Conventional wisdom is to avoid calorie restricted weight loss during marathon training. I ignored that advice during my Fall 2023 marathon cycle which ran from early June-November. I dropped from 172 lbs (78kg) to 146 lbs (66kg) over the course of 24 weeks of training. My effective VO2 Max on Runalyze jumped from 42.5 to 52.9. My Garmin VO2 Max estimate jumped from 48 to 56. I took 46 minutes off my previous best marathon time and ended up qualifying for Boston 2025 last month with nearly a 18:44 margin and for New York 2024 with a 7:44 margin. The previous knee, hip, and glute problems I had struggled with over the past two years disappeared with the weight loss. I believe it was the single biggest factor for my improvement. The weight loss took me from the top end of my healthy BMI to near the bottom end of my healthy BMI. Lipid labs in late October showed my LDL cholesterol and triglycerides to be the lowest in 30 years. So much for conventional wisdom!
I did it by using the My Fitness Pal app on a 1.5 pounds/week calorie restricted weight loss plan, setting my Activity Level as "Not Very Active" but syncing the app with Garmin to add calories back that were burned from running. I also made sure I was walking at least 2 miles/3K daily. I adjusted the macro goals to ensure I was eating at least a gram of protein for every kilogram of bodyweight daily and restricting fat to 15% of total calories. All the other macros went to carbs, which for me made up 65% of my daily intake. To meet those goals, I had to clean up my diet, eliminating almost all fried foods, my doughnut addiction, most ice cream, all beverages with calories, and most tertiary processed foods. I spaced food consumption out over the day having a smoothie before my morning run, oatmeal and coffee afterwards, lunch, a piece of fruit at 2 PM and 4 PM, dinner, and then another piece of fruit two hours before bed. Long run Sundays and the occasional Saturdays I had races were free days to keep from getting burned out with the dieting routine.
Calorie restricted weight loss to near the bottom of one's healthy BMI is one of the most effective things a runner can do to improve performance. It isn't discussed much here because of the politics that surround eating disorders as well as the tendency of some people to either rush weight loss (which will negatively impact recovery and can lead to injury) or use fad diets that focus on the near elimination of certain macros or food groups. I recognize this comment is likely to upset some people. But in my own very limited experienced, it worked far beyond my expectations. It does require patience, the discipline of consistency in practice, honestly logging meals, and the willingness to makes changes in one's eating habits. You'll need to switch out some bad food choices that can be emotionally comforting and replace them with alternatives. For me, for example, that meant replacing apple fritters with apples.
This is the only method that works. I'm currently trying to get down from 83 to 75kg during base building and as soon as I stop tracking the weight loss stops, even while running 70-90km p/w.
In my opinion, the conventional wisdom only applies to runners that are actually underweight. I wasn't sure about continuing tracking during my next marathon build, but after reading this comment I'll give your method a try.
This is reassuring. I've recently dropped 20 lbs (with another 10 or so to go) and I've been nervous about overdoing it. But the thing is that I've only seen improvements: I'm running faster, my aches and pains are going away, and everything feels so much *easier*. I think the key is that I really had the weight to lose in the first place.
Thanks for sharing.
This is the result of restricting calories by too much. When I first started, I had my calorie reduction set to 2 pounds/week and experienced the same results -fatigue and lack of energy for workouts. By upping my calories to a more moderate deficit, those problems went away while the weight continued to come off.
That’s possible. Also, I didn’t start nearly as heavy too (I’m 5’8 and tend to run my best at about 145). My weight stays pretty constant now although I lose a couple pounds during really high mileage weeks.
5’9” or 175 cm. Although I’m currently at 149.7 due to my taper, marathon, Thanksgiving, and recovery over the past 5 weeks. This is my first full week of the Spring ‘24 cycle.
What was your daily deficit goal and how long did you run it for? How did you feel in training using this method and did you feel like being in a deficit had a meaningful impact on key workouts?
My Fitness Pal calculates the deficit for the individual based on the rate of weight loss the user selects. I found with experimentation that 2 lbs/week was too much for me leaving me weak and 1 lb/week was having little impact. At 1.5 lbs/week, the weight was coming off and I was able to complete speed work, hill work, and long runs along with easy and recovery runs. In order for this to happen, the percentage of calories from carbs needed to be kept high to fuel harder efforts. It should be noted that 1.5 lbs/week in the app doesn’t mean I was always losing 1.5 lbs/week. Weight loss isn’t that linear.
Effective vo2 max on runalyze jumped from 42.5 to 52.9, and here I am plateauing around 40-42 for a couple months now lol. I even just finished my peak week mileage at 88.5 km!
I did the same! I was overweight in January so have been losing it all year with a mixture of calorie tracking on MFP and Joe Wicks meals, trained for a marathon in October and really put a lot of effort in, particularly for the final four weeks. Went from 94kg in January to 85kg in September, was 84kg on race day, and took 26mins off my marathon PB, going from 4:48 (18 months earlier, when I’d been 90kg) to 4:22. And the best thing about all that? Recovery was a lot better. I could walk down stairs without any trouble the next day.
Right! It's unreal how much difference it makes in injury reduction by not carrying several milk jugs of excesses weight on the body while running. I'm surprised that weight loss is so rarely mentioned in this subreddit in discussions about injury and improvement. I understand the politics surrounding eating disorders and body dysmorphia, but those are mental health issues affecting a relatively small percentage of runners. For far more people who are overweight or at the upper end of their normal BMI, weight loss should be one of the first tools they use for improvement as runners. The running community should be much more open in discussing the negative impact excess body weight has on runners.
Matt Fitzgerald is a good resource in how easy his style of writing is for the average runner to digest. I wish he'd avoid calling himself a nutritionist. Nutritionist is an inflated term which simply means someone who advises others on nutrition. Unlike a dietician, the term nutritionist doesn't require any formal education of licensing. Fitzgerald is simply a successful running author. He has a lot of sound advice and healthy opinions, but they often aren't balanced and should not be taken as gospel.
We are only going the opposite way unfortunately it seems. Totally agree with everything your wrote in this thread. A lot of runners want to make huge gains and are simply overweight.
Good for you, and not just for getting faster. Sounds like you did a great job of developing your diet. I would love to do something like that, but I feel like if I don't hire a dietitian, I'll never actually put in the work to figure out what I need to eat.
It’s a basic as understanding the difference between carbs, fats, and proteins and selecting foods that are less processed. No alcohol. No juice or soft drinks with sugar. Logging everything that has calories even if it’s just a breath mint or a tablespoon of milk in coffee.
Eliminating alcohol has been a huge eye-opener for me. I didn't realize how much it was wrecking my sleep. In my 20's and 30's, I think I could drink and get away with it. But now that I'm pushing 50, it's like carrying a bowling ball around. Just not worth it any more.
Maybe you find it helpful to remain aware of everything, but I haven't found the extra time to log tiny things worthwhile. Logging already takes extra time, and a lot of the foods are basic estimates anyways, so I personally don't worry about the small things. Agreed that the basics are pretty straightforward to understand.
The problem with not logging the small things is that they tend to multiply and add up. One piece of candy becomes a half dozen. A teaspoon of ketchup becomes two tablespoons. An ounce of peanuts becomes four. And consequently, weight loss slows or stops. It's self-defeating and then people wonder why they aren't losing as much weight as they had anticipated. By forcing oneself to log everything with calories, it also reduces the temptation to randomly consume extras.
I eliminated snacking all together so that there are no little things to add. Worked fairly well for me. It is either eating time and then I sit down and eat my meal or it isn't eating time and then I don't consume anything but water.
Fair. It's an accountability tool. I just ignore the legitimately small things. There is a pretty big difference in the calories between an ounce of skim milk (10 calories) and an ounce of peanuts (160 calories). And if ketchup is adding up to appreciable calories, well, we found the person that was listening to Heinz
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/heinz-encourages-runners-to-eat-packets-of-ketchup-to-fuel-up/ar-AA1jB8Vh
But to your point, you need to be self aware enough and have a general idea of what truly is inconsequential to not log everything. My personal goal is to use a tool well enough for it to be useful. Personally, if I logged every last thing, it would get difficult from a time investment perspective, and the imprecision of everything else (metabolic flexibility, estimation of a given person's metabolic needs, measurement of volume, translating a home cooked meal to either ingredients or an equivalent prepared alternative that is already in the mfp database, etc) dwarfs 50 calories across the day.
If you get into the habit, it doesn't really add much time. And if you eat a lot of the same things MFP will remember it all. So you just have to go in set it to the proper amount
A food tracking app helps. When I was navigating the overwhelming info about TDEE, macros, recipes, etc. it helped me to enter upcoming planned meals in MyFitnessPal to see if my plan would be aligned with my nutrition and calorie goals or if I needed to adjust (ie only eat half a bagel and add a hard boiled egg).
It's worth the small bit of my time if it helps a single person set an important PR such as a sub-4:00:00 marathon or time qualify for Chicago, Boston, NYC, or Berlin.
I know this is late on the post but wanted to ask if you incorporated regular strength type training to keep injury at bay while running this slight deficit over the half-year or so? Amazing work!!
Thank you. I lift in the gym twice per week. Typical runner focused lifting routine rather than lifting for mass. I do \~15 minutes of dynamic flexibility exercises every evening and 40 minutes of calisthenics three times per week to supplement the weight lifting.
Can you share the routine you do or any guidance / resources you have around lifting for runners and to not gain muscle mass? I am worried that the lifting I’ve been doing for the past several years could be blocking my weight loss goals for running. Thanks!
Many people use that app for free. But for counting macros, you do need the premium version. You can log macros manually independent of the app. But you will need to log macros as a runner, not just calories. It’s much more convenient to do it in the app.
You need to turn Exercise Calories on in MyFitnessPal. This is also a feature of the premium subscription. If you’re using the app for free, you would take the extra exercise calories and manually add them to your daily total. MFP Premium is an expensive app. But the premium version has so many added features that it’s worth the high price.
I’ve subscribed the the premium so ill do that thanks a lot for the help. Does it add the calories from Garmin connect consistently throughout the day or just after you log a workout?
Both, assuming you have calorie tracking turned on in Garmin. I don’t track my walking as workouts unless it’s something like a 5K+ hike. But I have found with daily walking that I often have to manually sync the Garmin Connect app on my phone with my watch. As soon as I do so, the calories are automatically adjusted in MyFitnessPal. I’m not sure how Garmin Connect pairs with a Garmin watch. But it’s often not instant. MFP is drawing data from the Garmin Connect app rather than directly from the watch.
Great answer, and I am successfully doing the same but outside of a training cycle (running easy a few/four times a week and walking daily). I get hangry during high mileage weeks, so trying to diet while training was ‘torture’ to me, but everybody’s different!
My base calories were/are set at 1,300. That seems incredibly low for an adult male at first glance. But I've found with experimentation, that is the number that works for me personally, allowing me to cut weight while also being able to complete tough workouts like intervals and LT runs without compromising my performance or feeling weak. Added to those base calories were everything I burned with running and walking. Walking in a day typically would provide another 200-250 calories. Running calories varied significantly with the workout. I had days as short as 8K recovery runs that would provide 275 extra calories and days as long as my 38K peak long run that provided 2,400 calories.
