Has distance running ruined my metabolism?

LorinaLynn

I wonder if a good part of the "gain" might be water weight from doing different exercise or glycogen stores from your body being accustomed to burning so much more?

Yanicka1

I like the thought that in the event of a famine there will only be long-distance runners left nibbling a few berries and going for a jog, deftly avoiding being eaten by the weight-lifters looking to keep their macros up :laugh:

Eh!!!!

LOL.

You know what they say, if you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got. Stop cardio for a month and start lifting heavy, eat at maintenance, then re introduce cardio. It should shock your body and boost your metabolism.

In my very non expert opinion:bigsmile:

Oishii

I wondered about the hunger because, for me, that's the disadvantage of a deficit, not the amount you can eat. So, for me, 2000kcal leaves me hungry, so I don't like to eat that little, but if I could live without hunger I'd happily eat the 1700 mfp thought was my maintenance. In fact, I would love to be able to eat less, so perhaps I need to run more...

Why does it bother you that you need fewer calories if creating the same deficit will only create the same level of hunger?

wolfchild59

I wear a BodyMedia Fit and have had for over a year now, long before I started actually running or running for any decent distances.

I just recently trained for, and ran, my first Half Marathon. I've also experienced some weight gain/holding at the weight I was at when training started fluctuations while training.

But my calories burned while at rest have been the same since I started wearing the BMF to today. At the time I got it, I'd been eating around 1200 calories a day and upped it to around 1400 or so and added occasional cheat days (I hadn't before). I now eat around a 1600-1700 net most days with the occasional cheat day still mixed in. I've worked regularly out the entire time I've worn the BMF, though the specific run training didn't start until Fall of last year and then the half marathon training started in January of this year.

And from the first month I started wearing the BMF to my caloric burn for yesterday, my at rest calories burned per minute vary from about .9 to 1.2, depending on how settled I am.

So, based on the numbers I've seen through a range of eating levels and working out levels, I would doubt that you've done any major harm to your actual metabolism just by running.

ebaymommy

I don't think that a lot of running ruins your metabolism, at least it hasn't ruined mine. I run nearly every day and often twice a day, eat 3000 to 4000 calories a day, and am at my lowest weight since I was 17. Most of the running is steady state, some is fast.

Ditto to that except I don't run twice a day and I eat a little less than that (usually 2000-2800/day). I've actually started eating MORE food while training for my 5th full marathon (I'm running it in June) and my weight is the lowest it's ever been AND my running is better than ever before (faster times). My weight loss is VERY slow and I'm only eating at tiny deficits per my BodyMedia Fit. And by very slow I mean I lost 0.6lbs in the month of March. I'm down about 3.5lbs since Christmas. But I'm pretty small so I'm thrilled with that.