Weight Loss and Running

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Replies

  • ZenInTexas
    ZenInTexas Posts: 781 Member
    I lost the majority of my weight, probably the first 40 pounds when I was doing 20 miles a week or less. Once I got into training for a half and then a full its been a major challenge to lose the last 15. I had to fight for every one of those 15 pounds. The hunger definitely outweighs the burn. When I lost the first 40 I was only running and walking, maybe a little at home strength training.

    Do you know roughly how many calories you were eating when you lost the 40 pounds?

    Usually between 1500-1600 per day. I did not eat back exercise calories however. So I had a bigger deficit. I also was not very accurate about my food at the time, I measured stuff but didn't have a digital food scale. So in reality I was likely eating a couple hundred more per day than I thought. So it all balanced out.
  • SonicDeathMonkey80
    SonicDeathMonkey80 Posts: 4,489 Member
    Ok so for those of you who have been successful with running and losing weight. I have a couple of questions:

    1. At what miles per week did you start to see the weight coming off
    2. Where you watching what you were eating? and how many calories were you eating?
    3. Where you doing any other workout than running?


    Thanks

    Hey Shirley. Probably not a whole lot of help, but here:
    1. I was losing at 0.0 MPW and but eating at a deficit. Running only allowed me to eat more, but I still had to maintain the deficit.
    2. Yes. Weighed everything and took in roughly 1600-1700 daily (5' 10" male)
    3. I picked up cycling in the spring and lifted weights in the fall (not bulking)
  • SonicDeathMonkey80
    SonicDeathMonkey80 Posts: 4,489 Member
    I will add that I think consistency plays a part. Maybe it's broscience, but once I ran at regular intervals throughout the week, my body followed suit and seemed to metabolize at a regular interval as well. I never took time off here and there for stuff.
  • RunConquerCelebrate
    RunConquerCelebrate Posts: 956 Member
    Ok so for those of you who have been successful with running and losing weight. I have a couple of questions:

    1. At what miles per week did you start to see the weight coming off
    2. Where you watching what you were eating? and how many calories were you eating?
    3. Where you doing any other workout than running?

    The key is calorie deficit.


    I think this is my problem, I still do not fully understand this whole calorie deficit thing I think I do but in reality I do not and maybe that is part of my problem
  • RunConquerCelebrate
    RunConquerCelebrate Posts: 956 Member
    Ok so for those of you who have been successful with running and losing weight. I have a couple of questions:

    1. At what miles per week did you start to see the weight coming off
    2. Where you watching what you were eating? and how many calories were you eating?
    3. Where you doing any other workout than running?


    Thanks

    Hey Shirley. Probably not a whole lot of help, but here:
    1. I was losing at 0.0 MPW and but eating at a deficit. Running only allowed me to eat more, but I still had to maintain the deficit.
    2. Yes. Weighed everything and took in roughly 1600-1700 daily (5' 10" male)
    3. I picked up cycling in the spring and lifted weights in the fall (not bulking)

    Doug I think my problem is the whole calorie deficit thing, I must admit that I still have a hard time understanding that. (I am horrible with numbers)

    I have a scale and weigh my food I use measuring cups as well. I know the MFP has the Goal calories what you ate in food what you burned and your net.

    I have always been confused by the calories I eat and the net. Does it mean that I have to reach my 1230 goal in net in order to have a deficit?

    Because most of the time I do not reach that goal I always get scared by the number that I see in Food eaten. So I am not sure if I think I am eating too much and in reality eating too little and therefore not loosing weight. Or if I am eating too much.



    My Goal on MFP is 1230 because I have a desk job, so for example on Tuesday when I went for the group run my goal was 1230 I burned a total of 815 calories ( that includes what I burned running and FitBit calories) I ate a total of 1660 calories out of the 2045 that MFP said I could eat. So here I am not sure if I am eating too much or too little. I always record my calories burned on MFP.

    I guess this is where my problem lies getting a full understanding of how much I should eat ugh!!! back to the drawing board
  • RunConquerCelebrate
    RunConquerCelebrate Posts: 956 Member
    I will add that I think consistency plays a part. Maybe it's broscience, but once I ran at regular intervals throughout the week, my body followed suit and seemed to metabolize at a regular interval as well. I never took time off here and there for stuff.

    I am really working on being more consistence with my runs :)
  • ZenInTexas
    ZenInTexas Posts: 781 Member
    Ok so for those of you who have been successful with running and losing weight. I have a couple of questions:

    1. At what miles per week did you start to see the weight coming off
    2. Where you watching what you were eating? and how many calories were you eating?
    3. Where you doing any other workout than running?