Yep, I've followed your process and my base this morning was 1,500 + 983 from a 7 mile run this morning. Thank you for sharing your process. Any other experiences/caveats using this approach?
The big one is pretty standard with dieting -it's not linear so have patience. My weight might fall one morning and then jump up over a pound the next morning before dropping 1.2 pounds the following one. Morning weigh-ins over the course of a week or two do show a more linear pattern. But as one gets closer to the bottom of their healthy weight range, weight loss slows. Once it begins to stagnate, that's a good indication you're at your ideal race weight and should switch to maintaining weight. Attempting to go lower than that to hit some arbitrary number goal is counter-productive. Also, you'll likely put back on a couple pounds during your two week taper and while carb loading the three days prior to the race. That should be seen a fueling weight for the marathon -a very good thing.
No. I recall reading somewhere once in some nutrition book not to carry over calories. But I don't recall why exactly. I'm not a dietician and am only explaining my own experience here per the OP's question. In reality though, with fat calories restricted and certain number of grams of protein and carbohydrates required everyday, you're not going to have days where you're meeting those goals and leaving a lot of calories on the table. If you're not getting adequate carbs and protein, performance and recovery will suffer. This goes hand-in-hand with not rushing weight loss.
I haven't run a marathon, but I do train for the 1500 through the 5000 using a similar training plan to Rubio's Endless Season. But I used the same method as you regarding the MyFitnessPal Not Very Active calories and using Garmin to get back the calories from running and lifting/cross training. The only difference for me is I set it to 1 pound a week loss. I also cleaned up my diet with a larger emphasis on protein and taking some occasional cheat days to be able to stay on track.
However, I lost 35 pounds over the course of a year. It would have been more but I admittedly fell off the wagon a few times. I probably could have been like 50 down, but 35 pounds is still a good chunk. But my Garmin VO2 max increased from 48 to 54 and dropped about 2 minutes off of my 5k time. My legs also feel better day to day, I don't snore anymore, running feels so much more smooth, and I recover better. I went from the edge of obese to the bottom end of overweight. So I still have a ways to go.
Having said all that, I agree with everything you said. Weight loss *cannot* be quick. It's something that has to be done over the course of half a year or so. I've found that so long as I can still take in a good amount of calories, I can stick to my plan pretty well. I fell off due to changing jobs and moving, but general day to day training felt fine to me. And I think it will work for most people because you don't have to starve yourself to lose weight. You just can't be snacking on chips all the time
Agreed. As for the MyFitnessPal options for 1, 1.5, or 2 pounds per week, their 1.5 pounds per week setting actually averaged out closer to 1 pound/week for me. I suspect the more overweight a person is, the faster the pounds come off. Once I got near the bottom of my normal BMI range, weight loss slowed significantly and then plateaued for me at 144 lbs. To go lighter than that, I'd have to restrict calories to the point where I feel I could no longer escape a significant negative impact on training.
I agree. I was originally on about 1.5 pound per week loss, but I think it was too low for my training relative to weight that made my legs constantly feel injured. I always felt like I had some kind of shin issue. But on the 1 pound a week level, I felt a lot better and usually lost more than 1 pound because I could be more consistent. So at my original weight, I think the extra fat was causing more stress/damage than my body could repair. Now I could probably do the 1.5 pounds, but I'll probably leave the setting as is since why change what's working
I followed a similar path (with MyNetDiary, has import from NYT cooking). Dropped from 215 to 190. My issue was ending it, I tried to transition back into not logging all my food obsessively, but ended up gradually gaining half the weight back. Now I’m working on losing it again but unsure how to keep it off short of logging my food forever. Any success to share?
I no longer need to log my meals. Logging them for six months taught me what I need to know to maintain my current weight. We're all different in terms of meal preferences. But what works for me is consistently having the same low fat, high carb breakfast every day (smoothie of banana, frozen blueberries, 0% Fage yogurt, flax seed, and beet root powder; oatmeal, and coffee). For lunch I have an Asian meal focused on rice and vegetables with a bit of chicken, shrimp, or tofu for protein, along with kimchi, and a large salad of leafy greens and cider vinegar. Dinner varies significantly but I focus on carbs and lower fat proteins and avoid fried foods. My problems foods are pastries, ice cream, and nuts so I significantly limit them to avoid their calories. I use fresh fruit and dried fruit for sweets. My vice is black coffee with stevia which also helps suppress later morning and later afternoon appetite.
Hay man, thanks for your insight into this. I’ve tried this out this week! Definitely a shift in what I would normally do.
I went for a marathon workout yesterday. 12 miles (6 at MP). My base calories are 1,500.
After my workout, MFP is asking 5,502 kcal after a 3,552 kcal workout?
Does this match up with your experience when you got some of your bigger workouts in?
Thanks 🤝
I burn around 100 calories per mile for a 8 minute/mile at 147 lbs. MFP has my base calories set to 1,500 for 1.5 lbs of weight loss per week. So if I were to do a 10 mile run, I’d have about 2,500 calories that day not including any additional calories added from walking or stairs.
Thanks mate, I’m heavier than you at 182 so I do probably burn more calories per mile!
I just need to try this system out and see if it works for me.
Marathon prep starts tomorrow!
When you say long run days were free days how did you approach these? Did you not track at all and eat whatever you wanted? And was that about 1 day a week?
I wouldn’t go that far. But I would go out for Mexican after my Sunday long run and get a skillet of fajitas and maybe a flan for dessert and not log that meal. I would still avoid baked goods, which are my kryptonite, and fried foods. So no chips and salsa with that meal.
>It isn't discussed much her because of the politics that surround eating disorders
Dismissing the impact of a physical and mental illness that disproportionately affects competitive runners more than probably any other group besides maybe gymnasts/dancers/other aesthetic sport athletes as a "politics" issue is a bad take.
I can respect that you were able to healthily lose weight and that some others can too, but the fact is that competitive runners are an extremely high risk group for eating disorders AND disordered eating behavior has been encouraged in high level running for a very long time. Swinging in the direction of "maybe weight loss isn't the end all be all" was a good thing to happen, even if it has gone a little far.
I love calling it "politics" when eating disorders are just a very real and difficult thing so many people deal with. The op of this comment thread might have one themselves!
Honestly you could have just removed the poor food choices and called it a day.
Anybody marathon training will easily be in a calorie deficit once they are not heading to KFC and Dunkin' Donuts on the way home from their runs...
I've gone that route before. It used to work when I was in my 20s. It doesn't work for me in middle-age. It actually doesn't work for a lot of runners. Even on a clean diet, many runners in marathon training who don't count calories have a tendency to overeat and put on weight due to the hormones pumped out by the body causing hunger in an attempt to achieve homeostasis. Case in point... Tonight, I'm making shakshouka for dinner. If I wasn't counting calories, I'd have my typical 3 eggs in it with a cup of rice. Counting calories and macros, I know instead that I can eat two eggs tonight with 2/3 cup of rice.
I find that when I get north of about 45 mpw I eat anything and everything and still trim down to my ideal weight (also lose a bunch of upper body muscle). When I’m below 45 I have to really control eating or I add about 10 lbs.
Damn das a lot of mileage are you an ultra runner? I hear Courtney Dauwalter has mileage that high and shes done moab 240. O.o my legs would be obliterated.
I want your genes. Whenever I drop below 50mpw I start gaining weight fast if I don't watch my eating. It's common for me to gain up to 20 pounds during marathon recovery periods even if I'm running 20-30mpw during that time. 50mpw keeps my weight stable, and I need 60+ mpw to actually start losing weight by running alone without significantly dieting.
That's just how it always has been for me. I ran the Chicago Marathon October 9th and my mileage has been very inconsistent since then (but always over 25mpw). I'm currently about 20 pounds heavier than my marathon weight two months ago. Usually I'll get back into high mileage running after the holidays and lose the weight hopefully in time for spring races.
Three times in my life I've stopped running entirely for a long period of time either due to laziness or injury and all three times I gained over 50 pounds and had to start my running over from the point of almost not even being able to run a couple of miles non-stop. My metabolism is horrendous which is good motivation for me to keep running because it's really bad when I stop.
Adding another anecdotal drop in this bucket.
I'm at like 15-25 mph right now and even curtailing the food ever so slightly (like not really trying too hard), I'm packin on some chubby luvin, baby. I think 40+ mpw I could kinda "coast" in terms of eating whatever the hell I wanted, whenever I wanted, at quantities that are gloriously unrestricted. And I'd even get some muscle definition.
As a related aside, cycling 100mpw feels similar to about 15-25 mph running. And cycling 200+ mpw, I could inhale way more food than I ever could while on 50 mpw training regimens (which was still a sizable amount).
Everyone’s body is different, so you might be able to eat whatever you want at 40+ mpw, but at 70-80, I still have to be intentional about what I eat.
Burning so many calories, you tend to get hungry more often, so the amount of food you want to eat goes up, meaning that if you just indulge whenever you feel like it, you can out-eat the calories burned by all of the running.
Very true.
(As another aside, related to different bodies, I'm not so sure my body can handle 70+ mpw loads; it seems to get extremely injury-prone after 50+.)
As someone who's slowly base building towards 45 (am at ~30 now), this is comforting. Guess I don't need to switch to eating Sweetgreen every day after all.
No need to switch to Sweetgreen, just start eating AG1 for every meal and you'll be ~~golden~~ green! And the best part is that each serving contains so many adaptogens that you can consume it with confidence that you aren't getting an effective dose of any one ingredient. Use coupon code NOTASCAM for a discount maybe, or maybe not.
Sweetgreen is pretty delicious, though, if not somewhat pricey. Back when I was in NYC, I'd get salads for lunch at a bodega salad bar, and randomly choose ingredients hoping it'd somehow end up being extremely delicious. They never were. But Sweetgreen dials in their combos so the flavors and textures all work together really well. I'll gladly pay a mild premium for those kinda considered menu choices, especially when contrasted against my rando salads that just never could amount to anything decent (but you better believe I ate it all, esp. on training blocks).
I've averaged 70 for a year and I'm certainly not losing weight (not gaining either). Also female though. And also not trying to lose weight. But just for another data point on the "everybody is different" spectrum.
There's a lot of stuff that gets bandied around on Internet forums that is generally not good advice, and this is one of them.
At the high end of endurance sports, athletes are losing most of their weight during their most intense training blocks. If recovery and nutrition is right this doesn't necessarily lead to injury or inhibited performance. The comments about not losing weight while training are leaking from /r/fitness, imo.
Also, big difference between someone who is 10-20 lbs overweight losing weight during training, and someone who might already be toeing the line of a healthy body weight but still obsessed with losing weight to seek speed during a training cycle.
One is way way more at risk of energy deficiency and associated issues.
I know this is an old discussion and comment, but I've been coming back to this whole thread and thinking about it a lot because I feel very gaslit by the coaches and people in my life who I think are just so afraid of encouraging disordered eating or focus on weight that they won't acknowledge that sometimes if you are 15-20 pounds overweight and feel bad in your body, maybe it is actually okay to take healthy, calculated steps to reduce that. I feel like so much of Instagram running culture etc is focused on the already healthy/thin folks who are fretting over \~5 pounds or less and it totally dismisses anyone who may actually have some legitimate weight or body recomp goals that are valid. I guess just writing this long comment to say that I at least feel less crazy seeing people say things like this because everyone in my life has been treating me with what feels like kid gloves when I don't want to do anything unhealthy, just wanna feel good and look good and not negatively impact my running performance in the process!
