Long distance running and calories

i hear you--i used to get a TON of calories when i would do long runs. first of all, do you have a hrm? they're usually more accurate than mfp on calorie burns. also, i would eat them. i found i lost when i ate them all...i would normally stay fairly healthy (since i don't usually eat very bad)--but the one week i had a few real french fries (i had over 1000 calories to eat that day)--i lost 3 lbs that wk. the more you burn, you've got to re-plenish it. i know it sounds weird, and counter-intuitive, but the you've got to feed your body or you'll start to go into starvation mode and your body will start shutting down and you'll gain b/c you aren't eating enough. it happened to me...multiple times!

Your goal to lose weight is 1200 NET calories. 2000 on the days you do a long run is not the same as consuming 2000 calories without a run. MFP has it set so that after your run you will net 1200 calories, which is as low as you want to go.

Just eat them.

:smokin: You probably already know this but you want to try to eat more to keep your metabolism up. On days when I personally have a lot of excercise my calorie intake goes up about 1500cals more. It's hard to wrap your brain around and most days I don't hit as high as they'd recommend. My advice wld be get in as much protein, maybe in shakes etc as those are doubly beneficial for your muscles and all the vitamins. Depending on the kind you get they pack a few hundred calories.

first of all i have to tell you that i sneeze and somehow have gained 2000 calories so i am a little jealous lol but you have to find a way to get your body those calories and you can easily do that being a runner you should already know the importance of bananas and their potassium but bananas are also surprisingly high in calories. find foods that increase your calorie intake but dont give you a lot of crap like sugars and carbs etc. and of course try to eat 5-6 smaller meals that way you dont feel like you are forcing yourself to eat a lot. get as many calories as you can early in the day put cream cheese on your bagel start off heavy and work from there thru the day if you do these things you will still lose calories. take boxers as an example they tend to run 7-10 miles a day do thousands of sit ups work out in the ring and weight train and lightweights will eat 7-9k calories a day while heavyweights will consume sometimes as many as 14k calories. so getting 2k to 2500 should be easy even for a tiny person like you

As a fellow runner ( 40-50 miles weekly) it can be extremely hard to eat back all cals. Stick to half so your body can function. High protein and if your not supplementing with bcaa for your long runs I would look into doing so. This will help prevent your body from feeding on muscle during long runs. Hope this helps.

Bump!

what are bcaa's? I am a newer runner and not up to that kind of mileage, but would like to plan for the future when I am doing longer runs...

Thanks!

Branched chain amino acids. These amino acids are abundant in protein. You can buy them separately as a supplement and takin them before a run allows the amino acids to be used as energy and help protect muscle mass while doing cardio. Available in pills and powder. Careful though some of the powders can contain a whole lot of sugar for taste. I use a sugar free powder.

On my long run days, I couldn't always stuff down the extra calories, unless I ate junk. I just ate until I was full and what ever the number came out to be, so what.

But what I've been doing lately, since I'm really not trying to lose anymore is I will go over the day before (just a little) and usually the day after, because I know the day of a long run, I'm gonna be way under. Seems to work and I don't have to overstuff myself or fight being starved.

When I was training for my half marathon this is what I did. And I'm a big guy. On long run days I was looking at a target of 4300 calories. I can put some food away, but my stomach hurts just looking at that number.

On my long run days, I couldn't always stuff down the extra calories, unless I ate junk. I just ate until I was full and what ever the number came out to be, so what.

But what I've been doing lately, since I'm really not trying to lose anymore is I will go over the day before (just a little) and usually the day after, because I know the day of a long run, I'm gonna be way under. Seems to work and I don't have to overstuff myself or fight being starved.

When I was training for my half marathon this is what I did. And I'm a big guy. On long run days I was looking at a target of 4300 calories. I can put some food away, but my stomach hurts just looking at that number.

Thanks for posting this! I'm starting to add more miles on and by the end of the day - my "dinner" calorie count is almost 700-1000. There is no possible way I can hit that (unless fast food) nor do I want that much before I head to bed.

When you went over the day before and day after - did you just add an extra snack in the day or did you just consume more when you ate?

After a year of this - and one half marathon finished, I've stopped looking micro at each day. Since I KNOW my long runs will result in a deficit that day (sometimes I can't even get out of th negative), I've started planning on a more macro scale by the week. I might be over on my rest day, but under on others - it all balances out for my plan. I've lost over 20% of my weight since I started, s something must be working.