Half-Marathon Training and Weight Loss

runningfromzombies
runningfromzombies Posts: 386 Member
edited November 12 in Fitness and Exercise
I've been training for a half-marathon since December 5th, 2011. (The half in question is now less than 3 weeks away--eek! It's my first one.) For the last three and a half months, I've kept food logs, training logs, and tracked various body measurements. I've followed Hal Higdon's Novice training plan for half-marathons, the only difference being I stretched out the 12 weeks to 18, repeating some weeks. I've been doing the optional strength training on Mondays and Thursdays (and sometimes Saturdays), too.

My question is this: though I'm eating at a 500-calorie per day deficit, I haven't lost a single pound since late December. I've lost inches (from 30.5" waist and 41" hips to 28.5" waist and 40" hips), but the scale hasn't budged except to float up and down between 150 and 152 for three straight months. Is this really just a reflection of body fat loss and muscle gain, or is there more to it? Is there a chance that once my mileage lowers and I'm not working out so hard that the scale will start moving downward again?

Here's some stats, if that helps: I'm a 20-year-old female, 5'8" and currently 151 pounds. My BMR is 1350, and according to various calculators my daily calories needed to maintain my weight is about 1800. I eat a net of 1380 per day, which means that on days like Sunday (my longest run yet, a 9-miler) I ate more like 2400 calories because I burned about 1000. Generally my macro-nutrients look like 50% carbs/25% protein/25% fat. I usually eat at least two fruits and three vegetables per day. I have breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a post-workout snack, and I usually drink about a gallon of water per day. The only other beverages I drink are one cup of coffee in the morning, low-calorie Gatorade, and a cup of green tea at night. I have gradually come from running 12 miles per week to now about 26 miles per week.

Replies

  • vtate75
    vtate75 Posts: 221 Member
    Hmmmm...I'm no expert, but I think it is surprising that you aren't losing. Generally, I would say that you are probably retaining water, but I don't think that could be the case since December. I'm wondering if you are eating too many calories. Though you ran 9 miles on Saturday, maybe eating the 1000 calories back was too much for your body. I try to only eat back 1/2 of the calories that I burn, sometimes less. There are varying schools of thought on this, but that is the only thing that I can think of. Regardless, you are shrinking (inches), so you are doing a great job. Keep it up!
  • pmkelly409
    pmkelly409 Posts: 1,646 Member
    I have also read quite a bit about "shocking" your body when you plateau to wake up your metabolism. Have a big steak dinner with dessert, etc...whatever is out of the norm for your typical diet.
  • carolann_22
    carolann_22 Posts: 364 Member
    When I did a half marathon (at 155 lbs) I actually gained 8 pounds over the five months of training but went down two pants sizes (from a 10 to a 6). I would rather lose the inches, but no idea WHY that happened.
  • runningfromzombies
    runningfromzombies Posts: 386 Member
    Hmmmm...I'm no expert, but I think it is surprising that you aren't losing. Generally, I would say that you are probably retaining water, but I don't think that could be the case since December. I'm wondering if you are eating too many calories. Though you ran 9 miles on Saturday, maybe eating the 1000 calories back was too much for your body. I try to only eat back 1/2 of the calories that I burn, sometimes less. There are varying schools of thought on this, but that is the only thing that I can think of. Regardless, you are shrinking (inches), so you are doing a great job. Keep it up!

    I think it's surprising, too...and confusing. I do tend to go a bit over my sodium intake on a day-to-day basis (sometimes by 1,000 mg, but more often by only about 500 mg or less), but with how much water I drink, and the sheer amount of time I spend sweating, I also don't think it's water retention from that. I think it might be the calories, but, at the same time, I have in the past eaten back all my exercise calories and consistently lost between 1/2 a pound and a pound a week...I just was never burning as much as I am now. I have a heart rate monitor, so I know that the estimation for what I'm burning is about as accurate as it can possibly get. It's all just so puzzling!

    It has occurred to me that maybe I'm gaining muscle while losing body fat % and that accounts for the scale's non-movement, but then I consider that technically, mathematically, I'm still eating at a deficit, and I've read and read and read about how hard it is to gain muscle even while eating at maintenance or over maintenance, so I have a hard time believing it...but the shrinkage of my dimensions seem to say otherwise. The body works in mysterious ways. *shakes head*

    Thanks for your input and words of encouragement. :flowerforyou:
  • rebecca_d35
    rebecca_d35 Posts: 131
    You are just about me exactly! Except I am training for a 10k. I am 5'10, a shade under 160, and a very healthy eater. I've upped my mileage from around 6-8 miles/week to around 20, watched my calories (sort of, though not strictly) and am not losing.