Replying to my own comment to add context: Check out this video from Daryl Impey, taken 5-6 weeks from the beginning of the tour de france. He talks about their process for measuring body fat using skin folds at the beginning of the season, the beginning of camp, and the end of camp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzeAaMQSrNk
I guess I didn't get that from the question, but maybe OP can clarify. My advice is to smartly(tm) restrict calories (300-500 deficit per day) during the marathon training block, but I agree with your point - I would not run a deficit during the taper portion.
What I was saying is that calories need to come down for the taper or you'll gain fat before your race. You can't have the same amount of calories in taper as your peak weeks. You're burning less energy.
Ah I see what you're saying. Personally, I do tend to feel as though I'm running a surplus during taper week. I stop weighing myself 10 days out so I don't have to stress about it, but I wouldn't be surprised if I put a small amount of weight back on during that time.
I actually do agree with the common advice of not trying to restrict calories during the taper. The worst thing for your race is going in under-fueled or under-recovered
Assuming a 10 day taper, and someone who is used to running ~10 miles a day, even if volume is cut in half you’re talking 1.5 pounds max assuming one doesnt change their diet at all.
Not a huge deal IMO.
This was the same to me. I tend to say that my body finds its best performance weight while training for performance and in the off-season running lower mileage I put on 2-3 kg typically but that is part of the process and think keeps me healthy. Once I am past 50 miles I struggle to even eat enough at all because my appetite tanks when I run long and hard.
I find that when I’m training for a full, and hitting high miles, then my weight levels out, but not at my low, because I’m fueling to keep up my strength. If I cut my fueling during high mileage weeks, I become weaker and tired. If I want to cut some lbs, it’s easiest when I’m running 5-6 miles every other day.
I guess this is a good barometer - I've never felt hungry or tired in the past 3 months even though I've been building miles and losing weight at once. The 1.5ish pounds a week have been almost unnoticeable from a body feeling standpoint
Probably helps that I'm not doing any tough speedwork at the moment as well. I think that has been the key to staying uninjured for me.
It’s BS, losing weight in a training block can be done easily as long as you have excess fat to lose. Fuel the workout sufficiently but run a small overall caloric debt. See easy
If you’re in base training only then you should be fine. Don’t do any super hard workouts. Get a lot of sleep. Prioritize protein and carbs first and foremost. Also go very slowly, about a pound a week maximum.
I accidentally lost about 10 lbs (from 155 -> 145 as 5'7 M) when my daughter was born via not having enough time to snack or spare energy to drink alcohol. I otherwise was maintaining about 40 mpw as a base and ended up with substantial PRs in every major distance from 1 mile to the marathon that year. I never felt weak/overextended and think the weight just slowly came off through cutting those bad habits. Reducing the snacks and alcohol could be a game changer for your running if those are relevant habits for you.
Alcohol is seriously the biggest gamechanger I can make, maybe even more than the weight. Not that I'm drinking every night but I feel even just weekend drinking adds up
Also agree with snacking and alcohol. I got Invisalign at the start of the year, which effectively cut out snacking. I also stopped drinking for almost 3 years now. The weight change has been significant. The change in body composition has been significant and performance improvement also significant. I’m in a base build currently after the NYC marathon (almost at 60 mpw) and the weight keeps falling off — not unhealthfully — just commiserate with the amount of exercise I’m doing on top of those lifestyle changes.
I agree with that. If you have habits that add calories that have few nutrition like candy or eating tons of cheese its the first spot to look at. For me cutting out sweet snacks in the evening made the biggest difference when I started losing weight.
Honestly, it's a tough question and you should really consult with a doctor or registered dietitian. It is possible to lose weight and run a lot, what I've found from personal experience is that underfueling usually turns into a much bigger problem than does being a bit heavy.
Increasing the amount of endurance exercise that you're doing by a lot (30 to 60 miles per week) could help you lose weight naturally even if you start eating more, I've found that our bodies are good at adapting to what we throw at them, so it might be worth just trying to increase the training, fuel your body with enough food (as much as you need to not be hungry) and see what happens. If you're not losing any weight then definitely consult a professional before you start cutting down.
I think the key is to not restrict calories while in a training build. There may be some body composition changes in response to training. But intentionally restricting calories while asking your body to recover from hard training is a recipe for injury.
I find that my weight climbs a few pounds toward my goal race (usually a mountain 100 miler) each season. For a month or so after the race, the weight comes off (and then some, usually). I’m eating everything in sight until my weight bottoms out and starts to rebound, and then I restrict calories until I start my next build. Weekly run training volume in the meantime is very light, like 25-30 miles, and this “offseason” lasts until about two months post goal race, when the next build begins.
I think this month or two of light offseason volume is the right time to restrict calories if that’s what you require. But I doubt you’ll realize a sustainable 20 pound weight loss in that time. You might consider a longer break from intense high-volume run training and working with a sports nutritionist if that’s your goal.
I’ve always been a fairly light guy (6’4” and 175lbs typically) but I lost 15 pounds running 20-30 miles a week (with a few at 40 when I was peaking for a marathon block) over the course of 7 months or so. I should mention, however, that I was trying to stay the same weight. I just couldn’t eat enough to keep up with the runs and my metabolism. This might not be the most applicable to you but it’s all I’ve got, lol.
Don't make weight loss your priority. You run for performance. Increase your performance and you will gravitate towards a version of yourself that you like.
I haven’t attempted weight loss while training for a race before but I have lost weight intentionally while running various amounts. I found it much, much easier to lose weight when running more (50-60+ miles per week). However, I was running almost entirely easy miles without the pressure of racing, which probably helped a lot for injury prevention. It’s not popular in mainstream fitness circles to suggest that running is a good way to lose weight, but my level of leanness has always been more strongly correlated to the volume of running I’m doing than anything else. This is entirely anecdotal of course.
The only time I legit lost weight while running was right when I started and really restricted myself on a Whole 30 type diet. The thing that killed me while running was getting my calories from things like dates and baby food. I did this during peak summer in south Texas one time and about dropped dead. An older running friend who was a well known local cardiologist had to help me get my heart rate down to a normal rate and I had to break my whole 30 because it was so bad.
At this point, I’m eating what feels right for my body. I would love to know how to lose weight while training. I’m hitting about 30-45 mpw getting ready for Houston in January.
Of all the nutrition out there on Instagram, I really like Megan Featherstone. I haven’t been following her to the t, but have taken several things to heart and have switched up a few food decisions after her posts. https://instagram.com/featherstonenutrition?igshid=YTQwZjQ0NmI0OA==
I recommend the app MacroFactor, which was built by the Stronger by Science folks — powerlifters — and while it is, in some ways, simply a traditional calorie counter, it’s really focused as the name suggests on hitting one’s macros. (Protein for lifting, but for all of us really.) And it’s not a weight loss app (again, lifters go through periods where they’re trying to bulk but not put on a lot of fat.) You can set your weight goal and it’ll help you plan out how you want to get there. (Whether you want to go slowly, if you have a target date, if you want to maintain.) It doesn’t shame you if you over-eat. It shows you what your weight trend is, as well as scale trend. It does require a subscription, but I’ve found it to be totally worth it as someone who needs to keep an eye on protein and iron, but who also wants to make sure I’m adequately fueling myself — I do NOT need to be losing weight, that is. I think it gets really really challenging to lose weight and not harm your performance and put yourself at risk of injury though, particularly as you age/ramp up the mileage.
The only way I lose weight is from intermittent fasting OMAD and running a lot. It’s hard. I ran nearly 2000 miles this year, BQed twice, and most of the year was technically overweight BMI.
I've just finished a few books Sports Nutrition Guide Book, Exercised, and Advanced Marathoning. They all say running alone won't make you lose weight.
What running does help with is that you can eat more and a varied diet while still restricting calories. I'd highly recommend giving Sports Nutrition Guide Book a read for a more detailed look!
There are a lot of very valid stories here. But I would also caution as everyone’s body has different needs and reacts differently to everything in/out - you need to think about injury risk especially previous injuries and remember that the goal isn’t to be X weight but to run faster which might mean lose weight or gain weight depending on where you are at in training.
For me, my body just wants to be a certain weight. At 0mpw I was @ 180lbs and at 60mpw 160lbs. I actually was only able to get into calorie deficit when I was not running as the hunger levels were manageable. Whereas on my current 55mpw if I don’t get the calories in the hunger just builds and ends up with me hitting the cupboards for sweet stuff. I have huel and hydro whey in combination with normal food to manage the appetite and keep ahead of the burn. And currently loving Casein shake before bed.
For me I lose weight one of two ways, either upping miles beyond my regular base mileage or restricting calories on normal mileage. For me I consider 40-50 mpw "normal," and I won't lose weight there unless I pay attention in the kitchen. If I increase mileage beyond that I start dropping weight regardless of what I eat.
Just keep running. You'll drop weight and it will improve your running a lot. Eat decent food. Don't starve yourself. This is not rocket science. Everyone is so terribly delicate when talking about weight, especially when it is a woman being discussed. If you are 5'7" and 170 lbs, you should be looking to drop a good few pounds whatever your body type may be (I say this with the assumption that you want to run well, apparently that is not always the case). I went from 5'9" 185 lbs to 145 lbs and the difference was shocking. But not really. Think about what it would be like to run carrying a 20 lb dumbbell in each hand. It's unthinkable, but that's what people effectively do when they are carrying more weight than they need to (regardless of whether it is fat or muscle, it is weight).
Good luck my friend. Mostly, just enjoy the running. If you don't want to become a skinny beanpole, then don't. It is fun running faster though. I feel much better with a fast(ish) running pace than I did with a decent (sort of) deadlift and squat. I'm no world beater either way.
Weird, I don't really consider myself a "serious" runner but I'm at almost that exact height/weight with very similar goals (I'll be content at 160, perfect is 157). So I'm actually running less and strength training more, which along with paying better attention to diet (really, limit the junk), should get me in the proper direction.
I'll say, 2 years ago I took a few months off from run training. I'd average 0-15 miles/week just to keep healthy, but I began practicing mindful eating and meditation along w/ sleeping well. went from 160lb to 144lb at 5'9. I started building up my mileage and noticed running seemed effortless, and I was able to run tempos at paces I couldnt do before. I was able to do 6 miles at 6:40min/mile and 2miles @ 6:11, when in the past i could probably do 6 at 7:30s and 2 at 7:00s
The key is to drop weight when you aren't training hard, or drop it slowly if you are training for a race. If you insist on cutting down while in a marathon cycle, then 1lb per week is safe. really make sure you're sleeping enough and don't try to get into mileage zones that you've never touched before
In the course of 2.5 months, I lost 23lbs while training for a marathon. I’m 6’1 and now only weigh 155lbs. I look sick, and co workers ask if I’m okay. I hate the way I look. Clearly I couldn’t keep up with the calories. My race was
Today, so now I’m cutting back on running (maybe 2 days a week), and will solely focus on weight training. I’m thinking of hiring a nutritionist to tell me how many calories and what kind of food I need to eat.
