Training for Ironman & Gaining Weight. Help!

SwimBikeRun_Mom

I'm training for Ironman (started training in November), I am training with a Coach - so I am getting enough rest & recovery, getting enough sleep, my workouts are carefully crafted (no junk miles). Physically, psychologically, I'm doing great. BUT - I am gaining weight! I couldn't care less about the scale, but my clothes are getting tighter - out of curiosity I took my measurements, and I'm gaining inches, so this is not a matter of gaining muscle.

About a month ago I realized I was headed in the wrong direction - and I am doing the following the things. Asking for suggestions on ways to tweak what I am doing, or consider things I'm not doing... basically what else could I be missing/not thinking about?

What I am doing:

1. Tracking food in MFP - I am careful not to "eat back" my calories from workouts - I don't really pay much attention to the estimated "calories burned" in MFP anyway. But I also careful to try to eat when I'm hungry (stopping when I'm full is admittedly the harder part for me).
2. Trying to eat more veggies. Trying to eat at least one veggie with each meal. (Full disclosure, I'm totally the kind of person who could go an entire day and not eat a veggie. Not proud of it, but trying to be really honest with myself.)
3. Only use sports drinks for workouts that last for longer than an hour. When I do, I use Gatorade Endurance (that's what's served on the IM course), Huma gels, Fig bars (for long bike rides), and water, of course.
4. Watching macros & trying to eat more protein. While I don't have super strict rules for my macros - my goals in MGP are CHO 50% / FAT 30% / PRO 20%. (I'm not married to these macros... suggestions on what I should change them to? Should I change them?)
5. I know I need to back off the "junk food" - my husband and I both have a big sweet tooth and while I've dialed back on candy/cookies significantly, I do still indulge but have tried to indulge in smaller portions.

I know I can do a lot better in my day-to-day nutrition - more veggies, healthy protein, limit sugar, etc. (I only drink water and iced tea, no pop/soda or anything, and I'm not a drinker, so little to no alcohol.)

Am I missing anything? I do I just need to buckle down and keep doing what I'm doing but do it better? Thank you, thank you!

spiriteagle99

How long have you been tracking your food intake? Are you being careful to include everything, including things like drinks and condiments? Are you weighing your food? For weight loss, what you eat is less important than how many calories you are eating. You can get fat on very healthy food. You can also lose weight eating junk. Given your fitness needs, healthy is better, but it doesn't really impact your weight.

You should be eating some if not all of your exercise calories. You need to fuel your workouts, plus if you get too hungry, you are likely to binge and eat way too many calories.

SwimBikeRun_Mom

I've been tracking on and off since I started training - in the beginning and then when my workouts ramped up I backed off the food tracking, I didn't have much patience for it, tbh. About 6 weeks ago is when I realized I was gaining weight and started tracking again.

You mention some things that get me thinking. I don't track EVERY day. I don't necessarily track on the weekends.... and I should be, because we all know weekends is where we get more 'relaxed' with nutrition. I realized this reading your comment asking if I'm diligent about tracking everything - I thought "Yes, I am - except for the days I don't track at all." Well duh, so THANK YOU for calling that out! I am going to make sure I track every bite, every day.

Also - regarding eating back exercise calories - I certainly am eating some, but not making a priority to eat all of them. In workouts that are 2 hours + I'm often taking in 20oz of Gatorade endurance, 2-3 gels, and maybe 1-2 fig bars depending on the workout. So I know I'm replacing some of those calories during the workout. Just wanted to note that I am eating SOME of them back, just not prioritizing eating them all, if I'm not hungry.

Thank you for the insight!!

yirara

How much have you gained, and in which period of time? Do you weigh every day or only on certain days>

Mrsrobinsoncl

How tall are you and what do you weigh? How much have you gained, and in what amount of time?

You can gain inches with gaining muscle! How are your workouts feeling?

gpanda103

I wouldn’t worry about having the perfect macro ratio or having too much sugar or whatever. Calories and protein is what your main concern should be. If you’re competing for a show, then maybe you should be worried about macro splits.

Furthermore, are you being as accurate as you can with your food? Weighing and tracking everything you eat? It’s not uncommon to be made a lot more hungry by intense exercise

SwimBikeRun_Mom

Mrsrobinsoncl wrote: »

How tall are you and what do you weigh? How much have you gained, and in what amount of time?

You can gain inches with gaining muscle! How are your workouts feeling?

I'm 5'1" and I'm not sure exactly how many lbs I've gained as I'm not consistent with weighing myself. At a Dr. appointment I hopped on the scale and it was up probably 8-10 lbs from the last time I weighed myself, which was probably late last fall (Oct/Nov). What concerned me more than the #'s was that I've gained inches. I took my measurements and my waist is up 2", hips, everything is up. Ugh. Also - my jeans are tight - another reason why I took measurements, out of curiosity.

My training is going GREAT. I'm progressing as I should, my recovery is balanced - my coach says I'm doing an awesome job. My running pace is improving, swim is great, and bike is solid.

