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MyFitnessPal Community

Marathon training and calories

loopyedmonds4

Is it okay to keep a negative 500 calories per day while training for a marathon even though it adds them to the daily calorie allowance? Need advice.

Replies

cwolfman13

what do you mean a negative 500 calorie per day? Like your dashboard is saying net -500 calories.

Yeah, no...

ETA: or are you talking about maintaining a 500 calorie deficit from maintenance? That could be a tough rode to hoe...I don't run, but I do endurance cycling events from time to time and I pretty much can't eat in a deficit if I'm training for a 1/2 century or more without feeling like crap.

If I'm cutting weight I just ride normal fitness rides and do a 1/4 century or something if I want something to do...I put a 1/4 century kinda there with a 10K...not something you have to rigidly train for, just have to be out on the regular.

deannalfisher

losing weight why training for a marathon is always hard to do - i recommend eating at maintenance and then eat back a portion of your long run calories (or use them to figure out race fueling)

ccsernica

You don't want to do that, no.

Tacklewasher

Not the OP, but am curious. If I'm training for a half, should I give up on weight loss, slow down to 1/2 lb per week or what is the suggestion?

Plan is a half June 10th. Just figuring out the training plan now (have done 1 10K and another this upcoming weekend, so not starting from scratch) but I also would like to lose another 10-12 lbs. Are the 2 goals too hard to do? I want to get to about 195 (I'm ~207 now).

Thanks

deannalfisher

i would probably slow down or go to maintenance - i find when i'm training that i tend to eat at maintenance and roughly recomp - because when i was trying to lose weight my training suffered and i was hangry all the time

loopyedmonds4

My daily allowance is 1200 calories, but when I run 6 miles it adds roughly 600 calories to my daily allowance. I’m not wanting to do the marathon training weight gain, so not sure I should really eat 1800 calories a day.

deannalfisher

what is your current weight and goal weight? because 1200cal while training for a marathon is going to cause serious stress on your body

loopyedmonds4

Currently 149, goal 140

bendyourkneekatie

Losing weight while training for a half: totally doable
Losing weight while training for a full: tough, very very tough.
Losing weight while training for an ultra: I swear I'm gonna do it! I swear. I don't care. I've lost like .5 kg and I want to eat everything but screw it.

OP you can certainly try. Be sensible and conservative and while you can resist giving into runger somewhat, don't totally ignore your body's signals that you need more fuel.

deannalfisher

loopyedmonds4 wrote: »

Currently 149, goal 140

i would re-evaluate your rate of loss - set it to no more that .5lb a week (with only 9lbs to lose); then eat back a portion of your run calories (the MFP calorie recommendations are based on the premise of eating back working cals)

spiriteagle99

I started on MFP about 15 months ago when I wanted to lose 8 pounds to prepare for a marathon. I ended up losing 20. I found that I had no problem losing weight in the early part of marathon training, when I was just starting to ramp up the miles, but when my mileage is high I am hungry all the time, even eating at maintenance. I don't even do that many miles, peaking at 55 or so, and still I am always starving. Fortunately, I burn more calories than the app gives me, so even on days I go over, I am able to maintain a stable weight.

For me, the problem with weight gain isn't during the marathon build up, it's the period just around the race when my mileage is cut but I still have the appetite. Taper and post-race I eat like a marathoner, but don't exercise like one any more. That's when I need to be careful to monitor my calories.

Tacklewasher - you have lots of time before you'll be at peak mileage, so I would go ahead and continue your weight loss, but if you start getting hungry all the time, change your weekly weight loss goal.

Loopy - eat back your exercise calories. Marathon training is hard enough without dealing with being underfueled.

Tacklewasher

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

Tacklewasher - you have lots of time before you'll be at peak mileage, so I would go ahead and continue your weight loss, but if you start getting hungry all the time, change your weekly weight loss goal.

Thanks. That's kinda what I was thinking. And, really, my goal isn't 195, I just want to stay under 200 so the 195 was my buffer. I can lose 4-5 in March and be ready to up calories mid-April.

Putting my plan together tonight. It includes a 10K Saturday that I've signed up for.

collectingblues

loopyedmonds4 wrote: »

My daily allowance is 1200 calories, but when I run 6 miles it adds roughly 600 calories to my daily allowance. I’m not wanting to do the marathon training weight gain, so not sure I should really eat 1800 calories a day.

Distance running training while eating only 1200 calories a day is a bad, bad idea.

deannalfisher

Tacklewasher wrote: »

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

Tacklewasher - you have lots of time before you'll be at peak mileage, so I would go ahead and continue your weight loss, but if you start getting hungry all the time, change your weekly weight loss goal.

