Staying within calories while eating appropriately for increased distances

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blairf83
blairf83 Posts: 33 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
34, lost my thyroid to cancer a couple years ago so staying calorie restricted is kind of my life now. Ran my first 10 mile and trail half marathons last year then had a breast reduction in December and was off all exercise but walking for 2 months, and couldn't run comfortably for another month and change. So I've started back from the beginning (mostly) with the goal of a full marathon and my first ultra.....

I know if I stay at 1200 calories, and eat back no more than half of what it is calculated that I burn, I will lose weight. i may be crabby and hate the entire world, but it works.
The issue I'm having is this: Sometimes I have no idea what I'm going to end up doing. I might plan a quick 2 mile run, and stretch it out to 5 because I feel good. Obviously the calories burned between the two is pretty significant and if I do this in the evening, thats a significant amount of calories to suddenly need to consume, and carbs are the fastest easiest way to do that. (endocrinologist has instructed me to limit carbs to make it easier for me to keep my weight in control)

My bigger concern is if my "eat back half the calories you burned" rule is going to be a bad policy as the miles go up..... its one thing to burn 250 calories and not eat 125 of them..... but on those days when the calorie burn goes up to 1200 or more.... 600 calories is a HUGE amount to leave hanging out there.... I don't want to end up unhealthy and my body quitting on me because I'm not fueling it. But I also don't want to totally sabotage my weight loss efforts.

Anybody have a strategy that is working for them?
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Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    Running is fairly easy to calculate accurately so you can eat them all back.

    What are your stats that you can only eat 1200 cals?
  • suubelle2000
    suubelle2000 Posts: 6 Member
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    I've been wondering about this too. I get my workout in when I can, and some days I burn a lot more calories than others. I'm not sure if I need to "up" my intake or just stick with what i'm doing so that i'm not craving those bigger meals on days i'm unable to work out.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    My strategy (for weight loss and long term maintenance) was to put some effort into making my exercise estimates reasonable and eat back 100% of them. It's worked very well despite a very varied and high exercise volume.

    But I don't feel constrained to "balance the books" daily which helps when plans change.

    I've never agreed with deliberately skewing exercise calorie estimates by a seemingly random number based on folklore to try and compensate for either food logging inaccuracy or just simply using inaccurate methods to get those estimates.

    If both your CI and CO estimates are both reasonable and consistent and you adjust your overall goal based on actual trends then the requirement for guessing how much to adjust goes away.

    For endurance cardio you do need to fuel appropriately - that need will just intensify as your mileage increases.


    PS - Congrats on your recovery and your ambition.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
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    Running is easy to calculate.

    .63 x BW x Distance...and you can eat all of them

    Also, I don't run, but I do train for distance cycling events...I typically follow a training protocol when I'm training for distance rather than just doing X because I feel good in the moment. So I know on this day I'll be doing X miles and on that day I'll be doing Y miles and on this day I'll be doing hill repeats, etc.

    Have a plan.
  • blairf83
    blairf83 Posts: 33 Member
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    5'6", 215 lbs. Inherently sluggish metabolism made worse by the loss of my thyroid two years ago, followed by a hysterectomy. Im also not the world's fastest runner due to 3/4 of my back being fused. I do the miles, but I'm not lighting the world on fire by any stretch of the imagination. I don't want to adjust my baseline calories for the day up because I work a desk job and then I have days where I'm a total slug and do nothing after work.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    blairf83 wrote: »
    5'6", 215 lbs. Inherently sluggish metabolism made worse by the loss of my thyroid two years ago, followed by a hysterectomy. Im also not the world's fastest runner due to 3/4 of my back being fused. I do the miles, but I'm not lighting the world on fire by any stretch of the imagination. I don't want to adjust my baseline calories for the day up because I work a desk job and then I have days where I'm a total slug and do nothing after work.

    1200 cals sounds very low for your weight, have you tried eating more?

    The above calculation will give you accurate cals.

    I find when my long runs get over 10 miles i can't hold a deficit because of the runger, but until you get to that stage (if you do) you can sustain 200-300 cal deficit and still lose.

    Also, look at your weekly goal not daily. You don't have to eat back exercise cals the same day if you don't want to.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    edited March 2018
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    blairf83 wrote: »
    5'6", 215 lbs. Inherently sluggish metabolism made worse by the loss of my thyroid two years ago, followed by a hysterectomy. Im also not the world's fastest runner due to 3/4 of my back being fused. I do the miles, but I'm not lighting the world on fire by any stretch of the imagination. I don't want to adjust my baseline calories for the day up because I work a desk job and then I have days where I'm a total slug and do nothing after work.