    But my body looks different.

    I can pull off all my size 8 pants without unbuttoning them. People have started commenting on my "weight loss." And I just feel slimmer.

    So I don't know what to say, except that I know what you are going through!
  • runningfromzombies
    runningfromzombies Posts: 386 Member
    When I did a half marathon (at 155 lbs) I actually gained 8 pounds over the five months of training but went down two pants sizes (from a 10 to a 6). I would rather lose the inches, but no idea WHY that happened.

    This is so good to hear. I would also rather lose the inches, but the math and science of it just confuses me! I guess I'll have to live with the mystery. :laugh:
  • runningfromzombies
    runningfromzombies Posts: 386 Member
    You are just about me exactly! Except I am training for a 10k. I am 5'10, a shade under 160, and a very healthy eater. I've upped my mileage from around 6-8 miles/week to around 20, watched my calories (sort of, though not strictly) and am not losing.

    But my body looks different.

    I can pull off all my size 8 pants without unbuttoning them. People have started commenting on my "weight loss." And I just feel slimmer.

    So I don't know what to say, except that I know what you are going through!

    Well, at least I know I'm not alone. :laugh: I was starting to fear that there was something wrong with me, but if this frequently happens to runners, then I guess it's not such a big deal! As long as my measurements continue to shrink I'll just shake my head at the scale.
  • kjensen15
    kjensen15 Posts: 398 Member
    I'm no expert but I've seen my sister and several friends that were trying to lose weight and took up running. After running for a few months they decided to do some sort of race a 10K, a half, or maybe a full. When they consistently start to do long runs across the board their weightloss has haulted. You have to take in so many calories to fuel these long runs and where you do burn a lot of calories while running I don't neccesarily think you are burning fat. If you think about it trainers will tell you there is a heart rate zone you need to stay in consistently in order to burn fat. As you run you may have heart rate peaks that are in that zone or above that zone but you don't stay consistenly in the fat burning zone.
  • ginalclark
    ginalclark Posts: 35
    I am training for a full marathon in May and started my training beginning of January as well as my weight loss journey. On Sat. my longest run to date is 14.2 miles and I run about 26-34 miles a week now. I started with a weight of 175 and have lost 16 pounds so far so right now I am at 159. My calorie intake without exercise is 1450 and on days I run or workout I eat some calories back but not all so maybe the most I eat in the day is 1800 calories. On Sat after the 14 miles (burned 1900 calories), I ate 2100 and thought it was too much for me. Maybe like someone said you just have to give your metabolism a kick and eat a big meal to offset it and then go back to fluctuating calories throughout the week. You are obviously losing something with the inches lost so maybe it is just muscle gain too. I'm not sure as I am not an expert either. Keep up the great work and good luck on your half marathon! This is my first race too and I am super nervous and anxious! I've never been a runner before and I am pretty slow still but doing it! My goal is to just finish! :)
  • runningfromzombies
    runningfromzombies Posts: 386 Member
    I am training for a full marathon in May and started my training beginning of January as well as my weight loss journey. On Sat. my longest run to date is 14.2 miles and I run about 26-34 miles a week now. I started with a weight of 175 and have lost 16 pounds so far so right now I am at 159. My calorie intake without exercise is 1450 and on days I run or workout I eat some calories back but not all so maybe the most I eat in the day is 1800 calories. On Sat after the 14 miles (burned 1900 calories), I ate 2100 and thought it was too much for me. Maybe like someone said you just have to give your metabolism a kick and eat a big meal to offset it and then go back to fluctuating calories throughout the week. You are obviously losing something with the inches lost so maybe it is just muscle gain too. I'm not sure as I am not an expert either. Keep up the great work and good luck on your half marathon! This is my first race too and I am super nervous and anxious! I've never been a runner before and I am pretty slow still but doing it! My goal is to just finish! :)