Thanks. That's kinda what I was thinking. And, really, my goal isn't 195, I just want to stay under 200 so the 195 was my buffer. I can lose 4-5 in March and be ready to up calories mid-April.

Putting my plan together tonight. It includes a 10K Saturday that I've signed up for.

if you decide you want to take the marathon plunge - lottery for Marine Corps opens mid-march

loopyedmonds4

Thank you, very helpful advice! I appreciate all the help I can get as this is my first marathon and I’m in my fourth week of training and it’s going great, and want to keep it on that track.

Tacklewasher

deannalfisher wrote: »

Tacklewasher wrote: »

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

Tacklewasher - you have lots of time before you'll be at peak mileage, so I would go ahead and continue your weight loss, but if you start getting hungry all the time, change your weekly weight loss goal.

Thanks. That's kinda what I was thinking. And, really, my goal isn't 195, I just want to stay under 200 so the 195 was my buffer. I can lose 4-5 in March and be ready to up calories mid-April.

Putting my plan together tonight. It includes a 10K Saturday that I've signed up for.

if you decide you want to take the marathon plunge - lottery for Marine Corps opens mid-march

No idea what that is, but if things go well there is the BMO Marathon in October.

I'm thinking we are talking different countries

rybo

I'm the oddity in this scenario, but when I trained for marathons and get into my training cycles for trail races and ultras, I inevitably lose weight. Half's, if I'm only training to finish, it's a lot easier to maintain.

deannalfisher

Tacklewasher wrote: »

deannalfisher wrote: »

Tacklewasher wrote: »

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

Tacklewasher - you have lots of time before you'll be at peak mileage, so I would go ahead and continue your weight loss, but if you start getting hungry all the time, change your weekly weight loss goal.

Thanks. That's kinda what I was thinking. And, really, my goal isn't 195, I just want to stay under 200 so the 195 was my buffer. I can lose 4-5 in March and be ready to up calories mid-April.

Putting my plan together tonight. It includes a 10K Saturday that I've signed up for.

if you decide you want to take the marathon plunge - lottery for Marine Corps opens mid-march

No idea what that is, but if things go well there is the BMO Marathon in October.

I'm thinking we are talking different countries

Marine Corps Marathon in DC / one of the best experiences for newbies but if you aren’t in the US then London is supposedly a great marathon as well

firef1y72

I'm training for Brighton Marathon on 15th of April and I did try eating at a deficit to start with at the beginning of the year but found it unsustainable for a couple of reasons.

1. Runger is very real, a couple of hours after a long run sees me eating everything in sight. it's my body trying to tell me something and I'm learning to listen to it

2. Long distance running takes a lot of fuel, I was finding that I was running out of steam eating at a deficit, moved over to maintenance gave me far more energy and improved the quality of my long runs

Tacklewasher

deannalfisher wrote: »

Tacklewasher wrote: »

deannalfisher wrote: »

Tacklewasher wrote: »

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

Tacklewasher - you have lots of time before you'll be at peak mileage, so I would go ahead and continue your weight loss, but if you start getting hungry all the time, change your weekly weight loss goal.

Thanks. That's kinda what I was thinking. And, really, my goal isn't 195, I just want to stay under 200 so the 195 was my buffer. I can lose 4-5 in March and be ready to up calories mid-April.

Putting my plan together tonight. It includes a 10K Saturday that I've signed up for.

if you decide you want to take the marathon plunge - lottery for Marine Corps opens mid-march

No idea what that is, but if things go well there is the BMO Marathon in October.

I'm thinking we are talking different countries

Marine Corps Marathon in DC / one of the best experiences for newbies but if you aren’t in the US then London is supposedly a great marathon as well

West coast of Canada? Big one here is the BMO. It is a Boston qualifier. I plan to do the half there as well.

It might change but I'm having a tough time seeing myself do a full marathon. I mean, I'm 53 and this time last year I was still doing C25K.

janejellyroll

I personally can't train for a marathon on a 500 calorie a day deficit. Could someone? Maybe. But I find it hard to believe that something wouldn't suffer.

GaryRuns

That's a pretty big deficit. Why so big?

Anyway, I think it would depend on where you're at in your training plan and what your fitness was like before you started. Early on in a plan I think you'd probably be fine. Just listen to your body and if you find yourself fatigued beyond reason trying upping your calorie intake. If you're pretty fit to begin with then that would help too, since your body isn't building muscle to accommodate the fitness regimen. Can't really build muscle well with a large deficit like that.

