1200 cal and marathon training

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ChibiTrine
ChibiTrine Posts: 18 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have been doing MFP for 5 days, so I am new to this.

MFP has me at a 1200 cal a day, as I am short and have some weight to lose. I run a lot, and am training for a marathon in May, and so I plan to go over 1200. Garmin is counting my cal burn when I train and MFP adjusts. I try not to eat back all that I work of, but maybe 50-75 % as the watch might be overestimating my burn (I read that somewhere in their "how to MFP"). I burn a significant amount by running.

But I am SO HUNGRY. Am I supposed to feel hungry all the time? Do any of you? I want to "listen to my bodys needs" and all, but I also don't want to sabotage my weight loss.
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  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
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    You have to play around with the foods you eat until you find what is filling to you.

    It's fibre for me so I eat large quantities of vegetables.
    Others find fat or protein offers them more satiety.
    You could also eat around 90% of your burnt calories back.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    There are many on MFP who can't train and be in a deficit at all because of runger.

    The other question is how much of a deficit do you have each day? Your training is demanding, you have to fuel that.
  • ChibiTrine
    ChibiTrine Posts: 18 Member
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    Thank you for advice! This is all very helpful.

    I will definitely try out more filling foods.
    VintageFeline wrote: »
    There are many on MFP who can't train and be in a deficit at all because of runger.

    The other question is how much of a deficit do you have each day? Your training is demanding, you have to fuel that.

    Good point. I have a cold right now, but on most weeks I hit 40-50 km - I have just started using MFP, so I don't know the average. I burn about 500-900 cal a day for exercising at the moment, and then Garmin puts daily steps on top of that. When I go for a good run my deficit has been about 500 cal. In the last few days I have only gone for a very short run, and I have been spot on cal. My plan was to eat about half the calories back, which I am averaging now.
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Running calories are often measured pretty accurately, IME. I think long runs can be overestimated (just because they don't back out the calories you would normally burn in that time period), but for an hour run or less I think the calories are often pretty reliable. The worst overestimates (why the "eat back 50-75%" thing exists) are things like weights and circuit training, elliptical, various classes, indoor biking, because they vary so much and heart rate or perceived exertion can be out of whack when you are new to exercise.

    I did not know that. That will probably change my plans.
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    When I marathon trained and was closer to goal weight, on the other hand, I struggled to lose, and your goal may be too aggressive if you don't have that much to lose for the amount you are running. You don't say what it is, but I wouldn't aim for more than 1 lb/week, certainly, and if you are talking vanity weight that might be too much with an aggressive training schedule.

    I actually do have quite a bit of weight to lose still (15kg -ish, so about 30 lb), and it is going for 1 lb/week now. I wanted to lose some of this before I have to carry it around in May. It *is* aggressive, and might be a bit too much so. I might look into eating a bit more if garmin is more accurate with running.

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    edited December 2017
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    Eat ALL you exercise cals. Try a smaller deficit.

    I only run half marathon distance, and can't hold a deficit once my long run gets into double figures. The runger is real!!!!
  • ChibiTrine
    ChibiTrine Posts: 18 Member
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    The runger IS real! I guess I have just heard so many times that "you can't outrun a bad diet" and "diet is 80 % of your weightloss!" that I underestimated the need to eat it back :smile:
    And I am so damn hungry.

    New plan is: I will eat my burn back, see how it turns out on the scale and how I feel on my runs over the next few weeks, and adjust by need.
    And try out more filling foods.
  • ChibiTrine
    ChibiTrine Posts: 18 Member
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    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Bodyweight in lbs x 0.63 x distance in miles will give you a pretty accurate burn.

    Thanks! I will measure that up to my Garmin estimate.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    ChibiTrine wrote: »
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Bodyweight in lbs x 0.63 x distance in miles will give you a pretty accurate burn.

    Thanks! I will measure that up to my Garmin estimate.

    It's pretty close to my FR 225
  • lucerorojo
    lucerorojo Posts: 790 Member
    edited December 2017
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    If you are burning 500-900 calories per day you MUST eat back all your exercise calories. 1200 calories is nothing for an active person, unless you are 4 feet tall. (You didn't say HOW tall you are). If you burned 900 calories, then your body is left with 300 calories! Even if you ate only 450 calories back that's still only 750 calories for the day--not healthy at all.

    30 lbs. is not that much to lose. It may seem like a lot to you, but with that much you will struggle if you set a deficit to lose 1 lb. per week and don't eat back the exercise calories. .5-.75 per week would be easier.

    I have more weight to lose than you and active, but not as much as you--and I was eating in the 1200s and I just couldn't take it. After a few days I had to take a maintenance break and then reset my goals so that I could eat more. I am not hungry now at 1500 calories. (I was when I was trying to sustain on 1230 calories)
  • ChibiTrine
    ChibiTrine Posts: 18 Member
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    lucerorojo wrote: »
    If you are burning 500-900 calories per day you MUST eat back all your exercise calories. 1200 calories is nothing for an active person, unless you are 4 feet tall. (You didn't say HOW tall you are). If you burned 900 calories, then your body is left with 300 calories! Even if you ate only 450 calories back that's still only 750 calories for the day--not healthy at all.

