Running and weight loss

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123bean
123bean Posts: 27 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
im in week 5 of c25k and feel great. I'm eating back excersize calories but keeping the low. Although my clothes feel better I have not lost any weight. Do I need to cross train and add in weights? Is running. It enough? I'm doing a 5k in August.

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  • IsaackGMOON
    IsaackGMOON Posts: 3,358 Member
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    If you're not losing weight, you're either eating too much and aren't in a deficit or there is a medical problem.
    • Are you weighing your foods with an electric food scale?
    • Are you weighing your foods accurately? i.e. using grams instead of cups
    • How are you getting your calorie burns? MFP, HRM or machines?
    • How many calories are you eating daily?
    • How many exercise calories do you eat back?
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,249 Member
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    Weight loss comes from a caloric deficit and you can lose weight without exercising. Having said that, cross training and adding weights is an excellent idea from a running / fitness perspective - it can help you become a better, more injury resistant runner - and from a body composition point of view.

    If your clothes seem to be fitting better I wouldn't fixate too much on just the numbers on a scale. Take measurements and use them as well as your improvements in fitness as determinants of success.

    I'm going to warn you now......5Ks are a gateway race. I used to be a normal human being, then I started out with 5Ks, went to 10Ks, half-marathons and Olympic duathlons.... it's addictive (in a good way)

  • yusaku02
    yusaku02 Posts: 3,476 Member
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    I'd stop eating back those calories if you're not losing any weight.
    You don't need to add weights but it's not a bad idea. When I decided to lose weight I did a daily 5k run for 3 straight months (a few missed days here and there) and I had very consistent weight loss. But you'll never outrun a calorie surplus. Focus on eating at a deficit.
  • 123bean
    123bean Posts: 27 Member
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    Thank you for these ideas. Btw I'm a 48 yo lady so Losing weight Is NOT as easy as it used to be. I'm not weighing meals etc but just logging here and running 4x per week. I will take these suggestions to heart. However I've read so many conflicting things about eating back calories I don't know what to think. Thanks everyone!!
  • ThatMouse
    ThatMouse Posts: 229 Member
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    Personally, I think it's a good idea to do some strength training even if you're primarily a runner.

    If you're running for fun, it's a good idea to do some resistance training to help you keep good form, balance out any imbalances and make sure your legs have the support they need to keep from injury as long as possible.

    If you're running for weight loss, you aren't going to look good if all you do is run. Running, caloric deficit - they burn fat. If you have no muscle (built through strength training), you will have nothing to "reveal" after you lose the fat. You'll just be skinny fat.

    Do some strength - it'll help your overall health and it'll help you look better naked.
  • IsaackGMOON
    IsaackGMOON Posts: 3,358 Member
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    123bean wrote: »
    Thank you for these ideas. Btw I'm a 48 yo lady so Losing weight Is NOT as easy as it used to be. I'm not weighing meals etc but just logging here and running 4x per week. I will take these suggestions to heart. However I've read so many conflicting things about eating back calories I don't know what to think. Thanks everyone!!

    If you're not weighing your meals how on earth do you expect to lose weight? You're probably eating too many calories to do so.

    You're meant to eat your calories back because your body needs the extra energy after strenuous activity.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    Yeah, logging is pointless if you're not weighing it, eyeballing is not even close to accurate. So eating back conflict comes from not knowing if you're already eating more than needed for weight loss. It can seem like an extra annoyance but it quickly just becomes habit.
  • Emilia777
    Emilia777 Posts: 978 Member
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    123bean wrote: »
    Thank you for these ideas. Btw I'm a 48 yo lady so Losing weight Is NOT as easy as it used to be. I'm not weighing meals etc but just logging here and running 4x per week. I will take these suggestions to heart. However I've read so many conflicting things about eating back calories I don't know what to think. Thanks everyone!!

    I think that if you started using a food scale to weigh your foods you will find it’s easier to lose weight than you think. There are lots of ladies on here at or above that age group who are losing weight consistently, so don’t let that discourage you. The key thing is making sure you’re maintaining a calorie deficit, which is best done by (1) weighing your food and logging accurately, and (2) maybe not eating back all of your exercise calories because they tend to be overestimated (most people eat back around half).
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    VintageFeline wrote: »
    Yeah, logging is pointless if you're not weighing it

    I'd disagree. Appreciate that I'm an N=1 sample but I've lost three stone largely on estimates of intake. That's largely for practical reasons, but it's worked for me.