    Yeah, if I ate less, I might be losing. I'm just quite literally petrified of losing lean muscle mass, so I always eat back my exercise calories, because I figure I want to preserve it--maybe by doing that I've just ended up gaining muscle. Good luck with your marathon! That is an amazing distance to tackle for a first race! I hope to do a full marathon sometime next year after I've done another half-marathon or two. You're going to kick butt! (:
  • ginalclark
    ginalclark Posts: 35
    I definitely understand about not wanting to lose the muscle mass. I told myself after the marathon I am going to start lifting weights and building back some since I think I may have lost with all the running. I try to eat back at least some of my calories. Thanks on the luck! I need all the support i can get. haha I am super nervous! Good luck with your half!! You're gonna kill it! :)
  • hedkell
    hedkell Posts: 121 Member
    I was losing a small amount during my half marathon training. After I finished the race I stopped the long runs and dropped 7 pounds in 3 weeks, but not much on the tape measure. Might have been water weight, not sure why???
  • yesthistime
    yesthistime Posts: 2,051 Member
    Awesome group:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/1788-half-marathon-training-group
  • conchita962
    conchita962 Posts: 327 Member
    HI! I'm with ya all the way!!!! I have my first half on April 1st. (friend me if you like :) I know that my leg muscles are much more defined and despite running 18-30 miles per week I'm not losing either. I don't eat back all of my calories on long run days but i do make sure I log Gu, energy beans, etc. to be sure I'm accurate. I get confused about not losing too..

    ~Dawn
  • Aperture_Science
    Aperture_Science Posts: 840 Member
    Sorry I've not got a chance to read all replies but didn't want to read and run.

    I feel that MFP overestimates my calories burnt during distance runs. I've been logging food and exercise (off and on) for a long time now and have found that if I run a lot (I tend to run three times a week with runs ranging from short sprint sessions to 13mile training runs) and record those cals: AND EAT THEM I gain.

    I've settled down to routinely only recording 2/3 of my runs.

    So, a 1 hour run would be logged on MFP as 40mins and then I would eat all those cals.

    I don't use a HRM but when others have compared HRM values for the MFP values for distance runs they tell me that MFP is in line with the HRM. So, in my case at least, even using a HRM would not give me accurate calories expended.

    Best wishes
  • WatchMomRun
    WatchMomRun Posts: 91
    I use a HRM and have found that MFP is usually really accurate for calories burned. I lost about 40 lbs then once I reached my goal weight took up running. Since then I've gained about 20 back!!! It's my own fault though. I eat to much!!

    When I am training for a half marathon or marathon I generally eat more than I should. I've since started to log my food again and still do my running and sure enough I've started losing again. It's kind of a pain on long run days to log in everything from Gatorade to GU but it is what I know I need to do to avoid the old "wow I just ran 13.1 miles I think I'll devour an entire pizza!!!!"

    Good luck with the training!
  • athensguy
    athensguy Posts: 550
    Do you weigh your food?

    It's possible that it's a case of slightly overestimating calories burned and slightly underestimating intake leaving you with maintenance calories.

    Your gross calories burned may be estimated as .75 X weight in lbs per mile. Net is more like .63 X weight in lbs. (source: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-304-311-8402-0,00.html)

    For walking, it's a good bit lower.
  • trimom10
    trimom10 Posts: 388 Member
    There are a few things that come to mind:

    1) You didn't say if you are using a HRM during your workouts, which is the most accurate way to calculate calories burned. MFP and machines like treadmills usually overestimate this number (especially for an aerobically fit person like you). It will also tell you your average HR for the workout, which brings me to my next point.

    2) Running usually puts you into a higher HR zone which is aerobic conditioning rather than fat burning. You are burning sugar while running, whereas if you just walked and kept your HR in a lower zone you would burn fat.

    3) Like others have pointed out, muscle weighs more than fat and you likely are converting fat into muscle. Your pants fitting better is a good example. If you happen to have access to a body composition monitor, it will give you your muscle percentage and water weight (in addition to your body weight).

    Good luck in your half marathon!
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
    When I lost my weight (about #15) while running, it came off the easiest when I set things to 1/2 lb per week. It was like my "sweet spot" Maybe you need to find yours?

    When I am marathon training as my mileage really builds I have almost force mysefl to eat or I'll lose more weight than I want to.
  • runningfromzombies
    runningfromzombies Posts: 386 Member
    Sorry I've not got a chance to read all replies but didn't want to read and run.

    I feel that MFP overestimates my calories burnt during distance runs. I've been logging food and exercise (off and on) for a long time now and have found that if I run a lot (I tend to run three times a week with runs ranging from short sprint sessions to 13mile training runs) and record those cals: AND EAT THEM I gain.

    I've settled down to routinely only recording 2/3 of my runs.

    So, a 1 hour run would be logged on MFP as 40mins and then I would eat all those cals.

    I don't use a HRM but when others have compared HRM values for the MFP values for distance runs they tell me that MFP is in line with the HRM. So, in my case at least, even using a HRM would not give me accurate calories expended.

