Runners Only - Dieting while training

Thanks

msebring — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 16:29:08 -0300

Thanks you guys! I will work on what you both suggested....and I will try and be patient and not expect to wake up 10lbs lighter :-)

re:other tactics

mr_caffeine — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 04:15:35 -0300

Great advice sarahbees! I do a lot of that and would eat more whole grains if I were in charge of my diet. As it is, we live in the boonies in Japan and whole grains aren't as available as they were in the States.

Using small dinner plates is a great idea and that is something we do too. Also, in regards to keeping the majority of the carbs to breakfast and lunch, that too.

I was just talking about this with a friend because I have had the same experience. I have been loosing weight VERY SLOWLY. My friend brought up the point that after a while your body gets more effecient and it just takes fewer calories to do the same things.

Zen Runner said that sometimes you have to shake things up by letting your guard down once in a while to make your body think that it doesn't have to guard it's fat reserves so much.

I think that if you can do it, doing a LONG slow run every couple of weeks is also a kick starter. Running extra long (time wise) will give you a jump ahead as it burns extra calories. I always find that I'm permenantly down in weight after a really long run or a race.

other tactics

sarahbees — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:25:31 -0300

I didn't gain, but stopped losing weight despite running a lot and being ravenously hungry all the time.

I've been able to lose weight very slowly and decrease my body fat by using a lot of the tactics mentioned above, plus I moved more carbs to breakfast versus later in the day, increased protein for appetite control.

-plain greek yogurt with low sugar granola for breakfast

-less grains/breads the rest of the day and whole grain mostly

-added pm snack when working - fruit plus peanut butter or protein bar (forze gps bars seem to work better with respect to satiety for me but much less calories). keeps me from freaking out and eating bad snacks, eating out, skipping after work workouts or gorging on dinner. I dont get home from work till 7p so dinner is unaviodably late

-big glass of water before lunch + dinner

-small / 10 inch dinner plate, with giant salad bowl (salad boat!) on side

-i dont prefuel any runs but i will eat a gel plus/minus sports drink during run if its well over an hour, and i drink chocolate milk after

Fueling your Long Runs

mr_caffeine — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 03:56:18 -0300

If you are running longer than 1.5 hours then you probably should have some extra calories during your run.

Now it may be a condition effect, but I know that the first 2+ hour long run I did just killed me for the rest of the day. The next time I brought along some sports drink and I wasn't nearly as fatigued after the run. Which motivated me to get out there and run again.

But seriously, exercise makes you hungry. Then you just have to go into diet mode and use all the tricks of the trade to fight the hunger. Don't starve yourself but figure out ways to control your hunger.

Some ways that I try are

drinking water before eating
eating veggies or fruits first
eating slowly
simply trying to eat less
mind games (repeating a mantra "No thank you, I'm full.")

I have a friend who was successful by cutting out the big carbs from his diet. No bread or rice (we live in Japan). That of course means no carby/starchy snacks either. I asked him where he was getting his energy from. He replied that there are carbs in most veggies and fruits and that's enough. Not what I learned in school where I was taught to eat mostly carbs but if it works....

msebring — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:05:38 -0300

I dont usually have much before my long runs, I dont like runnining full, but I will watch the afterwards "I earned it" eating, I may be doing that without knowing it. I know after my longer runs (2 1/2 to 3 hours I am starving) so may not be making the best choices. Thanks!!

Re: dieting while training

mr_caffeine — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 05:20:34 -0300

It is very easy to gain weight even though you are running and working out.

Other than just trying not to over eat in general there are other things that might be tripping you up.

Unless you are running for more than an hour and a half (90 minutes) you DON'T NEED TO FUEL up before your run. That means you don't need anything like Gatorade or another sports drink. Water should be fine. Your body has enough glycogen in the muscles to fuel most of your workouts and it will use fat stores as well while you run. When you run out of glycogen in the muscles, then you start using fat stores more intensely (after about 60 to 90 minutes of excercise).

You don't burn as many calories as you might think and it is extremely easy to take in more calories than you burn. Especially if you fall into the habit of pre-fueling your run or eating more because you think you've "earned it".

Also, you don't need to carbo load before a long run. Steve Born of Hammer Nutrition says that carbo loading is not what you do before the race, it is what you do day in and day out after your hard workouts.

You'll see this said again and again, refueling soon after your workout is best. Just be careful that you take that post workout calorie intake into consideration when you sit down to your next meal. Better yet, plan your runs so that you finish them right before a meal, like breakfast.