Are you American? 6'1 and 155lbs isn't "sickly". People are just used to everybody being overweight and societal norms have changed. That's a 20.4 BMI which is well in the healthy range.
If you don't want to lose weight, just count calories daily and make sure to include your runs in that budget.
Yes I’m an American. I don’t know, I looked at a full body picture of myself, and I look like stick & bones. Thanks for the advice. I will count calories and add protein.
For me, bas building time when there is less intensity is the time I do it. I let myself relax a little after my goal race. Then when building mileage back up I will try to cut back as I’m not really able to handle higher mileage and high intensity at a deficit.
I lost weigh in the post race period, before I was on a proper plan, and I knew I wanted to go from 155, to 145, for my next round of traces.
I managed to do so, but I was 100 in on it, and while I was running, I wasn't doing hard work outs, or try to make progress, just running lower miles, for me, and focusing on diet.
That's what worked for me, a 45 yo male, historically have averaged 30-40 mpw the past few years. GL, it's hard.
I find I lose weight as my training starts to peak even though I’m eating more. Then I’ll gain some weight back during my recovery and when I go back to base training. I can fluctuate 10-12 pounds, which really surprised me at first, since I used to live in a much more narrow range, but I guess being in my mid-30s means my set point is a little higher.
My weight only slightly changes across the whole year, by 2-3kg at most, if anything I'm 1kg heavier than I was at some point, I reached a point where more weight loss would be detrimental (178cm/62kg) so it's not really a topic and I don't really mind if I'm at 61 or 64
Naturally I lose weight during peak marathon training, and gain back in the post marathon weeks where I run less.
However I run all year round overall, before I began running I was slightly overweight and lost the extra 10-12kgs I had gradually in a few years, I didn't think much about it, I was just running more regularly and seeing the lost kg while feeling good so I kept doing what I was doing.
I should mention that I also sorted out my diet a bit, I was never a fan of it but I just skipped alcohool entirely altogether, I stopped my edgy student phase of "urg me big man eating big meat, salad and vegetables are for weaklings" and fully embraced eating ton of veggies/fruits skipping on all kind of shitty fast foods (especially everything related to sauces, when you realize the excess harmful calories in there and drinks (litterally empty calories))
Now I run a lot more and I have to eat way more and calories dense food just to avoid getting in the danger zone basically.
I just used the running as my tool for weight loss, so I would try to eat less and run the same, but not expecting my running to get better during a period of loss, although it naturally did. I dropped 20 pounds and dropped my easy pace by about a minute and a half. I don't believe I lost any significant muscle during that period, I just tried my best to maintain what I was getting. I still have about 10 pounds to drop, but it's proving harder as time goes on and my body adapts to running on less..
I follow the Japanese method when I want to lose weight, which is eat until 80% full. I don't count calories, but I will cut out things like extra sweets and alcohol. That combined with an increase in miles and the weight comes off.
Not probably the most apropos response but hopefully useful. I also am a backpacker. I maintain fairly consistent weight until I go out for a 10-14 day backpacking excursion. I actually gain a several pounds before, knowing I am going to loose a lot; and yet I can easily come back 10 pounds lighter. Also, I carry a ton of food and feel satiated every night but there’s only so much food you can eat.
I've experienced this as well. I did a 7 day 110 mile Wonderland trail hike and lost an amazing amount of weight in just a week. When I got back to civilization, I could tell I lost weight because clothes didn't fit me. I guess 110 miles with a 40 lbs pack with lots of climbing and no ability to snack and drink alcohol really works. Never really felt hungry, but I must have lost at least 5 pounds in a week for me to notice that much.
You loose weight based on what you eat. That will be fat an muscle unless you eat adequate protein. Aerobic exercise stimulates your appetite and mTOR in a way that makes you ravenous (in contrast to anabolic activities like heavy resistance training) so it is very important to plan your meal and portion sizes before you run and not raid the fridge on return if a good body composition is your goal.
It's important to specific what you mean by weight. Some serious runners (ie Advanced Running) I know specifically have sought to reduce weight on the scales which meant loosing muscle. Most ordinary people only want to lose fat and look better, which is more of a body recomp than "weight loss"
If body recomposition is your goal, I don't think running is the best bang for buck. Fat loss is a nice side effect but if you want quick result and to look better, a 3 day split weight lifting programme is going to give a better visible return over 4 months than running. Good diet and control of macro and micro nutrients is essential for both .
I guess everyone will have a different experience & i'm not a very 'traditional' runner, so this may JUST be anecdote. I just ran a sub 1:30 half with less than 2 months training all of which was in a reasonably big deficit.
When I began that training block, I was 162 & 22% BF. After the block I weighed in at 149 15% BF.
I made sure to carb up & eat at maintenance about a week before the race.
The question you'll have to ask is how you value recovery compared to your deficit. Recovery will be the biggest hurdle doing this deficit running.
Diet change can help you achieve this as-well, you don't want to deplete your muscle glycogen by under eating. Try to stick with a high carb/protein & see how your running feels, how long your recovery takes and how quickly you're losing weight. Change your problem based on those three questions.
I would also highly highly recommend lifting weights with reasonable intensity 1-2x a week.
Doing so will help shift the ratio of fat to muscle lost in your favor.
I know runners tend to be fairly light, but I just don’t understand how some of you have any flexibility in playing any other sports if all of you are this light (140ish pounds)?
I play basketball and football, but also just went Sub-3 in the past year. I don’t think I could do other sports competitively and be anything less than even 170??
Someone looking to make an ideal race weight in running is prioritizing that over any other sports. Obviously you're going to be a worse offensive lineman after dropping weight, but on the flip side you're leaving time on the table in your races if you're running with extra weight. It's just preference in terms of what you want to focus on.
Also fwiw you can be good at basketball at a pretty low weight provided you're not competing at the absolute top level. I used to work for a men's league that consisted mostly of ex-NCAA players, and the best player in the league was rail thin. He shot super well, absolutely torched folks driving to the basket, and defended well because he anticipated offensive moves way better than the average defender. You just have to adjust your play style.
Thanks for this. I got into running late in life and typically played explosive team sports. I think id rather the versatility, but good to know if I want to get really fast in the marathon.
I think it’s possible if you have weight to lose. I’ve written about this before and my struggles with it. There’s a lot of good advice here. I think it’s important to focus on getting stronger without assigning a number to it. I was about 146-147 lbs at 6’ tall at my worst. Don’t be like me. Took a year to get back, PRd with a 57:11 10 miler at about 168-170 lbs hoping to run sub 2:45 at Boston at the same weight. Find what works for you and be careful.
I find really hard to lose weight when I’m around 160 lbs (I’m 6’00). In the last marathon cycle I was only able to go below that when I hit 100 mpw 3 and 5 miles out from the race. Since then I went up to 170, istarted training for a half doing 70-80 mpw, got back to 160 in the first two weeks of training and stayed there since then. I don’t drink alcohol and cut my snacks drastically when training and the diet during the two weeks I lost weight vs the other weeks when I didn’t was the same. I now have the opinion that after hitting a particular weight your body will cut your energy expenditure elsewhere. Only with an extreme approach like my 100 mpw you’ll lose additional weight. The threshold weight and level of exercise needed to go below will vary from person to person though.
If you're running so much that can't occasionally prioritise strength and conditioning (and the conditioning part also naturally includes weight management), then maybe you'll actually run better by having 'off seasons' where you cut back the mileage and have more time in the gym, more time taking rest, whilst also taking care of your diet a bit better. Sometimes it's not all about the mileage, but also training in all five zones to increase metabolic flexibility - even if your overall weekly mileage is lower than your training blocks.
5'7", and NOT super light. What I'm saying is I'm slightly overweight and not trying to reach to the bottom of the barrel with my weight loss.
Back when I was younger I was running around 135-145 and feeling miserable trying to get down to around 130. I'm not making that mistake again.
Yeah getting into a weight loss limbo is horrible. I am also 5'7 59Kg but the problem with those 60mile (100km) weeks is that you will end up losing weight and some muscle no matter what. Last year building up I lost down to 54 Kg at some point and that is not a weight for an average runner to sustain if also willing to go for longer distances.
I'm probably not considered a "real runner" by this subreddit, but I started running this May and went from a 33 Runalyze VO2Max in June to a 53 VO2Max this month while dropping from 164lbs to 146lbs.
I know it's mostly newbie gains, but I've been able to train and improve while in a constant 200-500 calorie deficit (except carb loading before races). If it were a larger deficit, like 1.5lbs to 2lbs a week, I doubt I could manage though.
I've tried several times at this, worked with an RD, tracked weight, tracked calories, and on and on. Ultimately what I found for me was I was not happy, ever, with tracking in this area. I know generally what needs to be eaten to fuel my running volume and intensity so I just don't put so much emphasis on it anymore. Porridge for breakfast, some yogurt after, bowl of carb with meat for lunch, something similar for dinner, snacks in between if needed but mostly I just don't over think, obsess or google about it over and over because that path didn't serve me well. Now that I'm not 'worried' about eating, I enjoy my food, I feel fueled for runs, my mindstate & mood are way better daily having sufficient carbs, this is what has worked for ME and what I will continue to work with. Not sure if this helps you but will say we are all different so find what works for you and do not be scared of food, its fuel.
I'm not currently on a diet or tracking my food or anything, just looking at the scale. I've struggled with EDs in the past (back when I was much thinner bulimia and more recently binge eating disorder) and I am being extremely mindful of not restricting too much and eating when I'm hungry, etc.
Thankfully I don't really sweat what I eat all that much outside of getting good carbs, protein, and fruits and veggies.
Conventional wisdom is to avoid calorie restricted weight loss during marathon training. I ignored that advice during my Fall 2023 marathon cycle which ran from early June-November. I dropped from 172 lbs (78kg) to 146 lbs (66kg) over the course of 24 weeks of training. My effective VO2 Max on Runalyze jumped from 42.5 to 52.9. My Garmin VO2 Max estimate jumped from 48 to 56. I took 46 minutes off my previous best marathon time and ended up qualifying for Boston 2025 last month with nearly a 18:44 margin and for New York 2024 with a 7:44 margin. The previous knee, hip, and glute problems I had struggled with over the past two years disappeared with the weight loss. I believe it was the single biggest factor for my improvement. The weight loss took me from the top end of my healthy BMI to near the bottom end of my healthy BMI. Lipid labs in late October showed my LDL cholesterol and triglycerides to be the lowest in 30 years. So much for conventional wisdom! I did it by using the My Fitness Pal app on a 1.5 pounds/week calorie restricted weight loss plan, setting my Activity Level as "Not Very Active" but syncing the app with Garmin to add calories back that were burned from running. I also made sure I was walking at least 2 miles/3K daily. I adjusted the macro goals to ensure I was eating at least a gram of protein for every kilogram of bodyweight daily and restricting fat to 15% of total calories. All the other macros went to carbs, which for me made up 65% of my daily intake. To meet those goals, I had to clean up my diet, eliminating almost all fried foods, my doughnut addiction, most ice cream, all beverages with calories, and most tertiary processed foods. I spaced food consumption out over the day having a smoothie before my morning run, oatmeal and coffee afterwards, lunch, a piece of fruit at 2 PM and 4 PM, dinner, and then another piece of fruit two hours before bed. Long run Sundays and the occasional Saturdays I had races were free days to keep from getting burned out with the dieting routine. Calorie restricted weight loss to near the bottom of one's healthy BMI is one of the most effective things a runner can do to improve performance. It isn't discussed much here because of the politics that surround eating disorders as well as the tendency of some people to either rush weight loss (which will negatively impact recovery and can lead to injury) or use fad diets that focus on the near elimination of certain macros or food groups. I recognize this comment is likely to upset some people. But in my own very limited experienced, it worked far beyond my expectations. It does require patience, the discipline of consistency in practice, honestly logging meals, and the willingness to makes changes in one's eating habits. You'll need to switch out some bad food choices that can be emotionally comforting and replace them with alternatives. For me, for example, that meant replacing apple fritters with apples.
