Shall I give up running?!

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  • stealthq
    stealthq Posts: 4,298 Member
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    rsenor wrote: »
    Don't give up!!! When you are running make sure you going at a reasonable pace. That's the biggest question for me: Am I pushing myself? Its easy to get into the groove of a pace with any repetitive cardio and not really get a lot out of it. I personally really don't enjoy running so when I do it I do short bursts of Fartleks- sprinting as hard as possible followed by walking. There's a lot out there about the benefits of very high-intensity cardio for short periods...

    Also you are close to a healthy weight- I would highly suggest taking measurements and photos and not obsessing about the scale too much. You're probably gaining muscle- which weighs more than fat- and so its not uncommon to see a bump in weight as you swap them out. I am about your size and entered a fitness competition years ago, and when I did I lost a whopping 4 pounds!

    Finally, not all calories are equal in terms of how your body responds. Grapes and satsumas are super high-sugar and if your body's glucose stores are full, it will convert any sugar to fat. On portions, if you don't have a scale you could also use measuring cups; I'm not entirely clear on why folks here are stressing a rather expensive scale when a set of measuring cups would do just fine.

    Yes, there are - cardiovascular benefits (VO2 max). None that help particularly with weight loss over any other kind of running. Lower intensity cardio has a lot of cardiovascular benefits as well (endurance, stroke volume).

    OP's at a healthy weight. If she's in a deficit, she's not gaining muscle - not running, not if she were lifting. She'd need to be in a surplus for that.

    Which doesn't matter if OP is in a deficit - the fat is getting used from body stores to compensate for the deficit. Besides, excess carbs, fat, protein - all stored as fat. It's not a property exclusive to sugar.

    We insist on a scale only if the person is having trouble losing because measuring cups are inaccurate and logging is nearly always the culprit. You'll notice professional bakers, who rely on accuracy don't use measuring cups except for liquids - they use a scale. People don't pack measuring cups the same way. Ever seen the debate on how to scoop flour into a measuring cup so you get the 'right' amount? Do you dip and sweep then level, do you fluff it then spoon it into the cup and then level, do you sift the whole thing first then spoon it into the cup and then level. It makes a lot of difference. With flour, you can change measurements by 20%+ with differences in packing. With something like cooked rice, you can change them by 200%+.
  • lynn1982
    lynn1982 Posts: 1,439 Member
    edited March 2016
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    Sigh... you are either:
    A) Eating more calories than you think
    B ) Burning less calories than you think
    C) A combination of A + B.

    I'm not sure why, considering you actually don't know how many calories you are eating, you would think running 5 km three or so times per week is the culprit. Do you know how many calories you are burning during these runs? For comparison, I am a few inches shorter than you and weigh a bit less than you and I burn about 250 calories on a 5k run. You would burn more than that, but I think people also tend to over estimate their calorie burns...
  • dbashby
    dbashby Posts: 44 Member
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    This clearly has to be a calorie measuring issue. Most probably underestimating serving size, a mistake I made in the early days and the reason I got a scale. I know not everything can be scanned (even then you must accurately represent your number of servings) so it has to be weighed. If I'm in the position of guestimating, I always do so against my interest (overestimating calories/servings) with the worst case scenario being a pleasant surprise on weigh in day. Don't feel bad we all make mistakes in the beginning. One mistake, I also think your making by the way you posed your question is and a couple of people referenced here but didn't say it overtly. Exercise does not cause weight loss, only a calorie deficit does that. Every study that isolates exercise as the only variable shows this to be true. basically what happens is the people eat back the calories they burned off. Notice, I did not say that exercise is not healthy for you every study confirms that it is. Its just from a weight loss only perspective there is really no cause and effect here. What does exist is more of a correlative behavior. People who have lost weight and keep it off, almost always are those who exercise . Exercise in this scenario IMO is sort of a measure of your level of commitment so if your exercising your also more likely to be watching your diet (while the last part is my opinion, I don't think its too much of a leap to get there). It is hard to convince people that exercise doesn't cause weight loss because its been drummed into our consciousness since as long as I can remember. Like I said I only brought it up because the way you phrased the question and I have seen too many people get discouraged when exercise alone didn't solve their weight issue.
  • lynn1982
    lynn1982 Posts: 1,439 Member
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    dbashby wrote: »
    This clearly has to be a calorie measuring issue. Most probably underestimating serving size, a mistake I made in the early days and the reason I got a scale. I know not everything can be scanned (even then you must accurately represent your number of servings) so it has to be weighed. If I'm in the position of guestimating, I always do so against my interest (overestimating calories/servings) with the worst case scenario being a pleasant surprise on weigh in day. Don't feel bad we all make mistakes in the beginning. One mistake, I also think your making by the way you posed your question is and a couple of people referenced here but didn't say it overtly. Exercise does not cause weight loss, only a calorie deficit does that. Every study that isolates exercise as the only variable shows this to be true. basically what happens is the people eat back the calories they burned off. Notice, I did not say that exercise is not healthy for you every study confirms that it is. Its just from a weight loss only perspective there is really no cause and effect here. What does exist is more of a correlative behavior. People who have lost weight and keep it off, almost always are those who exercise . Exercise in this scenario IMO is sort of a measure of your level of commitment so if your exercising your also more likely to be watching your diet (while the last part is my opinion, I don't think its too much of a leap to get there). It is hard to convince people that exercise doesn't cause weight loss because its been drummed into our consciousness since as long as I can remember. Like I said I only brought it up because the way you phrased the question and I have seen too many people get discouraged when exercise alone didn't solve their weight issue.

    Your reasoning is backwards. Exercise can lead to a calorie deficit, which leads to weight loss. Therefore, exercise can lead to weight loss... If people are eating back everything they have burned and therefore no longer in a calorie deficit, the reason is not because exercise does not cause weight loss. It will if it leaves one in a calorie deficit.

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