Needing some reassurance - running and weight

kirstymc100

Hi all,

My name is Kirsty, I'm 31, 5ft 1 and currently just under 10 stone.

I've been watching what I eat and exercising for quite a while now. I still have a stone that I'd love to lose.

Around February time I started running. I'm currently up to 10 miles. However, I don't really seem to be losing any weight. In fact I think I've put on about 4/5lbs...

Any ideas?

virtualmonkey

Are you running steady state or do you do any type of intervals (speed, hills, farltek)? And what about cross training? If you keep doing the same thing over and over you get diminishing returns as your body adapts to doing it.

DrJenO

What is your calorie goal? Are (accurately) tracking your intake? Do you eat your running/exercise calories back?

sevsmom

And are you eating too much? If you are eating more calories than you burn, you'll gain weight even if you run 10 miles on most days. I lost weight for about 8 months when I started running. Then, my eating and training balanced out and I maintain within a 5lb window most of the time.

I'd watch the food intake and consider vituralmonkey's advice about adding intensity to your steady-state runs if you aren't already.

itsmeltc

+1 on check the diet, make sure you're not compensating the calories you're burning by eating extra. Once you get the balance right, persevere and watch the pounds fall off

patrickfish7

Vary the types of running - trust me, I've been there and made the mistakes too.

I entered a marathon and put on 8lbs from the carb loading etc. Because it was all about distance, my runs weren't as intense as I'd like.

Back to now and I run three times a week - Tuesday - 5km Speed session @ 90% effort; Thursday - 5k Tempo run @ 85% effort; Sunday - 10K longer run @ 75% effort.

Mix it up too. As they say, variety is the spice of life...

ew_david

It's either you're eating too much, overestimating your calorie burns, or both