    Thanks

    Hey Shirley. Probably not a whole lot of help, but here:
    1. I was losing at 0.0 MPW and but eating at a deficit. Running only allowed me to eat more, but I still had to maintain the deficit.
    2. Yes. Weighed everything and took in roughly 1600-1700 daily (5' 10" male)
    3. I picked up cycling in the spring and lifted weights in the fall (not bulking)

    Doug I think my problem is the whole calorie deficit thing, I must admit that I still have a hard time understanding that. (I am horrible with numbers)

    I have a scale and weigh my food I use measuring cups as well. I know the MFP has the Goal calories what you ate in food what you burned and your net.

    I have always been confused by the calories I eat and the net. Does it mean that I have to reach my 1230 goal in net in order to have a deficit?

    Because most of the time I do not reach that goal I always get scared by the number that I see in Food eaten. So I am not sure if I think I am eating too much and in reality eating too little and therefore not loosing weight. Or if I am eating too much.



    My Goal on MFP is 1230 because I have a desk job, so for example on Tuesday when I went for the group run my goal was 1230 I burned a total of 815 calories ( that includes what I burned running and FitBit calories) I ate a total of 1660 calories out of the 2045 that MFP said I could eat. So here I am not sure if I am eating too much or too little. I always record my calories burned on MFP.

    I guess this is where my problem lies getting a full understanding of how much I should eat ugh!!! back to the drawing board

    If you are not losing weight then you do not have enough of a deficit. You need to eat less or exercise more. Just try to end every day in the green. Weigh and measure all your food. And DON"T over estimate your calories burned. That's a big one. Don't rely on the numbers in the MFP data base for calories burnt. They are wildly inaccurate.
  • saskie78
    saskie78 Posts: 237 Member
    For me, the weight loss benefits of running have been interesting. If I don't run at all, I gain weight. If I run about 30 miles per week with some speed and interval work and add in high intensity circuit training 2x/week, I lose weight. If I run 60-70 miles per week at a slow pace (ultra training) with low impact strength training, I gain weight.

    One of the reasons is definitely my appetite. If I run slow, I'm hungry ALL THE DAMN TIME!
    If I run fast and do high intensity circuit training, it curbs my appetite.

    So, medium miles with more intensity is key to weight loss for me. I just don't like that plan all that much. Doesn't leave me time to meander for hours in the forest on the weekends on a trail run ;)
  • Will_Thrust_For_Candy
    Will_Thrust_For_Candy Posts: 6,109 Member
    I am about to start half marathon training on Tuesday and have been concerned about the same thing. The plan as it stands now is 1/2 training as priority, lifting secondary. So running 3-4x/week and lifting 2x/week. I know that I will be hungry and I don't want to fall into the habit of just eating more "because I had a good run today"

    So I went last Monday and got an activity tracker. The purpose of this was simply to get a better handle on what my maintenance calories are so that I can eat to maintenance and use my activity as my deficit. I also plan to switch up my macros (when I'm lifting protein is King, now carbs will be King).

    Here's to hoping all of my analyzing works lol

    So to answer your question a little better....when I did 10k training last year, weight fell off. I was eating about 1600-1800/day. I hope to have the same thing happen this time around with 1/2 training :smile:
  • DavidMartinez2
    DavidMartinez2 Posts: 840 Member
    I am about to start half marathon training on Tuesday and have been concerned about the same thing. The plan as it stands now is 1/2 training as priority, lifting secondary. So running 3-4x/week and lifting 2x/week. I know that I will be hungry and I don't want to fall into the habit of just eating more "because I had a good run today"

    You will be hungry, the key is to eat things that will keep you full without ruining the work you did.
  • AsellusReborn
    AsellusReborn Posts: 1,112 Member
    For me I had to divorce the idea that running had anything to do with weight loss. I restrict calories to lose weight (reasonable deficit) and run to get better at running, eating my exercise cals back to keep my deficit healthy/reasonable and keep my ability to run.
  • OnionMomma
    OnionMomma Posts: 938 Member
    I have finally hit the mark and I"m running about 25 MPW right now. I try to log every day (I don't always) and as long as I'm staying about 250-300 calories of my goal (according to MFP) then I'm dropping weight.

    Until I hit that amount of MPW, I was staying the same. So, for me as well, it seems like 25 is the key MPW.
  • Zekela
    Zekela Posts: 634 Member
    I agree running makes me hungry... and it's all about watching what you eat. However, after a 5 hour run I'm more tired than hungry and would just sleep instead of eat. Running 5 hours daily isn't sustainable for me however.