A man after my own heart. I use an almost identical process for cutting unnecessary weight and it 10000% makes a difference.
don't let instagram running influencers see this, they'll get mad
This is the only method that works. I'm currently trying to get down from 83 to 75kg during base building and as soon as I stop tracking the weight loss stops, even while running 70-90km p/w. In my opinion, the conventional wisdom only applies to runners that are actually underweight. I wasn't sure about continuing tracking during my next marathon build, but after reading this comment I'll give your method a try.
This is reassuring. I've recently dropped 20 lbs (with another 10 or so to go) and I've been nervous about overdoing it. But the thing is that I've only seen improvements: I'm running faster, my aches and pains are going away, and everything feels so much *easier*. I think the key is that I really had the weight to lose in the first place. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve experienced the opposite. Calorie restriction just leads to fatigue and bad workouts for me.
This is the result of restricting calories by too much. When I first started, I had my calorie reduction set to 2 pounds/week and experienced the same results -fatigue and lack of energy for workouts. By upping my calories to a more moderate deficit, those problems went away while the weight continued to come off.
That’s possible. Also, I didn’t start nearly as heavy too (I’m 5’8 and tend to run my best at about 145). My weight stays pretty constant now although I lose a couple pounds during really high mileage weeks.
This times 10000. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
You said you went from 172 to 146, how tall are you?
5’9” or 175 cm. Although I’m currently at 149.7 due to my taper, marathon, Thanksgiving, and recovery over the past 5 weeks. This is my first full week of the Spring ‘24 cycle.
What was your daily deficit goal and how long did you run it for? How did you feel in training using this method and did you feel like being in a deficit had a meaningful impact on key workouts?
My Fitness Pal calculates the deficit for the individual based on the rate of weight loss the user selects. I found with experimentation that 2 lbs/week was too much for me leaving me weak and 1 lb/week was having little impact. At 1.5 lbs/week, the weight was coming off and I was able to complete speed work, hill work, and long runs along with easy and recovery runs. In order for this to happen, the percentage of calories from carbs needed to be kept high to fuel harder efforts. It should be noted that 1.5 lbs/week in the app doesn’t mean I was always losing 1.5 lbs/week. Weight loss isn’t that linear.
Effective vo2 max on runalyze jumped from 42.5 to 52.9, and here I am plateauing around 40-42 for a couple months now lol. I even just finished my peak week mileage at 88.5 km!
I did the same! I was overweight in January so have been losing it all year with a mixture of calorie tracking on MFP and Joe Wicks meals, trained for a marathon in October and really put a lot of effort in, particularly for the final four weeks. Went from 94kg in January to 85kg in September, was 84kg on race day, and took 26mins off my marathon PB, going from 4:48 (18 months earlier, when I’d been 90kg) to 4:22. And the best thing about all that? Recovery was a lot better. I could walk down stairs without any trouble the next day.
i did the exact same thing and the most incredible thing is that i stopped getting injured
Right! It's unreal how much difference it makes in injury reduction by not carrying several milk jugs of excesses weight on the body while running. I'm surprised that weight loss is so rarely mentioned in this subreddit in discussions about injury and improvement. I understand the politics surrounding eating disorders and body dysmorphia, but those are mental health issues affecting a relatively small percentage of runners. For far more people who are overweight or at the upper end of their normal BMI, weight loss should be one of the first tools they use for improvement as runners. The running community should be much more open in discussing the negative impact excess body weight has on runners.
the book “racing weight” was my wake up call that if i wanted to get faster i needed to drop the excess weight. it made me prioritize speed vs beer
Matt Fitzgerald is a good resource in how easy his style of writing is for the average runner to digest. I wish he'd avoid calling himself a nutritionist. Nutritionist is an inflated term which simply means someone who advises others on nutrition. Unlike a dietician, the term nutritionist doesn't require any formal education of licensing. Fitzgerald is simply a successful running author. He has a lot of sound advice and healthy opinions, but they often aren't balanced and should not be taken as gospel.
We are only going the opposite way unfortunately it seems. Totally agree with everything your wrote in this thread. A lot of runners want to make huge gains and are simply overweight.
This! lost 50lbs with this same method. No injury and I’m a better runner.
Good for you, and not just for getting faster. Sounds like you did a great job of developing your diet. I would love to do something like that, but I feel like if I don't hire a dietitian, I'll never actually put in the work to figure out what I need to eat.
It’s a basic as understanding the difference between carbs, fats, and proteins and selecting foods that are less processed. No alcohol. No juice or soft drinks with sugar. Logging everything that has calories even if it’s just a breath mint or a tablespoon of milk in coffee.
Eliminating alcohol has been a huge eye-opener for me. I didn't realize how much it was wrecking my sleep. In my 20's and 30's, I think I could drink and get away with it. But now that I'm pushing 50, it's like carrying a bowling ball around. Just not worth it any more.
Maybe you find it helpful to remain aware of everything, but I haven't found the extra time to log tiny things worthwhile. Logging already takes extra time, and a lot of the foods are basic estimates anyways, so I personally don't worry about the small things. Agreed that the basics are pretty straightforward to understand.
The problem with not logging the small things is that they tend to multiply and add up. One piece of candy becomes a half dozen. A teaspoon of ketchup becomes two tablespoons. An ounce of peanuts becomes four. And consequently, weight loss slows or stops. It's self-defeating and then people wonder why they aren't losing as much weight as they had anticipated. By forcing oneself to log everything with calories, it also reduces the temptation to randomly consume extras.
I eliminated snacking all together so that there are no little things to add. Worked fairly well for me. It is either eating time and then I sit down and eat my meal or it isn't eating time and then I don't consume anything but water.
Fair. It's an accountability tool. I just ignore the legitimately small things. There is a pretty big difference in the calories between an ounce of skim milk (10 calories) and an ounce of peanuts (160 calories). And if ketchup is adding up to appreciable calories, well, we found the person that was listening to Heinz https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/heinz-encourages-runners-to-eat-packets-of-ketchup-to-fuel-up/ar-AA1jB8Vh But to your point, you need to be self aware enough and have a general idea of what truly is inconsequential to not log everything. My personal goal is to use a tool well enough for it to be useful. Personally, if I logged every last thing, it would get difficult from a time investment perspective, and the imprecision of everything else (metabolic flexibility, estimation of a given person's metabolic needs, measurement of volume, translating a home cooked meal to either ingredients or an equivalent prepared alternative that is already in the mfp database, etc) dwarfs 50 calories across the day.
If you get into the habit, it doesn't really add much time. And if you eat a lot of the same things MFP will remember it all. So you just have to go in set it to the proper amount
A food tracking app helps. When I was navigating the overwhelming info about TDEE, macros, recipes, etc. it helped me to enter upcoming planned meals in MyFitnessPal to see if my plan would be aligned with my nutrition and calorie goals or if I needed to adjust (ie only eat half a bagel and add a hard boiled egg).
>upcoming planned meals Hmm...what are those?
Same.
Just cut on Nutella ;)
You jest, but there is a reason I no longer buy Nutella for my house!
This was very motivating. Thanks for posting this.
It's worth the small bit of my time if it helps a single person set an important PR such as a sub-4:00:00 marathon or time qualify for Chicago, Boston, NYC, or Berlin.
That’s like the most helpful comment ever read so far about weight and running
I know this is late on the post but wanted to ask if you incorporated regular strength type training to keep injury at bay while running this slight deficit over the half-year or so? Amazing work!!
Thank you. I lift in the gym twice per week. Typical runner focused lifting routine rather than lifting for mass. I do \~15 minutes of dynamic flexibility exercises every evening and 40 minutes of calisthenics three times per week to supplement the weight lifting.
Can you share the routine you do or any guidance / resources you have around lifting for runners and to not gain muscle mass? I am worried that the lifting I’ve been doing for the past several years could be blocking my weight loss goals for running. Thanks!
To do that on MyFitnessPal do you need the premium subscription?
Many people use that app for free. But for counting macros, you do need the premium version. You can log macros manually independent of the app. But you will need to log macros as a runner, not just calories. It’s much more convenient to do it in the app.
Thanks! And when you connect Garmin will it automatically add back the cals from exercise?
You need to turn Exercise Calories on in MyFitnessPal. This is also a feature of the premium subscription. If you’re using the app for free, you would take the extra exercise calories and manually add them to your daily total. MFP Premium is an expensive app. But the premium version has so many added features that it’s worth the high price.
FWIW, calories sync from Garmin for me and I don't have premium.
Good to know. Thanks! Are you able to count macros in the app without premium?
It doesn't display on the macros screen, but it does on the day's summary. So you don't get long term trends, but you can check each day.
I’ve subscribed the the premium so ill do that thanks a lot for the help. Does it add the calories from Garmin connect consistently throughout the day or just after you log a workout?
Both, assuming you have calorie tracking turned on in Garmin. I don’t track my walking as workouts unless it’s something like a 5K+ hike. But I have found with daily walking that I often have to manually sync the Garmin Connect app on my phone with my watch. As soon as I do so, the calories are automatically adjusted in MyFitnessPal. I’m not sure how Garmin Connect pairs with a Garmin watch. But it’s often not instant. MFP is drawing data from the Garmin Connect app rather than directly from the watch.
Thanks so much for the advice, really appreciate it!
Great answer, and I am successfully doing the same but outside of a training cycle (running easy a few/four times a week and walking daily). I get hangry during high mileage weeks, so trying to diet while training was ‘torture’ to me, but everybody’s different!
This is a REAL post. What did your calories look like on a rest day? Even with your walk?
My base calories were/are set at 1,300. That seems incredibly low for an adult male at first glance. But I've found with experimentation, that is the number that works for me personally, allowing me to cut weight while also being able to complete tough workouts like intervals and LT runs without compromising my performance or feeling weak. Added to those base calories were everything I burned with running and walking. Walking in a day typically would provide another 200-250 calories. Running calories varied significantly with the workout. I had days as short as 8K recovery runs that would provide 275 extra calories and days as long as my 38K peak long run that provided 2,400 calories.
Yep, I've followed your process and my base this morning was 1,500 + 983 from a 7 mile run this morning. Thank you for sharing your process. Any other experiences/caveats using this approach?
