Runners 40 years and older

morningcoffeeyum

I've been running for 5 years. I run approx 5 days a week, 5 miles a day. I started running to lose 35 lbs. I've lost 25lb and can't seem to lose those last 10lbs. Lately I've been noticing my weight go up and my body too tired to run more than 3 miles a day.I have an office job so I have my calorie intake at 1275 plus I eat back most of my exercise calories. . Any advise on what I need to change?

writetomab

A weight loss plateau is pretty common and pretty much anybody on some form of weight loss programme will experience it at somepoint, particularly the closer you get to your goal.

There are plenty of things you could try:

1. Make sure you are eating enough - the body adapts and so you do sometimes need to change things. You may need to add calories and eat more. So play around with your calorie allowance and see what works. Also avoid calorie creep... I.e. those little things that you may not count as its only a small bite etc...
2. Doing the same training every day will also do the same - do you do steady state cardio on your runs? Would definitely recommend you incorporate interval training into your workouts. So try running for 30secs at a really fast pace followed by 1min rest. Believe it or not this can also help with your endurance runs. Also, try other things, do a little bit of resistance training or bodyweight excercises, or other form of cardio such as cross trainer, or rowing etc.
3. Take a look at your macronutrients - how much protein, fats and carbs are you getting. Have you ever tried low carb? You could have higher insulin resistance and therefore be more prone to accumulating fat so you could try lowering carb intake and increasing protein and healthy fats.
4. You may need to get yourself checked out, I.e. rule out thyroid problems or other hormonal imbalances, but only if everything else fails.

Hope this helps.

sevsmom

I'd add some cross training. And, make sure you're actually eating the right amount of calories. You may also find that adding some strength training will help.

All that, and I'm hanging on to 5 lbs I'd like to lose before my summer races start in a month. . .but, sometimes ya' just gotta go with the flow.

dawnemjh

How about trying intervals, speedwork, fartleks, that type of thing. Vary your workouts more. Do a long run one day, speed work another, easy, tempo run another day. After awhile your body will adjust to the workout and you have to work harder and/or longer to get same results. You are becoming more efficient!

dorothytd

There are plenty of things you could try:

2. Doing the same training every day will also do the same - do you do steady state cardio on your runs? Would definitely recommend you incorporate interval training into your workouts. So try running for 30secs at a really fast pace followed by 1min rest. Believe it or not this can also help with your endurance runs. Also, try other things, do a little bit of resistance training or bodyweight excercises, or other form of cardio such as cross trainer, or rowing etc.

Was going to suggest this, but not nearly as articulately. Last year adding strength training 3x week faithfully (not necessarily "lifting" - body weight and dumbbell exercises) helped my running and body composition quite a bit.

007bondage

I can relate to your situation and am also "doing something about it". I agree with all of the above suggestions (lame huh!). Clearly, you should be mixing your training up to achieve your fat loss goals. I'm reminded of a saying:

"The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different outcome".

Good luck and "Go hard to get hard" (not a Viagra ad) :drinker:

hatethegame

A weight loss plateau is pretty common and pretty much anybody on some form of weight loss programme will experience it at somepoint, particularly the closer you get to your goal.

There are plenty of things you could try:

1. Make sure you are eating enough - the body adapts and so you do sometimes need to change things. You may need to add calories and eat more. So play around with your calorie allowance and see what works. Also avoid calorie creep... I.e. those little things that you may not count as its only a small bite etc...
2. Doing the same training every day will also do the same - do you do steady state cardio on your runs? Would definitely recommend you incorporate interval training into your workouts. So try running for 30secs at a really fast pace followed by 1min rest. Believe it or not this can also help with your endurance runs. Also, try other things, do a little bit of resistance training or bodyweight excercises, or other form of cardio such as cross trainer, or rowing etc.
3. Take a look at your macronutrients - how much protein, fats and carbs are you getting. Have you ever tried low carb? You could have higher insulin resistance and therefore be more prone to accumulating fat so you could try lowering carb intake and increasing protein and healthy fats.
4. You may need to get yourself checked out, I.e. rule out thyroid problems or other hormonal imbalances, but only if everything else fails.

Hope this helps.

This^^^ Also, if you're only taking one day rest at time, try taking 2-3 days off to allow your body to recover fully. I've found that this really helps.

vanessaclarkgbr

How about adding in some strength work? I'd like to add in that I am currently not practising what I preach ;-) but I took this advice previously and both my PB and weight loss shifted up a notch nicely. Also makes you look a lot better once you get over 40 :-)

cad39too

I used to run every day, now that I lift I only run 5 days a week and 3 of those days are warm ups before strength training so I just do a quick mile or two (between 7.5 and 8.5 minute mile) the other 2 days are between 3 and 6 mile runs. Doing the quick miles before weights has increased my PB over 3 and 6 miles.

Cut back on the days you run, maybe add in some strength training; or as someone else suggested try some intervals.

loveasunnyday

Too much wine?!:drinker: