in a marathon training cycle even though I'm trying to maintain; but the fluctuations make it hard to see what's going on in real time. Afterwards, I can look at the training dates and see a weight trend.2
-
Thanks everyone, I’ll keep this in mind. I remember still eating like a marathoner post-race last time and I can see how that contributed to my gradual weight gain.
Since starting MFP It’s been interesting to see how I can eat just a bit less and somehow I don’t die.
0 -
I too have my second marathon coming up later this year. For my first, I followed a calorie deficit for most of the week, but I ate well for about 36 hours before the long run. It was a fairly successful strategy for weight loss, but I have wondered if it contributed to the burn-out I felt about a month from the race.
This time I am going to try to get to goal weight by not later than 3 months before race day.
6lbs is a pretty small amount to lose, so I think you'll do just fine.1 -
I too have my second marathon coming up later this year. For my first, I followed a calorie deficit for most of the week, but I ate well for about 36 hours before the long run. It was a fairly successful strategy for weight loss, but I have wondered if it contributed to the burn-out I felt about a month from the race.
This time I am going to try to get to goal weight by not later than 3 months before race day.
6lbs is a pretty small amount to lose, so I think you'll do just fine.
I only race up to half marathon distance but I find the month before the race at maintenance really makes my runs feel easier0