    Your speed isn't an issue for calorie estimates as it's best based on distance not pace.
  • blairf83
    blairf83 Posts: 33 Member
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    Thanks! I'm gonna not sweat eating most of my calories back once I'm working a bit harder.
  • solieco1
    solieco1 Posts: 1,559 Member
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    Do you wear a chest strap HRM? If I set up my garmin device with accurate height, weight, age stats and wear an HRM I feel pretty good about relying on the burn as an average. I will eat back some depending on appetite but not feel obligated to cram them in. Be sure you're fueling to get the quality into your runs and then put back quality protein and quality carbs afterward and don't get too hung up on a specific % would be my approach.
  • Momepro
    Momepro Posts: 1,509 Member
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    I don't run, but if you are freling good before and during the run, can't you add the extra calories after? Maybe have a post run snack set up, so if you need it, great. If not, save it for later?
  • xLyric
    xLyric Posts: 840 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    Your speed isn't an issue for calorie estimates as it's best based on distance not pace.
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Running is easy to calculate.

    .63 x BW x Distance...and you can eat all of them...

    Can someone explain this? I'm having trouble understanding that my 3.5mph run would be equivalent to someone else's 8mph run of the same distance. Is it just that they would finish faster?
  • blairf83
    blairf83 Posts: 33 Member
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    Momepro- the issue I'm having is that my calorie burns are bigger than a snack will take care of. At times they're half again or more of my sedentary allowance. Like today..... 4.5 mile run plus a half hour of strength training afterward. I treated myself to a late breakfast of pancakes topped with fruit, and came out of the gym having burned off all those calories and more..... I had a relatively splurgey dinner, plan a BIG protein shake in a bit, and if I eat back all my calories, I still have to figure out how to put 300 more calories down my gullet....
  • xLyric
    xLyric Posts: 840 Member
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    @sijomial

    Thank you! That helps a lot.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    blairf83 wrote: »
    Momepro- the issue I'm having is that my calorie burns are bigger than a snack will take care of. At times they're half again or more of my sedentary allowance. Like today..... 4.5 mile run plus a half hour of strength training afterward. I treated myself to a late breakfast of pancakes topped with fruit, and came out of the gym having burned off all those calories and more..... I had a relatively splurgey dinner, plan a BIG protein shake in a bit, and if I eat back all my calories, I still have to figure out how to put 300 more calories down my gullet....

    Eat them tomorrow, or, peanut butter
  • dimrub
    dimrub Posts: 11 Member
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    I don't have advice for you, haven't run a race longer than 10k (yet!) but huge kudos for your determination and power of will, doing this huge comeback!
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
    edited March 2018
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    Unfortunately, weight loss and performance training are somewhat at odds with each other. You've really got to choose a priority.

    That said, you've got to eat back all of your calories for serious endurance training. Your body is simply going to need it and you won't perform well otherwise. The runger is real.

    No need to try and match your fueling specifically to individual runs. It's totally OK to eat to your weekly averages, or just to eat more when your body tells you to eat more. I tend to do the latter. My weekly mileage averages about 25-30 per week. While I'm technically at maintenance, some days I'll eat totally normally and other days I'll eat like food is going out of fashion regardless of my daily running schedule.

    Another thing to consider...I've yet to meet anybody who regularly runs relatively significant weekly distances (e.g., more than 15-20 miles per week) who really has to worry about weight. At a certain point in distance training, you just get to a place where it feels almost impossible to keep up with the amount of calories you're burning. If you're worried about burning 1200 calories per day (>12 mile run), then focus on fuel and not weight loss.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
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    Most likely you can eat more than 1200 calories to start. You're neither short nor elderly, so I would advise changing your calorie goals so that you can lose weight more slowly and be able to eat more.

    You can also eat more than half of what you burn if your calorie calculations are pretty accurate. The posts above give you good formulas to use. The advice to eat only half is designed to compensate for inaccurate calorie burn calculations, not to give you a bigger calorie deficit. Your calorie deficit is already factored into your MFP calorie target and you don't need to create a bigger one.

    I would just eat the extra exercise calories the next day if you run late in the evening and don't want to eat them. That seems easier than trying to fit in an extra few hundred calories before bed if you're not hungry enough for them. You can set MFP to show you weekly calorie targets rather than just daily.

    It is absolutely untrue that you can't lose weight and train for endurance races. I did it. I started running at my highest weight of 215 lb, ran several 5k and 10k races, finished half marathon #1 at 142 lb, HM #2 at 128 lb, HM #3 at 120 lb, and HM #4 at my goal weight of 115 lb. Now training for HM #5. Yes, it absolutely can be done.

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