losing weight while training...

valentine4

Hi all,

I hate to be a bore and go on about weight but I'm really struggling with mine, I would love some advice.

As mentioned before I am a complete novice runner, I did my first 10k last summer and was hooked. I have increased my training since the end of dec with my eye on a half marathon in March. At the moment I have Mon as my rest day, speed work with a running club on tues, spinning on wed, approx 8 k on a thur, 5 k fri morning and long bike ride on saturday. Sunday I do my long run off which I am gradually increasing I'm now up to 19km on it.

I work full time and have 4 kids, I can't fit anymore training in, I thought for what I am doing I should definately start losing weight but instead I'm gaining! I only started tracking my cals a couple of wks ago - have cut out alot of junk food, d.coke and takeway, however I do still have a little chocolate every day ( a day without chocolate is a day without sunshine ).

My calorie intake on mfp is 1200 I don't track my exercise here but try to eat back roughly half of what I burn. Obviously its not working out too well for me, any tips?

P.s. I find after I do a long run/ bike ride I could eat a horse and its rider, I get really hungry but still try to eat well.

davemunger

I think you are going to need to start tracking in some way. Running makes you hungry, there is no getting around it. Tracking will help you see which foods are contributing most of the calories to your diet. You will also start to see which foods aren't 'worth it'--the ones that don't fill you up but still have a lot of calories. When you first start tracking, you should be especially rigorous. Track EVERYTHING!

I found it took some experimentation to figure out the right combination of foods to eat and not be absolutely starving all the time. That said, when I was in serious weight-loss mode there is no doubt I was hungry a lot. There is really no getting around it.

I also found that I needed to adjust the calories that MFP said I was burning. My experience was that I still gained weight even when my net calories were under my goal. I adjust all my exercises so that they report about 1/3 fewer calories burned. That helps a lot!

RunConquerCelebrate

I agree with Dave, tracking everything really helps. I am also training for a half marathon in March and I was not loosing weight, once I started tracking and eating back some of the exercise calories I started to loose weight. But if I do not track than I get in trouble.
For me I find it that on my long runs I feel really hungry but just cannot eat, I tend to be hungrier the days after. Since I do not burn that many calories on the days after it helps me control my calories.

I am no expert still trying to find that magic combination to help me loose weight and not be stuck at the number I am in right now. So maybe we can help each other feel free to add me as a friend if you like

Good luck

ZenInTexas

I have to meticulously track my food, and be weighing everything in order to lose weight. And I have to be really watching what I'm eating too, 200 calories of broccoli is very filling, 200 calories of cookies not so much. I have found I cannot out run a bad diet, I didn't lose anything training for my marathon, I was tracking but not very carefully and eating a lot of junk. Once I started being super careful about my diet the weight started to move. So it can be done, but it will take some discipline

rduhlir

I am training for my second half marathon, and am losing weight alongside. Just to give you perspective, I am eating 1800 calories a day and losing 1 lb a week. I track everything, for the most part. There are random days where I might eat out with friends or go to a ball game with the hubby, but those are random occurances. Everything else I track, including fuels and such. Tracking your food will help with more than just calorie counting, too. If one morning you have a really bad run, you can look back and see if it was a food that might have contributed to it. But just to point out, I use MFP to track my exercise and food, but I do not follow MFP the way it was designed. I follow the TDEE/BMR way of doing things, so I eat to a set amount every day...sometimes 100 or 200 more on long run days, depending on distance.

With controlling food after your long runs, try and eat something before and after your run. For example, half a banana and peanut butter sandwich before and then the other half after, or something like that. I have also found that if I don't fuel right during my longer long runs then I get super hungry afterwards too...my glycogen screams at me and makes my tummy hurt lol...at least that is the image I get in my head lol.

As Doug says, you will just have to play with this. This is a completely individual thing. I have found that (for myself) fueling before and then half way at anything 8 miles or higher works to control my hunger issues after long runs. But, I plan on continuing onto full marathons eventually, so taking all the Fully Crazies advice and learning to fuel early in my runs (trying to turn it into a habit lol).

valentine4

thanks all for the really helpful advice!

I have to say I agree with the 200 cals of brocolli v 200 cals of cookies, I know which I prefer..

just another quick question, when you mention TDEE/BMR what exactly does that mean?

sorry for my ignorance, I have seen it before on site but never understood it.

ZenInTexas

Your TDEE is how much energy you burn throughout the day with various activities and workouts. BMR is how much energy you burn to just stay alive, like how many calories you would need if you just laid in bed all day. So you want to eat less than TDEE and more than BMR to lose weight.
http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
This is a good site to get an estimate.

fleetzz

I have been having the same problem--since I started running regularly I have been starving !!!

Go to the scooby calculator (google scooby and tdee) and put in your height, weight, gender, age, and activity level (you are not sedentary by the way), and your goals (lose weight, build muscle, maintain are some options I remember) and it will spit out your calories needed to do all those things. It is great!

valentine4

The calculator is excellent, it has me at 1700 cals a day, am going to follow your advice re: eating before and after runs. Thanks again ladies! ( and gentlemen of course!)