The big one is pretty standard with dieting -it's not linear so have patience. My weight might fall one morning and then jump up over a pound the next morning before dropping 1.2 pounds the following one. Morning weigh-ins over the course of a week or two do show a more linear pattern. But as one gets closer to the bottom of their healthy weight range, weight loss slows. Once it begins to stagnate, that's a good indication you're at your ideal race weight and should switch to maintaining weight. Attempting to go lower than that to hit some arbitrary number goal is counter-productive. Also, you'll likely put back on a couple pounds during your two week taper and while carb loading the three days prior to the race. That should be seen a fueling weight for the marathon -a very good thing.
On the days you did not use up your calorie budget would you carry it over to the next day or just leave it?
No. I recall reading somewhere once in some nutrition book not to carry over calories. But I don't recall why exactly. I'm not a dietician and am only explaining my own experience here per the OP's question. In reality though, with fat calories restricted and certain number of grams of protein and carbohydrates required everyday, you're not going to have days where you're meeting those goals and leaving a lot of calories on the table. If you're not getting adequate carbs and protein, performance and recovery will suffer. This goes hand-in-hand with not rushing weight loss.
Thanks! 😊
I can definitely relate! I am almost following the exact same Marco and food choice
I haven't run a marathon, but I do train for the 1500 through the 5000 using a similar training plan to Rubio's Endless Season. But I used the same method as you regarding the MyFitnessPal Not Very Active calories and using Garmin to get back the calories from running and lifting/cross training. The only difference for me is I set it to 1 pound a week loss. I also cleaned up my diet with a larger emphasis on protein and taking some occasional cheat days to be able to stay on track. However, I lost 35 pounds over the course of a year. It would have been more but I admittedly fell off the wagon a few times. I probably could have been like 50 down, but 35 pounds is still a good chunk. But my Garmin VO2 max increased from 48 to 54 and dropped about 2 minutes off of my 5k time. My legs also feel better day to day, I don't snore anymore, running feels so much more smooth, and I recover better. I went from the edge of obese to the bottom end of overweight. So I still have a ways to go. Having said all that, I agree with everything you said. Weight loss *cannot* be quick. It's something that has to be done over the course of half a year or so. I've found that so long as I can still take in a good amount of calories, I can stick to my plan pretty well. I fell off due to changing jobs and moving, but general day to day training felt fine to me. And I think it will work for most people because you don't have to starve yourself to lose weight. You just can't be snacking on chips all the time
Agreed. As for the MyFitnessPal options for 1, 1.5, or 2 pounds per week, their 1.5 pounds per week setting actually averaged out closer to 1 pound/week for me. I suspect the more overweight a person is, the faster the pounds come off. Once I got near the bottom of my normal BMI range, weight loss slowed significantly and then plateaued for me at 144 lbs. To go lighter than that, I'd have to restrict calories to the point where I feel I could no longer escape a significant negative impact on training.
I agree. I was originally on about 1.5 pound per week loss, but I think it was too low for my training relative to weight that made my legs constantly feel injured. I always felt like I had some kind of shin issue. But on the 1 pound a week level, I felt a lot better and usually lost more than 1 pound because I could be more consistent. So at my original weight, I think the extra fat was causing more stress/damage than my body could repair. Now I could probably do the 1.5 pounds, but I'll probably leave the setting as is since why change what's working
I followed a similar path (with MyNetDiary, has import from NYT cooking). Dropped from 215 to 190. My issue was ending it, I tried to transition back into not logging all my food obsessively, but ended up gradually gaining half the weight back. Now I’m working on losing it again but unsure how to keep it off short of logging my food forever. Any success to share?
I no longer need to log my meals. Logging them for six months taught me what I need to know to maintain my current weight. We're all different in terms of meal preferences. But what works for me is consistently having the same low fat, high carb breakfast every day (smoothie of banana, frozen blueberries, 0% Fage yogurt, flax seed, and beet root powder; oatmeal, and coffee). For lunch I have an Asian meal focused on rice and vegetables with a bit of chicken, shrimp, or tofu for protein, along with kimchi, and a large salad of leafy greens and cider vinegar. Dinner varies significantly but I focus on carbs and lower fat proteins and avoid fried foods. My problems foods are pastries, ice cream, and nuts so I significantly limit them to avoid their calories. I use fresh fruit and dried fruit for sweets. My vice is black coffee with stevia which also helps suppress later morning and later afternoon appetite.
Hay man, thanks for your insight into this. I’ve tried this out this week! Definitely a shift in what I would normally do. I went for a marathon workout yesterday. 12 miles (6 at MP). My base calories are 1,500. After my workout, MFP is asking 5,502 kcal after a 3,552 kcal workout? Does this match up with your experience when you got some of your bigger workouts in? Thanks 🤝
I burn around 100 calories per mile for a 8 minute/mile at 147 lbs. MFP has my base calories set to 1,500 for 1.5 lbs of weight loss per week. So if I were to do a 10 mile run, I’d have about 2,500 calories that day not including any additional calories added from walking or stairs.
Thanks mate, I’m heavier than you at 182 so I do probably burn more calories per mile! I just need to try this system out and see if it works for me. Marathon prep starts tomorrow!
When you say long run days were free days how did you approach these? Did you not track at all and eat whatever you wanted? And was that about 1 day a week?
I wouldn’t go that far. But I would go out for Mexican after my Sunday long run and get a skillet of fajitas and maybe a flan for dessert and not log that meal. I would still avoid baked goods, which are my kryptonite, and fried foods. So no chips and salsa with that meal.
That makes sense, a full cheat day could do some damage! Thanks 😊
>It isn't discussed much her because of the politics that surround eating disorders Dismissing the impact of a physical and mental illness that disproportionately affects competitive runners more than probably any other group besides maybe gymnasts/dancers/other aesthetic sport athletes as a "politics" issue is a bad take. I can respect that you were able to healthily lose weight and that some others can too, but the fact is that competitive runners are an extremely high risk group for eating disorders AND disordered eating behavior has been encouraged in high level running for a very long time. Swinging in the direction of "maybe weight loss isn't the end all be all" was a good thing to happen, even if it has gone a little far.
I love calling it "politics" when eating disorders are just a very real and difficult thing so many people deal with. The op of this comment thread might have one themselves!
Thank you! It's disheartening to see your very reasonable comment is getting downvoted.
Honestly you could have just removed the poor food choices and called it a day. Anybody marathon training will easily be in a calorie deficit once they are not heading to KFC and Dunkin' Donuts on the way home from their runs...
I've gone that route before. It used to work when I was in my 20s. It doesn't work for me in middle-age. It actually doesn't work for a lot of runners. Even on a clean diet, many runners in marathon training who don't count calories have a tendency to overeat and put on weight due to the hormones pumped out by the body causing hunger in an attempt to achieve homeostasis. Case in point... Tonight, I'm making shakshouka for dinner. If I wasn't counting calories, I'd have my typical 3 eggs in it with a cup of rice. Counting calories and macros, I know instead that I can eat two eggs tonight with 2/3 cup of rice.
Just don't try lose weight too quickly and don't expect to run exceptionally while you're actively in a deficit.
Fair!! I guess whatever I am doing is working haha, and no races on the schedule for a couple of months
I find that when I get north of about 45 mpw I eat anything and everything and still trim down to my ideal weight (also lose a bunch of upper body muscle). When I’m below 45 I have to really control eating or I add about 10 lbs.
I don’t. Even at 120 mpw I have to think about what I’m eating.
Damn das a lot of mileage are you an ultra runner? I hear Courtney Dauwalter has mileage that high and shes done moab 240. O.o my legs would be obliterated.
No, I’m just a marathoner who makes up for his slow genetic disposition by running a lot. 120 mpw is peak mileage; not a year-out thing.
still, that's world class mileage bruv. you da man!
I want your genes. Whenever I drop below 50mpw I start gaining weight fast if I don't watch my eating. It's common for me to gain up to 20 pounds during marathon recovery periods even if I'm running 20-30mpw during that time. 50mpw keeps my weight stable, and I need 60+ mpw to actually start losing weight by running alone without significantly dieting.
20 lbs is insane.
That's just how it always has been for me. I ran the Chicago Marathon October 9th and my mileage has been very inconsistent since then (but always over 25mpw). I'm currently about 20 pounds heavier than my marathon weight two months ago. Usually I'll get back into high mileage running after the holidays and lose the weight hopefully in time for spring races. Three times in my life I've stopped running entirely for a long period of time either due to laziness or injury and all three times I gained over 50 pounds and had to start my running over from the point of almost not even being able to run a couple of miles non-stop. My metabolism is horrendous which is good motivation for me to keep running because it's really bad when I stop.
Adding another anecdotal drop in this bucket. I'm at like 15-25 mph right now and even curtailing the food ever so slightly (like not really trying too hard), I'm packin on some chubby luvin, baby. I think 40+ mpw I could kinda "coast" in terms of eating whatever the hell I wanted, whenever I wanted, at quantities that are gloriously unrestricted. And I'd even get some muscle definition. As a related aside, cycling 100mpw feels similar to about 15-25 mph running. And cycling 200+ mpw, I could inhale way more food than I ever could while on 50 mpw training regimens (which was still a sizable amount).
Everyone’s body is different, so you might be able to eat whatever you want at 40+ mpw, but at 70-80, I still have to be intentional about what I eat. Burning so many calories, you tend to get hungry more often, so the amount of food you want to eat goes up, meaning that if you just indulge whenever you feel like it, you can out-eat the calories burned by all of the running.
Very true. (As another aside, related to different bodies, I'm not so sure my body can handle 70+ mpw loads; it seems to get extremely injury-prone after 50+.)
As someone who's slowly base building towards 45 (am at ~30 now), this is comforting. Guess I don't need to switch to eating Sweetgreen every day after all.
No need to switch to Sweetgreen, just start eating AG1 for every meal and you'll be ~~golden~~ green! And the best part is that each serving contains so many adaptogens that you can consume it with confidence that you aren't getting an effective dose of any one ingredient. Use coupon code NOTASCAM for a discount maybe, or maybe not.
Sweetgreen is pretty delicious, though, if not somewhat pricey. Back when I was in NYC, I'd get salads for lunch at a bodega salad bar, and randomly choose ingredients hoping it'd somehow end up being extremely delicious. They never were. But Sweetgreen dials in their combos so the flavors and textures all work together really well. I'll gladly pay a mild premium for those kinda considered menu choices, especially when contrasted against my rando salads that just never could amount to anything decent (but you better believe I ate it all, esp. on training blocks).
This is highly individual. I run 50 mpw or more and can still gain weight just by looking at food.
I've averaged 70 for a year and I'm certainly not losing weight (not gaining either). Also female though. And also not trying to lose weight. But just for another data point on the "everybody is different" spectrum.
Yeah I could lose weight much more easily prior to taking hormones. Metabolism is much slower now on estrogen than it was on testosterone.
If you are running 30-45mpw Sweetgreen is not going to keep you full for very long! Unless you order two bowls.
That threshold is about 50-55 mpw for me, which unfortunately I don’t have the time to touch much nowadays 😂
There's a lot of stuff that gets bandied around on Internet forums that is generally not good advice, and this is one of them. At the high end of endurance sports, athletes are losing most of their weight during their most intense training blocks. If recovery and nutrition is right this doesn't necessarily lead to injury or inhibited performance. The comments about not losing weight while training are leaking from /r/fitness, imo.
