Running and losing weight

You say you are counting, weighing and measuring everything, are you currently in a calorie deficit? If you are in a calorie deficit you should be seeing weight loss regardless of what running you are doing.

The time in my life when I ran the most miles (marathon training) I gained weight. Not a lot, but some. Now I'm losing running about 30 miles a week, but I was losing running lots less too. What matters is calories. Running means you can eat more and still lose, all else equal, but personally I have to pay attention to my diet in addition to exercise.

What you just need to figure out, as you say, is how running affects your tdee. I find 100 calories per mile is a good conservative estimate, so if you have a sense of maintenance without the miles maybe try adding in your weekly average to get the running tdee.

I lost 20 pounds by changing what I ate. When I couldn't lose anymore with healthy eating, I started running, I lost another 20. I stopped running and started eating a little less healthy I gained 15 back. But when I started refining what I was eating, I started losing again so I have kept 25 of the weight off. If I keep eating healthy, I will again get to a point where eating healthy isn't enough. I will then shock my body again by getting into running which will put me in the losing weight category again. I think if your body is doing all that work, you should shock it by taking a break from running so much and lighten up on your food intake. Not enough that you start losing your edge but long enough to shock your body back into losing weight. I'm very anti-protein powders and all that crap, great health can come from eating healthy food! I'd rather be able to eat a delicious lean steak than drink all of my protein in a crappy shake.

I don't run at all and lose weight. Though I do look forward to getting back to being able to run again I'm just too big and too long away from it so still at the walking stage.

It sounds like running before helped keep you at maintenance and it sounds like running is again helping you stay at maintenance.

krawhitham wrote: »

Yeah, it feels that way at least, but I'm just not sure if I'm running enough. When I used to run regularly I'd do 70-100 miles a month.

I feel that if I work up to 70-100 miles a month and I'm running 7-8 minute miles I'm still 35-40 lbs overweight, the weight probably isn't an issue at all and I should just start ignoring my weight.

Thank you for your feedback!

Do you like to run, or do you do it because your think it will help you lose weight? Or, maybe both?

If you think you are not running enough, then you might have a problem. I say with all due respect--and there really is no other way to say it--but it seems to me the issue right now is whether you are eating too much, not that you aren't running enough.

It is also amazing how our bodies adjust to an impact(run). You state you run at a very decent pace 7-8 min is pretty good. You got to change it up, do fartleks, speed training, hill training, HIIT. All these training units will also increase your stamina and speed, as well as increase your calorie burn. I made the same mistake and run miles and miles, but don't see any progress in weight loss, maybe even started to eat more, since I felt more hungry.
Currently I am reading a book, how to incooperate running into weight loss, because I rather run outside then lift weights in a gym (I can easier stick to running and some callesthenics). I am aware that a good balance between cardio and weight training would bring greater results. Therefore I incooperated some resistance band training in my running training, when I use the track for speed training or just to mix it up.

So, if you are like me and just love to run, just switch it up and let your body guess, what is in store today.

By the way, when I am not running I am hiking or cycling.

People are right - it's about a calorie deficit. You can not exercise and have a good deficit and lose weight and you can exercise a lot, but have no deficit and not lose weight. When I started running, I was losing a lot of weight - it was great! But now? I've essentially maintained for 2 years (still trying to lose the last 20 lbs) while running and working out a lot. Why? Eating too much, plain and simple.

try switching things up and doing some exercise classes and some strength training along with your running. Run a couple of days and do the other workouts on the days you dont run. Maybe your body just needs you to mix things up a little bit.

Do you eat back your exercise calories? Just truly curious because I'm a beginner runner and I don't at the moment. It's working for me now, but I imagine with running so much like you do, you would need to eat at least a fraction back?

I do think if you switched things up and tightened up your food intake you would start to see more losses.

Good luck !

What is your calorie intake? You may not be eating enough. I started this summer running 2-3 miles three times a week. I lost pretty fast at first, but them stopped loosing. It wasn't until I increased my calories that I started loosing again. We are about the same size, I'm 5ft 5in, 178. I was running about 10 miles a week and doing strength training 2 to 3 times a week and averaging around 1400-1600 calories a day depending on my exercise for the day. When I was sticking to 1200 I wasn't loosing. Now that I'm not running right now (due to pneumonia) I have to stick to around 1200 to loose.