    30 lbs. is not that much to lose. It may seem like a lot to you, but with that much you will struggle if you set a deficit to lose 1 lb. per week and don't eat back the exercise calories. .5-.75 per week would be easier.

    I have more weight to lose than you and active, but not as much as you--and I was eating in the 1200s and I just couldn't take it. After a few days I had to take a maintenance break and then reset my goals so that I could eat more. I am not hungry now at 1500 calories. (I was when I was trying to sustain on 1230 calories)

    Yeah, point taken, it is too aggressive. I will certainly eat the cal back. It makes sense that I am hungry all the time. I want to do it the healthy way.

    And I am 5 feet :smile:
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,680 Member
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    I have also found the MFP calorie burn for runs to be pretty accurate. I lost 18 pounds last year, while marathon training. (I only intended to lose 8.) Like you, I started before the mileage began increasing significantly. I ate back all my calories. If you are super hungry, don't worry about it. An occasional day at maintenance level won't hurt you. When you have runs over an hour, eat something immediately after. That helps prevent the starving rat mode later in the day.
  • ChibiTrine
    ChibiTrine Posts: 18 Member
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    spiriteagle99 wrote: »
    I have also found the MFP calorie burn for runs to be pretty accurate. I lost 18 pounds last year, while marathon training. (I only intended to lose 8.) Like you, I started before the mileage began increasing significantly. I ate back all my calories. If you are super hungry, don't worry about it. An occasional day at maintenance level won't hurt you. When you have runs over an hour, eat something immediately after. That helps prevent the starving rat mode later in the day.

    Good to know it is pretty accurate. I thought it would be overestimating.

    I hear often that "you can't lose weight while marathon training", so it's nice to hear from others who actually have.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
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    If you have a tracking device linked with MFP, then your calories burnt estimates tend to be much more accurate.
  • tess5036
    tess5036 Posts: 942 Member
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    I was in a similar situation last year, doing a marathon in September, with a base line of 1,200 calories before exercise. I ate back about 75% of exercise calories as I am sure it over estimates. I found I was not hungry if I made sure I ate a lot of protein, aimed for 30% protein, 30% fat and 40% carbs. I often ended up higher on carbs and lower on fats, that worked for me. It is worth trying different combinations on your macros to find what works for you.


  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
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    Runger is so real. I've been battling my last 10lbs to lose for a while now while I trained for a HM. I ran it just before the holidays, so now I am just getting back to logging strictly. Volume eating helps, as does a snack right after my long runs, which are now consistently shorter since I am focused on the 10k distance and trainl running. Today's lunch was a huge bowl of toasted Brussels sprouts and mushrooms, two servings of cottage cheese, and some seedy crackers with a half ounce of smoked gouda. Was a ton of food and just a little over 400 calories. I feel so full (which is important to me).

    Good luck on your training and your marathon!
  • Djproulx
    Djproulx Posts: 3,084 Member
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    Last year, I had two opportunities to experiment with balancing weight loss efforts with the workload of endurance training. The first was during marathon training for a race in March. The second was while training for a half iron distance triathlon in June.

    During marathon training, I found that my appetite was huge on the weekend days, since those were my long run and marathon paced runs. I'll echo what others have said about resetting your goals to account for the training load during this time. When I trained for the Marathon, ( 5 runs/week plus 2 swims and 2 bike rides/week) I couldn't quite find the right balance to drive weight loss while also fueling performance. I was hungry all the time.

    So, during training for my second race, I engaged a registered dietician who worked with my coach to develop an eating plan to help me lose weight without suffering loss of performance. As a 180lb, 59 year old male, my daily calorie intake was set at roughly 2575 calories PLUS the fuel I took in during long training runs and rides. This plan worked extremely well, as I dropped 16 lbs during a 12 week period and my triathlon result was a PR for me at the 70.3 distance.

    Bottom line: It was a balancing act, and I needed help to figure it out, but it was doable.

    Good Luck with your training.

  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    Glad to hear you're going to eat back most of your exercise calories. I eat 95% of mine back from Garmin and have maintained my goal weight 20 months like that. I did my first marathon in August.

    With your marathon in May, you might be able to lose several kgs at 0.5 kg a week before you hit the high mileage / crazy runger period of training. Then definitely lower your goal to 0.25 kg a week or even go to maintenance for the last couple of months.

    Let your performance be your guide. If you haven't got the energy to run, you know you need to lower your deficit.

    Good luck!
  • ChibiTrine
    ChibiTrine Posts: 18 Member
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    Thank you all so much for your comments. It all makes sense. And nice to know that I'm not supposed to be quite as hungry as I am now, 'cause I am REALLY hungry, and now I'm gonna go cook something and eat away my run.

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