SwimBikeRun_Mom

gpanda103 wrote: »

I wouldn’t worry about having the perfect macro ratio or having too much sugar or whatever. Calories and protein is what your main concern should be. If you’re competing for a show, then maybe you should be worried about macro splits.

Furthermore, are you being as accurate as you can with your food? Weighing and tracking everything you eat? It’s not uncommon to be made a lot more hungry by intense exercise

I think this is the smoking gun... I haven't been very accurate tracking / measuring / weighing. I know I'm also not making the BEST choices MOST of the time - I need to work on healthier snacks (more fruits/veggies, protein). I also realized I don't think I'm getting enough protein.

Thanks everyone... it's been helpful to get some other questions that get me thinking!!

cyndit1

When I trained for my first couple of marathons I gained weight and was pretty confused until I realized how dang hungry I was all the time. Now when I marathon train I am VERY careful to track and not nibble extra without counting it. I’m sure the runger is even worse for you so that’s all I can suggest. Best of luck with your training. YOU ROCK!!

Sinisterbarbie1

I also gained weight when I trained for a marathon, as opposed to when I trained for endurance hiking or other types of exercise I was used to and did regularly but that I had to train for to do a big trip of. In my case it was two things - not being familiar with the type of exercise seemed to make me hungrier and I gave myself free passes as a result of this new exercise figuring it must be harder than what I was used to. It wasn’t, and it didn’t burn any more calories (probably fewer) than what I was previously burning with the other training I was doing. The mental adjustment was the key for me. I would never think of drinking exercise drinks rather than water and eating gel packs or other pure sugar during exercise, and then drinking chocolate milk or having big pasta bowls for dinner because I had “earned it” or needed to “refuel” (or “carbo load” the night before) but somehow I justified it with a training run of 15 miles without anything weighing me down, but not when I was hiking with boots and a heavy backpack for the same distance to prepare for a big hike at altitude somewhere.
I am sure you aren’t doing the silly stuff I did, but it is easy to do it on a limited scale like you say - oh I don’t need to track on the weekends, or I can go out with friends and order whatever I want on the menu because I have a long run tomorrow.
It’s all fun though if you aren’t doing it for weight loss benefits, and if you catch the weight loss risk in time like you have!

ETA: Plus you are doing an Iron Man which has all sorts of heavier exercise too. So Your situation is certainly more exercise intense than just training for a marathon versus hiking at altitudes like I did.

PAV8888

Scale results 6 months apart mean nothing. Especially from different scales. Inches from hand measurements by non trained individual and not in exact same circumstances... see above. BUT, not fitting in same pants... unless they shrunk in the wash... OK: there is a hint there!

Probably not a disaster though!

You are working with a coach. You should certainly feel able to approach them and discuss if any of this is affecting your performance? If you're gaining weight in un-helpful ways they should be able to verify and/or discuss.

Yes, sufficient protein is a necessary building block. Though I wouldn't get ***too focused*** on it if you are already hitting the approximately 0.8g per lb of body weight level.

Yes, if exercise is used as a pass for unsustainable eating... maybe not the best plan! Again... you don't have to go from total un-care to laser focus... just less un-care may be enough!

SwimBikeRun_Mom

PAV8888 wrote: »

Scale results 6 months apart mean nothing. Especially from different scales. Inches from hand measurements by non trained individual and not in exact same circumstances... see above. BUT, not fitting in same pants... unless they shrunk in the wash... OK: there is a hint there!

Probably not a disaster though!

You are working with a coach. You should certainly feel able to approach them and discuss if any of this is affecting your performance? If you're gaining weight in un-helpful ways they should be able to verify and/or discuss.

Yes, sufficient protein is a necessary building block. Though I wouldn't get ***too focused*** on it if you are already hitting the approximately 0.8g per lb of body weight level.

Yes, if exercise is used as a pass for unsustainable eating... maybe not the best plan! Again... you don't have to go from total un-care to laser focus... just less un-care may be enough!

Thank you for this! I don't think I'm hitting 0.8g per lb of body weight in protein. My coach recommend I read "ROAR" by Stacy Sims, which I am working my way through. Also reviewed any other 'symptoms' (not sleeping well, overly thirsty, etc) to make sure it's not an increase in cortisol due to not enough recovery - I don't have any of those cortisol-increase symptoms, so we can assume it's not that. I am going to review all my past MFP entries and see if I'm anywhere close to that protein goal. In ROAR, she recommends between .9 - 1g of Protein per lb of body weight per day - which sounded CRAZY high to me, an I was coming here to ask you all - serendipitous to see you reference 0.8g. (Her recommendation is specific to while training for an endurance event like IM.)

I also think I've been mentally using training as the 'pass' to eat 'whatever I want' - and need to reign that in a bit. thank you so much, this is super helpful!