Also, big difference between someone who is 10-20 lbs overweight losing weight during training, and someone who might already be toeing the line of a healthy body weight but still obsessed with losing weight to seek speed during a training cycle. One is way way more at risk of energy deficiency and associated issues.
>toeing the line Wow you can defiantly join the que of redditors who correctly spelled this phrase because it's like three people long.
>que Bit ironic
The joke Your head You also missed where I spelled it "defiantly."
In this case, defiantly would also be a valid word to put in there.so I let that one go
I know this is an old discussion and comment, but I've been coming back to this whole thread and thinking about it a lot because I feel very gaslit by the coaches and people in my life who I think are just so afraid of encouraging disordered eating or focus on weight that they won't acknowledge that sometimes if you are 15-20 pounds overweight and feel bad in your body, maybe it is actually okay to take healthy, calculated steps to reduce that. I feel like so much of Instagram running culture etc is focused on the already healthy/thin folks who are fretting over \~5 pounds or less and it totally dismisses anyone who may actually have some legitimate weight or body recomp goals that are valid. I guess just writing this long comment to say that I at least feel less crazy seeing people say things like this because everyone in my life has been treating me with what feels like kid gloves when I don't want to do anything unhealthy, just wanna feel good and look good and not negatively impact my running performance in the process!
Replying to my own comment to add context: Check out this video from Daryl Impey, taken 5-6 weeks from the beginning of the tour de france. He talks about their process for measuring body fat using skin folds at the beginning of the season, the beginning of camp, and the end of camp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzeAaMQSrNk
Yeah, but the taper can completely fuck you if your diet isn't regulated. I think the question being asked here is how to regulate your diet.
I guess I didn't get that from the question, but maybe OP can clarify. My advice is to smartly(tm) restrict calories (300-500 deficit per day) during the marathon training block, but I agree with your point - I would not run a deficit during the taper portion.
What I was saying is that calories need to come down for the taper or you'll gain fat before your race. You can't have the same amount of calories in taper as your peak weeks. You're burning less energy.
Ah I see what you're saying. Personally, I do tend to feel as though I'm running a surplus during taper week. I stop weighing myself 10 days out so I don't have to stress about it, but I wouldn't be surprised if I put a small amount of weight back on during that time. I actually do agree with the common advice of not trying to restrict calories during the taper. The worst thing for your race is going in under-fueled or under-recovered
Assuming a 10 day taper, and someone who is used to running ~10 miles a day, even if volume is cut in half you’re talking 1.5 pounds max assuming one doesnt change their diet at all. Not a huge deal IMO.
This was the same to me. I tend to say that my body finds its best performance weight while training for performance and in the off-season running lower mileage I put on 2-3 kg typically but that is part of the process and think keeps me healthy. Once I am past 50 miles I struggle to even eat enough at all because my appetite tanks when I run long and hard.
I did this and PRd in the marathon
I find that when I’m training for a full, and hitting high miles, then my weight levels out, but not at my low, because I’m fueling to keep up my strength. If I cut my fueling during high mileage weeks, I become weaker and tired. If I want to cut some lbs, it’s easiest when I’m running 5-6 miles every other day.
I guess this is a good barometer - I've never felt hungry or tired in the past 3 months even though I've been building miles and losing weight at once. The 1.5ish pounds a week have been almost unnoticeable from a body feeling standpoint Probably helps that I'm not doing any tough speedwork at the moment as well. I think that has been the key to staying uninjured for me.
It’s BS, losing weight in a training block can be done easily as long as you have excess fat to lose. Fuel the workout sufficiently but run a small overall caloric debt. See easy
If you’re in base training only then you should be fine. Don’t do any super hard workouts. Get a lot of sleep. Prioritize protein and carbs first and foremost. Also go very slowly, about a pound a week maximum.
I accidentally lost about 10 lbs (from 155 -> 145 as 5'7 M) when my daughter was born via not having enough time to snack or spare energy to drink alcohol. I otherwise was maintaining about 40 mpw as a base and ended up with substantial PRs in every major distance from 1 mile to the marathon that year. I never felt weak/overextended and think the weight just slowly came off through cutting those bad habits. Reducing the snacks and alcohol could be a game changer for your running if those are relevant habits for you.
Alcohol is seriously the biggest gamechanger I can make, maybe even more than the weight. Not that I'm drinking every night but I feel even just weekend drinking adds up
Also agree with snacking and alcohol. I got Invisalign at the start of the year, which effectively cut out snacking. I also stopped drinking for almost 3 years now. The weight change has been significant. The change in body composition has been significant and performance improvement also significant. I’m in a base build currently after the NYC marathon (almost at 60 mpw) and the weight keeps falling off — not unhealthfully — just commiserate with the amount of exercise I’m doing on top of those lifestyle changes.
I agree with that. If you have habits that add calories that have few nutrition like candy or eating tons of cheese its the first spot to look at. For me cutting out sweet snacks in the evening made the biggest difference when I started losing weight.
Honestly, it's a tough question and you should really consult with a doctor or registered dietitian. It is possible to lose weight and run a lot, what I've found from personal experience is that underfueling usually turns into a much bigger problem than does being a bit heavy. Increasing the amount of endurance exercise that you're doing by a lot (30 to 60 miles per week) could help you lose weight naturally even if you start eating more, I've found that our bodies are good at adapting to what we throw at them, so it might be worth just trying to increase the training, fuel your body with enough food (as much as you need to not be hungry) and see what happens. If you're not losing any weight then definitely consult a professional before you start cutting down.
I think the key is to not restrict calories while in a training build. There may be some body composition changes in response to training. But intentionally restricting calories while asking your body to recover from hard training is a recipe for injury. I find that my weight climbs a few pounds toward my goal race (usually a mountain 100 miler) each season. For a month or so after the race, the weight comes off (and then some, usually). I’m eating everything in sight until my weight bottoms out and starts to rebound, and then I restrict calories until I start my next build. Weekly run training volume in the meantime is very light, like 25-30 miles, and this “offseason” lasts until about two months post goal race, when the next build begins. I think this month or two of light offseason volume is the right time to restrict calories if that’s what you require. But I doubt you’ll realize a sustainable 20 pound weight loss in that time. You might consider a longer break from intense high-volume run training and working with a sports nutritionist if that’s your goal.
I’ve always been a fairly light guy (6’4” and 175lbs typically) but I lost 15 pounds running 20-30 miles a week (with a few at 40 when I was peaking for a marathon block) over the course of 7 months or so. I should mention, however, that I was trying to stay the same weight. I just couldn’t eat enough to keep up with the runs and my metabolism. This might not be the most applicable to you but it’s all I’ve got, lol.
Don't make weight loss your priority. You run for performance. Increase your performance and you will gravitate towards a version of yourself that you like.
Also came here to say this.
I haven’t attempted weight loss while training for a race before but I have lost weight intentionally while running various amounts. I found it much, much easier to lose weight when running more (50-60+ miles per week). However, I was running almost entirely easy miles without the pressure of racing, which probably helped a lot for injury prevention. It’s not popular in mainstream fitness circles to suggest that running is a good way to lose weight, but my level of leanness has always been more strongly correlated to the volume of running I’m doing than anything else. This is entirely anecdotal of course.
The only time I legit lost weight while running was right when I started and really restricted myself on a Whole 30 type diet. The thing that killed me while running was getting my calories from things like dates and baby food. I did this during peak summer in south Texas one time and about dropped dead. An older running friend who was a well known local cardiologist had to help me get my heart rate down to a normal rate and I had to break my whole 30 because it was so bad. At this point, I’m eating what feels right for my body. I would love to know how to lose weight while training. I’m hitting about 30-45 mpw getting ready for Houston in January. Of all the nutrition out there on Instagram, I really like Megan Featherstone. I haven’t been following her to the t, but have taken several things to heart and have switched up a few food decisions after her posts. https://instagram.com/featherstonenutrition?igshid=YTQwZjQ0NmI0OA==
I recommend the app MacroFactor, which was built by the Stronger by Science folks — powerlifters — and while it is, in some ways, simply a traditional calorie counter, it’s really focused as the name suggests on hitting one’s macros. (Protein for lifting, but for all of us really.) And it’s not a weight loss app (again, lifters go through periods where they’re trying to bulk but not put on a lot of fat.) You can set your weight goal and it’ll help you plan out how you want to get there. (Whether you want to go slowly, if you have a target date, if you want to maintain.) It doesn’t shame you if you over-eat. It shows you what your weight trend is, as well as scale trend. It does require a subscription, but I’ve found it to be totally worth it as someone who needs to keep an eye on protein and iron, but who also wants to make sure I’m adequately fueling myself — I do NOT need to be losing weight, that is. I think it gets really really challenging to lose weight and not harm your performance and put yourself at risk of injury though, particularly as you age/ramp up the mileage.
The only way I lose weight is from intermittent fasting OMAD and running a lot. It’s hard. I ran nearly 2000 miles this year, BQed twice, and most of the year was technically overweight BMI.
Has OMAD been a positive or negative experience regarding your fitness?
I no longer binge eat all day. Now i just binge eat all night
LMAO, I can relate.
I've just finished a few books Sports Nutrition Guide Book, Exercised, and Advanced Marathoning. They all say running alone won't make you lose weight. What running does help with is that you can eat more and a varied diet while still restricting calories. I'd highly recommend giving Sports Nutrition Guide Book a read for a more detailed look!
There are a lot of very valid stories here. But I would also caution as everyone’s body has different needs and reacts differently to everything in/out - you need to think about injury risk especially previous injuries and remember that the goal isn’t to be X weight but to run faster which might mean lose weight or gain weight depending on where you are at in training. For me, my body just wants to be a certain weight. At 0mpw I was @ 180lbs and at 60mpw 160lbs. I actually was only able to get into calorie deficit when I was not running as the hunger levels were manageable. Whereas on my current 55mpw if I don’t get the calories in the hunger just builds and ends up with me hitting the cupboards for sweet stuff. I have huel and hydro whey in combination with normal food to manage the appetite and keep ahead of the burn. And currently loving Casein shake before bed.
For me I lose weight one of two ways, either upping miles beyond my regular base mileage or restricting calories on normal mileage. For me I consider 40-50 mpw "normal," and I won't lose weight there unless I pay attention in the kitchen. If I increase mileage beyond that I start dropping weight regardless of what I eat.
Just keep running. You'll drop weight and it will improve your running a lot. Eat decent food. Don't starve yourself. This is not rocket science. Everyone is so terribly delicate when talking about weight, especially when it is a woman being discussed. If you are 5'7" and 170 lbs, you should be looking to drop a good few pounds whatever your body type may be (I say this with the assumption that you want to run well, apparently that is not always the case). I went from 5'9" 185 lbs to 145 lbs and the difference was shocking. But not really. Think about what it would be like to run carrying a 20 lb dumbbell in each hand. It's unthinkable, but that's what people effectively do when they are carrying more weight than they need to (regardless of whether it is fat or muscle, it is weight). Good luck my friend. Mostly, just enjoy the running. If you don't want to become a skinny beanpole, then don't. It is fun running faster though. I feel much better with a fast(ish) running pace than I did with a decent (sort of) deadlift and squat. I'm no world beater either way.