    Best wishes

    Hmm, interesting. I do use an HRM, and according to that, I burn more than MFP tells me I burn; I've been using it since about January. Thanks for the input!
  • runningfromzombies
    runningfromzombies Posts: 386 Member
    Do you weigh your food?

    It's possible that it's a case of slightly overestimating calories burned and slightly underestimating intake leaving you with maintenance calories.

    Your gross calories burned may be estimated as .75 X weight in lbs per mile. Net is more like .63 X weight in lbs. (source: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-304-311-8402-0,00.html)

    For walking, it's a good bit lower.

    Yep, I weigh all my food! Love that little food scale. And I use an HRM for estimating calories burned, so I figure that's about as accurate as I can get.
  • runningfromzombies
    runningfromzombies Posts: 386 Member
    There are a few things that come to mind:

    1) You didn't say if you are using a HRM during your workouts, which is the most accurate way to calculate calories burned. MFP and machines like treadmills usually overestimate this number (especially for an aerobically fit person like you). It will also tell you your average HR for the workout, which brings me to my next point.

    2) Running usually puts you into a higher HR zone which is aerobic conditioning rather than fat burning. You are burning sugar while running, whereas if you just walked and kept your HR in a lower zone you would burn fat.

    3) Like others have pointed out, muscle weighs more than fat and you likely are converting fat into muscle. Your pants fitting better is a good example. If you happen to have access to a body composition monitor, it will give you your muscle percentage and water weight (in addition to your body weight).

    Good luck in your half marathon!

    Thanks for this! Yep, I do use an HRM, and according to dimensions calculations, I have gained two pounds of muscle and lost about 3% body fat in the last three months. I just can't believe the gain in muscle mass is happening while I'm technically at a deficit...it's baffling!
  • runningfromzombies
    runningfromzombies Posts: 386 Member
    When I lost my weight (about #15) while running, it came off the easiest when I set things to 1/2 lb per week. It was like my "sweet spot" Maybe you need to find yours?

    When I am marathon training as my mileage really builds I have almost force mysefl to eat or I'll lose more weight than I want to.

    Hmm, interesting. I think I'm going to try this for the next few weeks just to see what happens. I'm definitely already having to force myself to eat the amount I'm eating--Thursdays and Sundays are particularly difficult, but another 250 calories shouldn't be too bad. Thanks for the suggestion!
  • runningfromzombies
    runningfromzombies Posts: 386 Member
    I was losing a small amount during my half marathon training. After I finished the race I stopped the long runs and dropped 7 pounds in 3 weeks, but not much on the tape measure. Might have been water weight, not sure why???

    Wow, that is really interesting. I have a weird feeling that something similar is going to happen to me. Sigh. Who knows. The body is such a mystery.
  • JaniceLSnow
    JaniceLSnow Posts: 1 Member
    I just finished my first marathon in May , 2013. I stopped losing weight at the end of training. I did not gain however. I was consuming large amounts of calories at the end. Even on the non run days I ate extra. Now, 5 weeks post race my metabolism is still allowing me to eat extra and not gain. I have a dense frame. I wear a size 10/12 and I weigh 155. I normally am 145 at this size. I have found that I eat like a horse, but I'm not gaining. My mileage is way down too. I hope this keeps up!
  • HMVOL7409
    HMVOL7409 Posts: 1,588 Member
    No one else has touched this.

    Where do you get your calculations from? I ran your stats and with your height, weight and age your BMR is 1500 and to maintain with 3-5 hrs of moderate exercise your calorie goal 2400. You are not sedentary so take that out of the equation. I think that's how you arrived at 1800. If you are not consistently fueling yourself properly you will stall.
  • RunnerElizabeth
    RunnerElizabeth Posts: 1,091 Member
    I've lost 15lbs from running, specifically from half marathon training. I never had a lot to lose, 20lbs max was my guess. After I was down 15 and couldn't manage to lose the last 5, I started to rethink my plan, so that's when I added in 3 days of strength a week and put my scale in the dumpster. I'm pretty sure my numbers aren't changing, but I acidentally put on a pair of prepregnancy jeans the other week without realizing my mistake because they fit so well.

    So my first bit of advice is, who cares what the scale says if the tape measure says you're smaller?

    The second bit is that after your race is up, mix up the training some, if we do the same excercise at the same intensity week after week, our bodies get used to it and it becomes less effective.

    And for the diet side of things, I eat back some of my calories, but I generally stop at about 2000 because, even if I go for a 13 mile run, generally after 2000 calories I'm not hungry any more, as long as I make that 2000 really good quality and high in protein, but no protein powders for me. I generally throw hemp into my green smoothies, stuff like that.
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