SwimBikeRun_Mom

Sinisterbarbie1 wrote: »

I also gained weight when I trained for a marathon, as opposed to when I trained for endurance hiking or other types of exercise I was used to and did regularly but that I had to train for to do a big trip of. In my case it was two things - not being familiar with the type of exercise seemed to make me hungrier and I gave myself free passes as a result of this new exercise figuring it must be harder than what I was used to. It wasn’t, and it didn’t burn any more calories (probably fewer) than what I was previously burning with the other training I was doing. The mental adjustment was the key for me. I would never think of drinking exercise drinks rather than water and eating gel packs or other pure sugar during exercise, and then drinking chocolate milk or having big pasta bowls for dinner because I had “earned it” or needed to “refuel” (or “carbo load” the night before) but somehow I justified it with a training run of 15 miles without anything weighing me down, but not when I was hiking with boots and a heavy backpack for the same distance to prepare for a big hike at altitude somewhere.
I am sure you aren’t doing the silly stuff I did, but it is easy to do it on a limited scale like you say - oh I don’t need to track on the weekends, or I can go out with friends and order whatever I want on the menu because I have a long run tomorrow.
It’s all fun though if you aren’t doing it for weight loss benefits, and if you catch the weight loss risk in time like you have!

ETA: Plus you are doing an Iron Man which has all sorts of heavier exercise too. So Your situation is certainly more exercise intense than just training for a marathon versus hiking at altitudes like I did.

Thank you so much! It does help to hear other experiences! I am consuming gatorade endurance, gels, other food during long bikes/runs - I think I'm going to start tracking those for a while as well just out of curiosity. I wonder if that is a factor that I'm not accounting for. For example - one day I did a 2:15 outdoor ride, followed by a 40 min run. Per my apple watch I burned 1,167 calories on the bike. (ballpark estimate, I know.) DURING the ride, I consumed 14oz of Gatorade Endurance, 2 Huma gels, and 2 Fig bars. I haven't been trying to "eat back" my exercise calories - partly b/c I know that any workout longer than 1 hour I will consume some kind of calories, GE only, 2 hours + is going to include additional nutrition. If I'm not even counting this though - I am probably WAY over eating ... again b/c I feel like I've "earned it." If I track/count what I'm consuming during long bikes/runs, that might help me see in black and white that I don't need to overeat post-workout. (I need a healthy post-workout snack, but that's it - per ROAR that would be 20-25g of protein within 30 min.) As I'm writing this - I realize that documenting my bike/run nutrition should help me out mentally. I document what I consume in training peaks for my coach, but it never occurred to me to document it in MFP, until now. THANK YOU!!

sijomial

FYI - In a hard training block I find monitoring my resting HR provides a useful indicator of over-reaching / over training.
Typically if my first thing in the morning pulse starts trending up from its normal 48bpm that would also be accompanied by noticing an impact on my weight (stress/cortisol/inflammation related water weight).

Does appear to me that you should take more care about tracking your intake and watching your weight trend with far more frequent data points. It would help you to resolve any mystery about gaining weight while training hard.
My cycling volume (and calorie burns) have more than doubled in the last few years and although I get to eat a lot more I can't just eat ad lib or intuitively without gaining weight.

SwimBikeRun_Mom

sijomial wrote: »

FYI - In a hard training block I find monitoring my resting HR provides a useful indicator of over-reaching / over training.
Typically if my first thing in the morning pulse starts trending up from its normal 48bpm that would also be accompanied by noticing an impact on my weight (stress/cortisol/inflammation related water weight).

Does appear to me that you should take more care about tracking your intake and watching your weight trend with far more frequent data points. It would help you to resolve any mystery about gaining weight while training hard.
My cycling volume (and calorie burns) have more than doubled in the last few years and although I get to eat a lot more I can't just eat ad lib or intuitively without gaining weight.

Thank you! Yes, I do agree I need to do more tracking (not just food, but more data in general) and do it consistently so I can determine more from the results. I used to track my RHR every morning and I haven't been, I completely forgot! I'm going to start that right away as well - especially before my volume starts to increase as weather warms up here in the next several weeks.

Thank you so much for your insight, I really appreciate it!

SwimBikeRun_Mom

Hi everyone! Just wanted to share an update - I took all the feedback, insight, and wisdom here - read the "ROAR" book by Stacy Sims (recommended by my coach) and made some changes:
-Increased my protein intake quite a bit.
-Refocused on tracking EVERYTHING I eat. Even yesterday when I ate cereal and gummy bears for lunch (not together). FYI that was a random lapse in judgement, ha. Lunches have typically been protein & veggies.
-Worked on adding more veggies, higher protein snacks.
-Started tracking "on course" nutrition in MFP - gatorade endurance, huma gels, etc. that really helped me do two things - 1. make sure I was documenting those calories and macros towards my daily intake, and 2. helped me shift my mindset. I don't feel the need to load up on carbs when I come back from a long bike ride, for example, because I'm tracking how many calories and macros I took in while on the ride. So I don't feel like I need to "Make up for it" if that makes sense.

I weighed myself a couple of times over the past few weeks and have noticed the number dropping bit by bit. Overall though - I couldn't care less about the number on the scale - I care more about how I FEEL. Both in my clothes and day to day, but also how I feel training. I feel SO MUCH BETTER.

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences and suggestions - it helped me a LOT!