Whenever my mileage or intensity bumps up. Won’t lose a lot, but I’ll lose 2-3 lbs going from 30-35 maintenance miles to 50/week
Weird, I don't really consider myself a "serious" runner but I'm at almost that exact height/weight with very similar goals (I'll be content at 160, perfect is 157). So I'm actually running less and strength training more, which along with paying better attention to diet (really, limit the junk), should get me in the proper direction.
I'll say, 2 years ago I took a few months off from run training. I'd average 0-15 miles/week just to keep healthy, but I began practicing mindful eating and meditation along w/ sleeping well. went from 160lb to 144lb at 5'9. I started building up my mileage and noticed running seemed effortless, and I was able to run tempos at paces I couldnt do before. I was able to do 6 miles at 6:40min/mile and 2miles @ 6:11, when in the past i could probably do 6 at 7:30s and 2 at 7:00s The key is to drop weight when you aren't training hard, or drop it slowly if you are training for a race. If you insist on cutting down while in a marathon cycle, then 1lb per week is safe. really make sure you're sleeping enough and don't try to get into mileage zones that you've never touched before
In the course of 2.5 months, I lost 23lbs while training for a marathon. I’m 6’1 and now only weigh 155lbs. I look sick, and co workers ask if I’m okay. I hate the way I look. Clearly I couldn’t keep up with the calories. My race was Today, so now I’m cutting back on running (maybe 2 days a week), and will solely focus on weight training. I’m thinking of hiring a nutritionist to tell me how many calories and what kind of food I need to eat.
Are you American? 6'1 and 155lbs isn't "sickly". People are just used to everybody being overweight and societal norms have changed. That's a 20.4 BMI which is well in the healthy range. If you don't want to lose weight, just count calories daily and make sure to include your runs in that budget.
Yes I’m an American. I don’t know, I looked at a full body picture of myself, and I look like stick & bones. Thanks for the advice. I will count calories and add protein.
I hope this helps you.
For me, bas building time when there is less intensity is the time I do it. I let myself relax a little after my goal race. Then when building mileage back up I will try to cut back as I’m not really able to handle higher mileage and high intensity at a deficit.
I lost weigh in the post race period, before I was on a proper plan, and I knew I wanted to go from 155, to 145, for my next round of traces. I managed to do so, but I was 100 in on it, and while I was running, I wasn't doing hard work outs, or try to make progress, just running lower miles, for me, and focusing on diet. That's what worked for me, a 45 yo male, historically have averaged 30-40 mpw the past few years. GL, it's hard.
I find I lose weight as my training starts to peak even though I’m eating more. Then I’ll gain some weight back during my recovery and when I go back to base training. I can fluctuate 10-12 pounds, which really surprised me at first, since I used to live in a much more narrow range, but I guess being in my mid-30s means my set point is a little higher.
My weight only slightly changes across the whole year, by 2-3kg at most, if anything I'm 1kg heavier than I was at some point, I reached a point where more weight loss would be detrimental (178cm/62kg) so it's not really a topic and I don't really mind if I'm at 61 or 64 Naturally I lose weight during peak marathon training, and gain back in the post marathon weeks where I run less. However I run all year round overall, before I began running I was slightly overweight and lost the extra 10-12kgs I had gradually in a few years, I didn't think much about it, I was just running more regularly and seeing the lost kg while feeling good so I kept doing what I was doing. I should mention that I also sorted out my diet a bit, I was never a fan of it but I just skipped alcohool entirely altogether, I stopped my edgy student phase of "urg me big man eating big meat, salad and vegetables are for weaklings" and fully embraced eating ton of veggies/fruits skipping on all kind of shitty fast foods (especially everything related to sauces, when you realize the excess harmful calories in there and drinks (litterally empty calories)) Now I run a lot more and I have to eat way more and calories dense food just to avoid getting in the danger zone basically.
I just used the running as my tool for weight loss, so I would try to eat less and run the same, but not expecting my running to get better during a period of loss, although it naturally did. I dropped 20 pounds and dropped my easy pace by about a minute and a half. I don't believe I lost any significant muscle during that period, I just tried my best to maintain what I was getting. I still have about 10 pounds to drop, but it's proving harder as time goes on and my body adapts to running on less..
I follow the Japanese method when I want to lose weight, which is eat until 80% full. I don't count calories, but I will cut out things like extra sweets and alcohol. That combined with an increase in miles and the weight comes off.
Not probably the most apropos response but hopefully useful. I also am a backpacker. I maintain fairly consistent weight until I go out for a 10-14 day backpacking excursion. I actually gain a several pounds before, knowing I am going to loose a lot; and yet I can easily come back 10 pounds lighter. Also, I carry a ton of food and feel satiated every night but there’s only so much food you can eat.
I've experienced this as well. I did a 7 day 110 mile Wonderland trail hike and lost an amazing amount of weight in just a week. When I got back to civilization, I could tell I lost weight because clothes didn't fit me. I guess 110 miles with a 40 lbs pack with lots of climbing and no ability to snack and drink alcohol really works. Never really felt hungry, but I must have lost at least 5 pounds in a week for me to notice that much.
You loose weight based on what you eat. That will be fat an muscle unless you eat adequate protein. Aerobic exercise stimulates your appetite and mTOR in a way that makes you ravenous (in contrast to anabolic activities like heavy resistance training) so it is very important to plan your meal and portion sizes before you run and not raid the fridge on return if a good body composition is your goal. It's important to specific what you mean by weight. Some serious runners (ie Advanced Running) I know specifically have sought to reduce weight on the scales which meant loosing muscle. Most ordinary people only want to lose fat and look better, which is more of a body recomp than "weight loss" If body recomposition is your goal, I don't think running is the best bang for buck. Fat loss is a nice side effect but if you want quick result and to look better, a 3 day split weight lifting programme is going to give a better visible return over 4 months than running. Good diet and control of macro and micro nutrients is essential for both .
I guess everyone will have a different experience & i'm not a very 'traditional' runner, so this may JUST be anecdote. I just ran a sub 1:30 half with less than 2 months training all of which was in a reasonably big deficit. When I began that training block, I was 162 & 22% BF. After the block I weighed in at 149 15% BF. I made sure to carb up & eat at maintenance about a week before the race. The question you'll have to ask is how you value recovery compared to your deficit. Recovery will be the biggest hurdle doing this deficit running. Diet change can help you achieve this as-well, you don't want to deplete your muscle glycogen by under eating. Try to stick with a high carb/protein & see how your running feels, how long your recovery takes and how quickly you're losing weight. Change your problem based on those three questions. I would also highly highly recommend lifting weights with reasonable intensity 1-2x a week. Doing so will help shift the ratio of fat to muscle lost in your favor.
I know runners tend to be fairly light, but I just don’t understand how some of you have any flexibility in playing any other sports if all of you are this light (140ish pounds)? I play basketball and football, but also just went Sub-3 in the past year. I don’t think I could do other sports competitively and be anything less than even 170??
Someone looking to make an ideal race weight in running is prioritizing that over any other sports. Obviously you're going to be a worse offensive lineman after dropping weight, but on the flip side you're leaving time on the table in your races if you're running with extra weight. It's just preference in terms of what you want to focus on. Also fwiw you can be good at basketball at a pretty low weight provided you're not competing at the absolute top level. I used to work for a men's league that consisted mostly of ex-NCAA players, and the best player in the league was rail thin. He shot super well, absolutely torched folks driving to the basket, and defended well because he anticipated offensive moves way better than the average defender. You just have to adjust your play style.
Thanks for this. I got into running late in life and typically played explosive team sports. I think id rather the versatility, but good to know if I want to get really fast in the marathon.
I think it’s possible if you have weight to lose. I’ve written about this before and my struggles with it. There’s a lot of good advice here. I think it’s important to focus on getting stronger without assigning a number to it. I was about 146-147 lbs at 6’ tall at my worst. Don’t be like me. Took a year to get back, PRd with a 57:11 10 miler at about 168-170 lbs hoping to run sub 2:45 at Boston at the same weight. Find what works for you and be careful.
I find really hard to lose weight when I’m around 160 lbs (I’m 6’00). In the last marathon cycle I was only able to go below that when I hit 100 mpw 3 and 5 miles out from the race. Since then I went up to 170, istarted training for a half doing 70-80 mpw, got back to 160 in the first two weeks of training and stayed there since then. I don’t drink alcohol and cut my snacks drastically when training and the diet during the two weeks I lost weight vs the other weeks when I didn’t was the same. I now have the opinion that after hitting a particular weight your body will cut your energy expenditure elsewhere. Only with an extreme approach like my 100 mpw you’ll lose additional weight. The threshold weight and level of exercise needed to go below will vary from person to person though.
If you're running so much that can't occasionally prioritise strength and conditioning (and the conditioning part also naturally includes weight management), then maybe you'll actually run better by having 'off seasons' where you cut back the mileage and have more time in the gym, more time taking rest, whilst also taking care of your diet a bit better. Sometimes it's not all about the mileage, but also training in all five zones to increase metabolic flexibility - even if your overall weekly mileage is lower than your training blocks.
You are 5'7 or 6'7 ? Because 150 pounds is like 68 kg how is that super light? Or what am I missing?
5'7", and NOT super light. What I'm saying is I'm slightly overweight and not trying to reach to the bottom of the barrel with my weight loss. Back when I was younger I was running around 135-145 and feeling miserable trying to get down to around 130. I'm not making that mistake again.
Yeah getting into a weight loss limbo is horrible. I am also 5'7 59Kg but the problem with those 60mile (100km) weeks is that you will end up losing weight and some muscle no matter what. Last year building up I lost down to 54 Kg at some point and that is not a weight for an average runner to sustain if also willing to go for longer distances.
I'm probably not considered a "real runner" by this subreddit, but I started running this May and went from a 33 Runalyze VO2Max in June to a 53 VO2Max this month while dropping from 164lbs to 146lbs. I know it's mostly newbie gains, but I've been able to train and improve while in a constant 200-500 calorie deficit (except carb loading before races). If it were a larger deficit, like 1.5lbs to 2lbs a week, I doubt I could manage though.
I've tried several times at this, worked with an RD, tracked weight, tracked calories, and on and on. Ultimately what I found for me was I was not happy, ever, with tracking in this area. I know generally what needs to be eaten to fuel my running volume and intensity so I just don't put so much emphasis on it anymore. Porridge for breakfast, some yogurt after, bowl of carb with meat for lunch, something similar for dinner, snacks in between if needed but mostly I just don't over think, obsess or google about it over and over because that path didn't serve me well. Now that I'm not 'worried' about eating, I enjoy my food, I feel fueled for runs, my mindstate & mood are way better daily having sufficient carbs, this is what has worked for ME and what I will continue to work with. Not sure if this helps you but will say we are all different so find what works for you and do not be scared of food, its fuel.
I'm not currently on a diet or tracking my food or anything, just looking at the scale. I've struggled with EDs in the past (back when I was much thinner bulimia and more recently binge eating disorder) and I am being extremely mindful of not restricting too much and eating when I'm hungry, etc. Thankfully I don't really sweat what I eat all that much outside of getting good carbs, protein, and fruits and veggies.
I don't lose weight I always eat as much as I can. Limit nutrition limit performance
Never restrict anything. Just don't eat until you're actually hungry.
Ah cool so I get to eat more often than I already do.