confused....how much to eat while training for half marathon
Melissa26point2
Posts: 177 Member
Forgive me if this topic has been discussed before, but.....
here is a little back story. I have recently lost the 30 lbs I set out to lose last year. At first, I was on the ever popular 1,200 cal per day diet. That didn't work, as I was ALWAYS hungry. I upped it to 1,390 then to 1,500 per day., which is where I am now. I am currently training for my first half marathon though, which has me running 4 or 5 times a week, plus 2 days of weight training. I only have 1 or 2 days of rest a week. I usually eat back most of my exercise calories. I have read and understand the importance of that, and besides that, I am usually still hungry.
Well, my worry now is that I am not getting enough food in my body to fuel these long and frequent runs. The half is in November and I am doing Hal Higdon's Novice 1 training plan. Trying to figure all this out, I did some of the calculations to figure out my BMR and TDEE on the Scoobysworkout website. I did the recommended 15% fat loss as I saw in the post re: "TDEE & BMR: What they are and what to do with them"
BMR - 1369
TDEE - 2122
After eating at less than 1,500 calories per day for the last 1.5 years, I am having a hard time wrapping my head around eating that much every day! Surely, I won't be eating back exercise calories while eating at my TDEE, right?!
I also calculated my body fat on fat2fit.com. It said 25.2%, so I know I still have some BF to lose.
Does anyone have any tips or advice to offer? I have only recently found this group, so I haven't done too much trolling on all your posts. I should probably do that, LOL!! Fee free to look at my food diary. It is open to the public.
Thanks all
here is a little back story. I have recently lost the 30 lbs I set out to lose last year. At first, I was on the ever popular 1,200 cal per day diet. That didn't work, as I was ALWAYS hungry. I upped it to 1,390 then to 1,500 per day., which is where I am now. I am currently training for my first half marathon though, which has me running 4 or 5 times a week, plus 2 days of weight training. I only have 1 or 2 days of rest a week. I usually eat back most of my exercise calories. I have read and understand the importance of that, and besides that, I am usually still hungry.
Well, my worry now is that I am not getting enough food in my body to fuel these long and frequent runs. The half is in November and I am doing Hal Higdon's Novice 1 training plan. Trying to figure all this out, I did some of the calculations to figure out my BMR and TDEE on the Scoobysworkout website. I did the recommended 15% fat loss as I saw in the post re: "TDEE & BMR: What they are and what to do with them"
BMR - 1369
TDEE - 2122
After eating at less than 1,500 calories per day for the last 1.5 years, I am having a hard time wrapping my head around eating that much every day! Surely, I won't be eating back exercise calories while eating at my TDEE, right?!
I also calculated my body fat on fat2fit.com. It said 25.2%, so I know I still have some BF to lose.
Does anyone have any tips or advice to offer? I have only recently found this group, so I haven't done too much trolling on all your posts. I should probably do that, LOL!! Fee free to look at my food diary. It is open to the public.
Thanks all
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I should add that I am not trying to lose weight right now. Yes, I still have those last 5 lbs to lose, but I am sure this is not the right time to do it. I just want to fuel my body to prepare for the running. I don't want to be tired all the time. Also, I am not using any protein supplements. I tend to get 80ish grams of protein each day through food alone. although, I am thinking about getting some protein powder to use after workouts while I train0
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Hi. Well, I am training rather pathetically for my third half marathon. I've decided to focus on the weightlifting because I need a change and running was just not making the changes in my body that I was looking for. Giving up long distances as soon as I'm done my half in Sept.
I didn't fuel properly at all last year. I am eating my TDEE currently because of the reset and feel stronger on my runs than ever before. Way better energy throughout the distances. I just started adding protein shakes after each workout (running OR weights) and the aches and pains are gone in the mornings for me. Quite remarkable actually. I'm running only 2-3 x/ week because of a new fun runners hip so playing with my distances. One more Long run before taper week.
I'm actually getting 140 g of protein a day so you might want to increase that (which is easier with shakes or bars you can make yourself - see Jamie Eason chocolate protein bars...amazing! My friend on MFP suggested it and they are GOOD!)
Alternatively, are you adding gels to your longer runs? (I bought a box of Gu - chocolate mint) They are kind of costly but man, they were a huge difference in my performance. I was initially leary of them but I read somewhere that Lance Armstrong used 12 gels in his first marathon and ran sub 3 hours so that equates to 6 gels for a half marathon, I'm not so scared to use them anymore.
it is the biggest difference after 10 km.
I'm rambling so I'm going to cut it off by saying I think your cals are too low for the final stages of training. Hal will have your longest runs ahead of you so fuel is going to be critical for performance during and recovery after. Get in your protein, water and vitamins. Hope you also get some more advice from the amazing EMTWL community. 0 -
Good luck on your half! I hope your injury is healed by then.
I have heard of them, but I haven't tried gels. I am on week 5 or 6, so my longest run has only been 6 miles. I have heard you can make them at home with honey. I might have to look that up.
Thanks for the advice 0