    That said, my priority is running performance, rather than weight, so the fact that I'm at goal and maintaining is rather secondary to my race times.
  • rileyes
    rileyes Posts: 1,404 Member
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    Weight lifting can help your running. It can help you get lean, strong and boost your endurance.
  • fbinsc
    fbinsc Posts: 735 Member
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    There seems to be a tendency to maintain a given weight but if you persist breakthroughs happen before the next plateau. Give it some time.
  • 123bean
    123bean Posts: 27 Member
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    [quote="BrianSharp

    I'm going to warn you now......5Ks are a gateway race. I used to be a normal human being, then I started out with 5Ks, went to 10Ks, half-marathons and Olympic duathlons.... it's addictive (in a good way)

    [/quote]

    Thank you for this! I love running and it is my goal to do this 5 k, a few more and then a 10k. I hope i get addicted!!!
  • tdecel
    tdecel Posts: 48 Member
    edited July 2015
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    Just how many miles are you "running" now? We are all different, but for me my threshold is about 5 miles. I know that if I run 5 miles or more 4x per week I the scale will go down. Anything less I wont, whether I weight my meals or not.

    Are you working hard enough?

  • mwyvr
    mwyvr Posts: 1,883 Member
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    123bean wrote: »
    Btw I'm a 48 yo lady so Losing weight Is NOT as easy as it used to be.

    Don't short-sell your possibilities. I turned 53 last September when I started, for the first time really, to get rid of the weight I'd slowly but surely gained since I turned 40. I've dropped 71 pounds and have ~ 20, maybe 30, more to go depending on how I look and feel as I approach those levels.
    I'm not weighing meals etc but just logging here and running 4x per week. I will take these suggestions to heart.

    All I'll say on this is that being as accurate as you can be with your logging can only help your efforts. Assuming you are making positive changes to your intake, or had a meticulously great diet before but just a wee-too-much, if you can be sure you are at a reasonable deficit, you'll lose weight. I didn't start logging until after I crossed the 50 pounds lost mark myself, and I started so I could optimize the loss of the rest.
    However I've read so many conflicting things about eating back calories I don't know what to think. Thanks everyone!!

    IF you have a dead on accurate accounting of your calories in then you absolutely should be eating back every one of your 4X a week running exercise burn calories. But since you aren't weighing intake, chances are you aren't super accurate so eating back some proportion may make more sense. Experiment. Over time, the scale won't lie in this regard.
  • ElJefeChief
    ElJefeChief Posts: 651 Member
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    About 3 months prior to joining MFP, I bought a treadmill. Previously I ran about 2-3 times per week, a few miles at a time. With the treadmill, I started running daily. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had lost about 15 pounds over those last three months - without even trying.

    I joined MFP, and I've continued to lose. I don't weigh my food, I occasionally measure it, and I just deliberately try to overestimate what I eat (and underestimate what I burn - for example, if I run 5 miles for 43 minutes, at about 6.2 miles per hour, I round it down to 6mph ad round the time down to 40). This approach has worked for me.

    No matter what, it always boils down to CICO, no matter what you do. If you're not losing, you adjust accordingly.
  • indyrunning
    indyrunning Posts: 136 Member
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    If you have the time, read the article called, "Ultra" in Runner's World magazine (August 2015). I am not sure that it is out on newsstands yet, because I receive it in the mail. It answers the question that, yes, actually some people can run and they hit a loss plateau and do not lose any more. This amazing woman in the article runs ultramarathons, but the scale says that she is actually obese. She is an awesome role model for girls (of all ages and sizes). I found the article so inspiring.
  • Ohhim
    Ohhim Posts: 1,142 Member
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    I've had a bit of an odd journey of slowly becoming a better runner while losing weight. Although I'm now down 95lb from when I started my first couch to 5K, the weight loss for me was always very slow and gradual process, happening at a rate of about 0.6lb/week over the course of 3 years.

    In short, although running for me has come with weight loss, I wouldn't necessarily point to it as the main cause. Seeing my times go down in tandem with my waistline has been a positive, but there is nothing worse than going out for a mid-distance run and bonking due to hunger. I've generally been pretty careful to eat all of my exercise calories, I meticulously log everything, but with some reasonable loss goals, it has worked out.
  • sunman00
    sunman00 Posts: 872 Member
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    123bean wrote: »
    Thank you for these ideas. Btw I'm a 48 yo lady so Losing weight Is NOT as easy as it used to be. I'm not weighing meals etc but just logging here and running 4x per week. I will take these suggestions to heart. However I've read so many conflicting things about eating back calories I don't know what to think. Thanks everyone!!

    I'm 55, I dropped 52lb when I was 53 having been overweight for 30 years so I'm afraid I don't accept that age is a factor, sorry.
    & btw, I did it with a simple 500 daily calorie deficit, lost 1lb a week for 52 weeks, & I can't agree more strongly with other opinion here, weighing your food on an electric scale is the only way.
  • Glossberg
    Glossberg Posts: 40 Member
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    I'm sorry but weighting food isn't the only way to go. I just measured and lost over 50 lbs with cups and spoons. It wasn't until the last 20 I started weighing. I'm not saying weighing isn't the BEST way to go but it is certainly not the ONLY way. There aren't many absolutes in this world and this certainly isn't an exception IMHO.

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