Running causing weight gain?

Laurenloveswaffles

Do you track any measurements besides weight? That's an awful lot of weight to be muscle, given all the cardio you're doing. Do you look like you're gaining fat in any of your usual places?

I do track my measurements, but I dont really know how to properly analze them. My thighs have had a slight increse, as well as my biceps. Is this likely to be fat or muscle?

You won't know unless you chop your arm or leg off. With a gain like that, you are more than likely eating a calorie surplus so it's either fat or muscle.

hill8570

I've read a case study on a woman training for a marathon that actually put on weight while eating at a deficit. When tested, her RMR was depressed. Distance running is one of those things that causes high stress in our bodies. Couple that with a large calorie deficit, and the body reacts to that stress. Stress produces cortisol, and according to some researchers, that causes weight gain.

He's logging 50 miles a week. Good exercise, but hardly "high stress" training.

jlapey

If you just changed your workout routine, you may be retaining water. Not a big deal. Give it a couple more weeks to balance out. If it doesn't, then tweak your intake.

rnfreed

5'7"

How much lower than 120 are you planning to try to force your body to be? Perhaps it's telling you something? You're already at the low low end of normal.

I get my best times at 118. Now I am ~125. I know it seems insignificant, but it really does affect me and I have a lot of high competition races this fall.

Sabine_Stroehm

5'7"

How much lower than 120 are you planning to try to force your body to be? Perhaps it's telling you something? You're already at the low low end of normal.

I get my best times at 118. Now I am ~125. I know it seems insignificant, but it really does affect me and I have a lot of high competition races this fall.

It's pretty low, and if you're accurate, those are pretty low calories for competition. I eat more than you at 50 years old with 20 miles a week of slow running.

hill8570

Do you track any measurements besides weight? That's an awful lot of weight to be muscle, given all the cardio you're doing. Do you look like you're gaining fat in any of your usual places?

I do track my measurements, but I don't really know how to properly analyze them. My thighs have had a slight increase, as well as my biceps. Is this likely to be fat or muscle?

With all that cross-training, I would expect it would be more likely to be muscle, especially if you're putting in significant pool time. Although I have no clue how you could have enough calorie excess at 1500 gross calories to even get out of bed, let alone build 6+ pounds of muscle. There are sites around with pictures of people at various body fat % -- might want to take a look and compare to your build.

SanteMulberry

I've read a case study on a woman training for a marathon that actually put on weight while eating at a deficit. When tested, her RMR was depressed. Distance running is one of those things that causes high stress in our bodies. Couple that with a large calorie deficit, and the body reacts to that stress. Stress produces cortisol, and according to some researchers, that causes weight gain.

Now, not everyone is a believer, especially not on this site. And I agree. I think it's less common to over exercise and under eat your way to a suppressed metabolism. Most people just eat more than they think and burn less than they think. However, it isn't impossible.

If your are absolutely, positively, 100% sure you are logging accurately, there's an easy way to test your metabolism. It's a quick, relatively inexpensive test. I had mine done and it took about 20 minutes.

You are also small, right? Water retention from exercise will also show up as weight gain. 1500 calories isn't very many. I need to eat an average of 2200/day to maintain my weight of 130 lbs (at 5'5" and 38 years old). I work out everyday, but do very little cardio. Just a little bike riding here and there.

^^^QFT^^^ Long-distance running is catabolic (that is, it breaks down muscle). Heavy lifting is anabolic (that is, it builds muscle up). What can happen if you don't lift at the same time, is that the running reduces your lean body mass (some people who run a LOT have problems with osteoporosis, as a lot of running breaks down bone as well as muscle). When you lay off of running for a while, the lost lean body mass is replaced with fat because the RMR is now lower because of the loss of lean body mass. If you run and lift, your weight will likely go up before it goes back down because, on women, your hormones favor hanging onto fat and you will be replacing the lost lean body mass with the lifting (as long as you are eating at a small surplus). But the good news is that, if you lift (and eat at a surplus, favoring protein and "good" carbs) you will add muscle which burns calories at a higher rate 24-7 and help you to burn through the unwanted body fat.

husseycd

I've read a case study on a woman training for a marathon that actually put on weight while eating at a deficit. When tested, her RMR was depressed. Distance running is one of those things that causes high stress in our bodies. Couple that with a large calorie deficit, and the body reacts to that stress. Stress produces cortisol, and according to some researchers, that causes weight gain.

