Weight gain day after a running a half marathon?
torsaer
Posts: 211 Member
I ran a half marathon yesterday and today the scales are showing a gain of about 1.5kg.... not sure what's happened! Anyone else have this after a long run?
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Replies
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Swelling/water retention. It will go away.8
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The scale will fluctuate daily for any number of reasons. Think long term.3
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that's due to water retention, it'll go away in a few days. Congrats on the half
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My weight typically goes down the day after a long run, but that's not permanent either. Hydration level, sodium level, irregular eating pattern with post-race food, possibly an unusual sleep pattern . . . lots of stuff can affect the day to day weight.
Just don't imagine that because you're up 1.5 kg in one day that you'll be up 45 kg in a month. It's a fluctuation.2 -
I try not to stress too much with weight fluctuations. My weight bounces around with my long runs.
Here are my two cents... For whatever it's worth. (I don't give medical advice)
(1) Your body will not gain muscle or fat that quickly
(2) Tough runs can cause inflammation
(3) When you really work your muscles, they soak up as much water as they can get.
(4) Water consumption on a run including sports drinks to help with dehydration. Your body wants to hold onto that water to replenish itself.4 -
Part of the muscle repair / recovery process.1
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Did you enjoy your run?2
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I did an unofficial HM on Saturday and an 8 mile run yesterday. I too am up nearly 2kg and I'm not even bothered about it. Given how much my quads hurt I know that most of that weight is my muscles repairing themselves.
Ignore it.2 -
Yep ... water weight.
I always gain after a long bicycle ride on the weekend ... pretty much every single weekend.
Sometimes I wish I wouldn't, but that's life. And on Wednesday I'll make tracks to the toilet all day and it will be gone.1 -
I used to lose weight after long runs, but I seem to gain as of late. I think it's mostly water retention from not hydrating enough. It comes off quickly and I fluctuate between 2 to 3 lbs all week long.0
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Congrats! Hey I have run 63 halfs. A half marathon will burn about 1000-1500 calories based on several factors. That's not even 1 pound. Now you might lose a lot of water and deplete the body of glycogen stores. But how much fluids or gels were consumed? And how much food at the finish line spread was consumed? You may weigh 7 pounds less or 3 pounds more the day after the race. But the event itself will burn less than one-half pound of calories.2
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Stupid question- why would you get on the scale the day after?
The day after a half I'm up and eating ice cream and pizza and doing as little as possible.9 -
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Body weight isn't static...your weight will fluctuate for a myriad of reasons both up and down. You likely have a lot of inflammation going on from the run...0
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I'm typically up 4-8lbs the day after long runs/rides - depending on hydration, how much salt I took in (too little/too much) and a myriad of other things - it dissipates quickly0
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Stupid question- why would you get on the scale the day after?
The day after a half I'm up and eating ice cream and pizza and doing as little as possible.
lol!
personally, I do it cause I weigh myself every day - its a helpful data point especially when trying to figure out nutrition for long training days/endurance/recovery efforts2 -
I never weigh myself after a hard workout since I always retain water. Usually I wait until after a rest day.0
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Perfectly normal water retention, I'll typically fluctuate a kg or so after long run days and more after a race.0
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deannalfisher wrote: »Stupid question- why would you get on the scale the day after?
The day after a half I'm up and eating ice cream and pizza and doing as little as possible.
lol!
personally, I do it cause I weigh myself every day - its a helpful data point especially when trying to figure out nutrition for long training days/endurance/recovery efforts
I understand that- I used to weigh myself 2x a day- morning and evening- just to see what the average daily weight flux looked like. Someone whose doing it for data collection isn't going to be this concerned though- so I'd say both you and I in our needs/purposes are unique on that front.0 -
deannalfisher wrote: »Stupid question- why would you get on the scale the day after?
The day after a half I'm up and eating ice cream and pizza and doing as little as possible.
lol!
personally, I do it cause I weigh myself every day - its a helpful data point especially when trying to figure out nutrition for long training days/endurance/recovery efforts
Me too - I weigh every day. Update - am still the same... but it's also coming up for TOM so I'm factoring that in as well! I probably have overcompensated on the carbs since the race and was finding that a low carb high fat diet was helping me shed so think I'd better get back on that wagon!0 -
KeepRunningFatboy wrote: »Congrats! Hey I have run 63 halfs. A half marathon will burn about 1000-1500 calories based on several factors. That's not even 1 pound. Now you might lose a lot of water and deplete the body of glycogen stores. But how much fluids or gels were consumed? And how much food at the finish line spread was consumed? You may weigh 7 pounds less or 3 pounds more the day after the race. But the event itself will burn less than one-half pound of calories.
63 halfs! that's a lot of miles I have done 3 now and really like the distance - it's far enough to feel like a challenge but I could never go on to do a full marathon. I drank quite a lot of water during the race as it was very warm. But I agree the number of calories burnt sounds like loads but actually doesn't add up to an awful lot. In fact some of my friends training for long races actually gain weight....0 -
deannalfisher wrote: »Stupid question- why would you get on the scale the day after?
The day after a half I'm up and eating ice cream and pizza and doing as little as possible.
lol!
personally, I do it cause I weigh myself every day - its a helpful data point especially when trying to figure out nutrition for long training days/endurance/recovery efforts
Me too - I weigh every day. Update - am still the same... but it's also coming up for TOM so I'm factoring that in as well! I probably have overcompensated on the carbs since the race and was finding that a low carb high fat diet was helping me shed so think I'd better get back on that wagon!
So again you are talking about water weight.
Go low carb and shed a load of water, carb up and the water comes back.
Get sore from exercise - retain water. Recover and shed the water.
All this is normal.
It may help you to think longer term trends and ignore the superfluous noise of fluctuations.6 -
Great, that's all that really counts. And your weight today is?0 -
...the same... 59.4kg. I am only 160cm and so would love to be 55kg.
Great, that's all that really counts. And your weight today is?
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Depending on how you fueled during the race and post race snacks, you could have easily eaten everything you burned. I remember seeing that big burn after my first half, then watching the deficit go down after I logged some post race beer and the gummies from the refuel station. That said I tend to hold onto water after runs of 10 miles or more. Your joints take a pounding and your muscles need to heal, so while you may not have lost any weight you likely didn't gain any either.0
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I gain about 6 lbs the day after my half. It all went away and then some in less than a week. I try not to weigh myself after runs longer than about 8 miles now, because I'll always gain about 4 lbs.
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Seriously OP?
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Tweaking_Time wrote: »Seriously OP?
Of course I didn't mean I wanted to lose 4kg after a race! I mean long term. I've been hovering around 59 for a long time and hoping with a combination of low carb and running that I would shift some, just a little. My 55kg is a long term goal!0
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