The last half of a plan I think it'd be a bad idea to keep that large of a deficit. You need to feed your body so it can repair itself from all the miles associated with the second half of most training plans in addition to just having enough fuel to run those distances.

loopyedmonds4

Well I started the weight loss goal a few weeks before starting my 20 week marathon plan. I would consider myself pretty fit, ran 5 half marathons, and work out 5-6 days a week, elliptical, running, nautilus 600, free weights, videos. But I didn’t think it would be right to keep the same calorie goal when training for a full marathon as to before that, that’s why I am searching for advice. This is my first Marathon and I’m in my fourth week of the plan. Thank you for your advice!

BrianSharpe

I'm going to suggest that maintaining a caloric deficit will be doable in the early stages of your training plan but as the runs get longer you need fuel (for both the run and recovery) If you're eating at maintenance you should be ok and won't need to worry about putting weight back on. If you follow the conventional wisdom of carb loading the week before the race don't be surprised if you put on a kg or so but that's water weight (1 g of glycogen bonds with 2 g of water when stored in muscle)

TavistockToad

I can't gold a deficit at all once my long runs get over 10 miles... the runger is real!

cwolfman13

loopyedmonds4 wrote: »

My daily allowance is 1200 calories, but when I run 6 miles it adds roughly 600 calories to my daily allowance. I’m not wanting to do the marathon training weight gain, so not sure I should really eat 1800 calories a day.

Uh...yeah, you can't really fuel marathons and marathon training with 1200 calories. This is like one of the worst ideas ever...

Do something else...don't do a marathon if you're going to eat like a sedentary person.

cwolfman13

Tacklewasher wrote: »

Not the OP, but am curious. If I'm training for a half, should I give up on weight loss, slow down to 1/2 lb per week or what is the suggestion?

Plan is a half June 10th. Just figuring out the training plan now (have done 1 10K and another this upcoming weekend, so not starting from scratch) but I also would like to lose another 10-12 lbs. Are the 2 goals too hard to do? I want to get to about 195 (I'm ~207 now).

Thanks

I was cutting winter weight when I did my first 1/2 century training and ride...early on, it wasn't a big deal and I lost some of the weight I was trying to cut...as training progressed, it got really sucky even with eating my calories back so I just went to maintenance. I had cut most of the weight anyway and was at a decent riding weight for the ride, though I was hoping to be about 5 Lbs lighter.

Stoshew71

If you are marathon training and following a marathon plan (I'm assuming that's what you are doing). And maybe you're doing one of those 18 week plans? (I am not crazy about the canned 18 week plans by the way.) But if you are, you are going to be heavily increasing your weekly mileage and doing something each week that your body has never done before. You will be tearing your body down and you will need the right nutrition in order to recover after each workout. Because of that, you are actually going to be more and more hungry because your body is going to crave that nutrition that your body needs to recover from the wear and tear on your body. Because of that, weight loss will be much more challenging.

Your body is going to need more protein to help make your muscles stronger. It's going to need more calcium and vit D to make your bones stronger. It's going to need more iron to build hemoglobin so you can carry more oxygen in your blood. You will be making your heart stronger, building more blood capillaries, bigger mitochondria, creating more hormones to utilize fat for energy, building your joints and tendons and ligaments, ect. So your body will need more nutrition. You also will need to keep a good amount of glycogen in your body so you can perform your next workout in your plan. All of this building to make your body stronger makes weight loss harder.

Your body is horrible at building and losing at the same time. But it is possible. But just very hard.

My suggestion, is that you focus on your marathon training, be very strict about your diet to make sure you're getting the right amount of nutrients. Be careful how much food you take in that has poor nutritional value. In your early part of your plan, you can do a small calorie deficit, but as you move further into your plan, be more at maintenance than calorie deficit. If at any point you feel that your calorie deficit is holding you back, be more at maintenance.

Be very careful how you fuel on the run. I would only experiment with your fueling techniques during your long run days. And don't be afraid to run some of your long runs fasted and without refueling (just take water and maybe electrolytes on those particular days). On the other runs during the week, don't refuel on the run (i.e. Gatorade or gels and what not). This is just a small tidbit of info I can provide when it comes to marathon training.

Tacklewasher

Is there a good group for someone looking to train for a half? I've got a few questions.

TavistockToad

Tacklewasher wrote: »

Is there a good group for someone looking to train for a half? I've got a few questions.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/94-long-distance-runners