He's logging 50 miles a week. Good exercise, but hardly "high stress" training.

Well, he is a 19 year old female, but I see what you are saying. Testing one's RMR is pretty dang simple. If the OP is truly only eating 1500 calories/day and running ~ 5-7 miles per day, and doesn't think her weight gain is purely water, I'd recommend she have her RMR tested.

I get that we hear it all the time on this site, so everyone has this knee jerk reaction. But it isn't impossible, and the OP is very small anyways. Her BMI is close to being underweight. Even only running 5-7 miles per day could over stress her body, since it's likely already a bit stressed.

BTW, OP, you are awfully tiny. Are you sure you want to lose any more weight? I know the common thought for endurance athletes is to be very small, but you might want to look at other avenues to improve performance. :flowerforyou:

dpwellman

1500 calories is way too low, most likely. . .

Most assuredly

SLLeask

If you really are exercising that much and really are only eating 1500 cals then the only thing I can come up with is....



Could you be pregnant....? That would add those pounds on...

rnfreed

I've read a case study on a woman training for a marathon that actually put on weight while eating at a deficit. When tested, her RMR was depressed. Distance running is one of those things that causes high stress in our bodies. Couple that with a large calorie deficit, and the body reacts to that stress. Stress produces cortisol, and according to some researchers, that causes weight gain.

He's logging 50 miles a week. Good exercise, but hardly "high stress" training.

But I also do 4 hard swim workouts a week and hard bike workouts. And my running includes one above race pace interval workout a week

rnfreed

If you really are exercising that much and really are only eating 1500 cals then the only thing I can come up with is....



Could you be pregnant....? That would add those pounds on...

Hahaha no, I am quite certain that I am not pregnant

rnfreed

Is it really possible that my metabolism has become damaged? I thought that eat over 1400 cals. a day would prevent that!

albayin

I don't know what happened to OP but it did happen to me. But I think mine was caused by after losing some weight I became more relaxed about my eating...Running didn't help burn off all the extra from being "relaxed" and as newbie to running, my body did go through some adjusting period and I put on some water weight after each long run. Now it's more stable.

JosieRawr

Is it really possible that my metabolism has become damaged? I thought that eat over 1400 cals. a day would prevent that!

When considering if you are eating too little it is important to consider your NET calories, not just what you're eating. If you were eating 1400+ calories and not exercising you would probably be okay.(I would be losing weight at close to 1lb per week as my lazy burn is just about 2000)

In my opinion you are not eating enough to support your exercise. How long have you been eating in this way? If you are truly and accurately logging everything that you eat, I would put your net calories at dangerously. (All speculation and opinion based on norms of course) And I'm not sure how that would have you gaining weight unless you are in fact damaging your metabolism and then "binging" (As a chronic under eater/binger when I'm not logging- it is all too easy to do without noticing..)

RHachicho

Also has anyone mentioned that a sudden large increase in volume or intensity can result in muscles storing more glycogen. That can happen.

DeguelloTex

I've read a case study on a woman training for a marathon that actually put on weight while eating at a deficit. When tested, her RMR was depressed.

Then she wasn't eating at a deficit.

Lib_B

Is it really possible that my metabolism has become damaged? I thought that eat over 1400 cals. a day would prevent that!

No. Unless you've struggled with disordered eating for years, no. I'm guessing water retention. Are you consuming a lot of sodium? Anything that would cause retention in addition to normal muscle fluid retention? If not, then you are either overestimating calorie burn or underestimating intake. it is no small task...especially if you cook for yourself, to measure and log every bite you put into your mouth, but an extra bite here and there throughout the day can add up to an extra 500 calories (depending on what you snack on). This is not to say you aren't accurately logging, but I know when I was eating sugar, it was easy to pop a 'mini' chocolate 7 times a day to the tune of 300 calories. that's over .5 lb per week if i didn't log it or compensate for it by reducing elsewhere. That's my two cents. I understand wanting to hit a target, but maybe you just need to find a different way to enhance performance?

rnfreed

Also has anyone mentioned that a sudden large increase in volume or intensity can result in muscles storing more glycogen. That can happen.

This is actually the main reason why I started this thread. I have heard a little about this and would like to know more. How much of a weight change could this cause?

SassyCalyGirl

a 5 or 10k is not considered "long distance" running.

more calories in than burned = weight gain.

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