Running in Circles - How to run 100 miles and gain weight

texastango

This definately falls under the category of "Hearsay you heard here first"!

It all started when I spoke to a friend. She is a highly regarded registered Dietician and Sports Nutritionist and Trainer. She told me that after speaking to a group of Ultra-Marathoners (100 miles a week), she learned that one of their concerns is keeping weight off. Are you kidding me? I'm doomed for sure!

The thought is (I've yet to research this myself) that people who train a lot become very efficient with their workouts. They might actually burn less calories doing the same work as their efficiency improves.

If true, this provides excellent rational for altering your work-outs over time if your goal is to burn calories or loose weight (or both). I suppose you could always do more of the given activity (although there are only so many hours in the day and it's hard to see how these people could run more).

So, if you do the same exercise the same amount over time, you'd likely reach a point where the cardio benefit levels off and the "added calories" benefit actually declines.

For those that "ATE BACK" all their calories burned off during exercise you might actually gain weight by overestimating the loss (which declines over time). Eventually, you'd be running 100 miles and gaining weight! Anyone experience this problem? Just sayin!

Sincerely,
Running in circles

BrianSharpe

One could actually see that the better / more efficient you get at running...or what ever exercise you do...if you do the same amount....you'd gain cardio benefit but the "added calories" benefit would actually decline....and if you ate them all back...you'd gain weight as your efficiency improved. Anyone else feel like they are running in circles..????

In the context of weight loss the improved efficiency that results from adaptation may appear to be a diminishing return but, let's use running as an example, if use a HRM it would also report back fewer calories burned which in turn would reduce the amount I could eat without risking a weight gain.

If you take a more holistic view the other health benefits resulting form the improved fitness (lower HR, lower serum lipids, controlled BP etc) are of greater benefit than the number on the scale.

scottb81

There is some efficiency gain in calorie burn, but not very much. Maybe less than 5% after years of training.

What likely happened is that they didn't track their calories and simply ate too much.

I run high mileage, not quite as high as them but 70 to 80 miles a week. The big concern is eating enough that the body can continue to do workouts day after day without going into glycogen depletion. So, there is a fine line between eating enough to be properly fueled and eating too much, especially when hungry.

texastango

Brian, I agree and points well made.

HRMs work well for most people. Some people have factors that do not allow them to utilize HRMs like the rest of us. If you have an irregular heart rate or one that is artificially suppress by medication (beta blocker for example), calculating calories burned using a HRM is problematic.

texastango

Also an excellent point Scott. This does appear to be the real issue and thanks for suggesting that the decline in added calorie benefit is small even after years of running. I'm not an Olympian, nor at this time am I a "serious athelete" any more. I run 60 miles a week and swim about 10. Just started any exercise about 4 months ago. Thanks for your long term perspective!

Reports suggest a typcial person can carry an average of 100 grams of glycogen in the liver and 240 grams in the muscle. Elite runners reportedly typically carry less glycogen the liver (55 grams) and up to 800 grams of glycogen in the muscle.

Running reportedly burns (on average) 1 gram of glycogen a minute and therefore might deplete your liver stores (if full) in 40-90 minutes depending on if you are Elite or typical runner. Ultra-Marathoners are probably getting into their muscle stores as well - even with replacement goos etc.

So, you're right, finding a sensible way to replace glycogen stores without insulin spikes or adding more calories than you need is a very important issue - and I'm still clearly learning.

I am sure there are some great references out there on this topic. Thanks for your input!
Gain the Cardio, Lose the Fat.
Thanks for your contribution!