Running and Weight Gain :(

[pts]

SO, in the past few weeks I have been running 5ish k (sometimes more, sometimes less) about 3X a week. And now I am of course gaining weight (about 3 pounds up from 3 weeks ago). I know I am eating more, and I knew that I would be hungrier and potentially gain once I started running (since I am one of those run and gain weight types) but I am grumpy. It seems if I don't run (but still be active walking, hiking and carrying G around everywhere) then I lose, as soon as I put running in the mix, i gain.

[abhainn]

I'm like that too. I've never lost weight with running as part of my routine. The best weight loss success I had was when I was walking for about an hour a day 4-5 days a week.

[Kelodie]

I'm like that too. I keep my weight stable or I gain weight when I consistently run. The only way I can lose weight is by being sick for a while. Then, running helps me keep the weight off.

ETA: I don't think you'll gain a lot of weight from running. Your body probably needs to adjust and then you'll stop gaining.

[pts]

I'm like that too. I keep my weight stable or I gain weight when I consistently run. The only way I can lose weight is by being sick for a while. Then, running helps me keep the weight off.

ETA: I don't think you'll gain a lot of weight from running. Your body probably needs to adjust and then you'll stop gaining.

I hope my body adjusts and I stop. I was at my lowest weight since about 3rd year Uni (when I was working out a tonne). And now I am just putting it all back on!

[ROW]

Honestly I would think it would be in your head, thinking you need to eat more. Thats only 15km a week. You don't need any extra calories for running that much. I maybe understand for someone running over 50km a week, and definatley understand with someone running 100km a week. But with 5km your burning 300-500 calories depending on your weight, thats not that much. When I wasn't injured I was running around 30km a week and was only eating 2500 calories a day and losing weight, so it's pretty much you just telling your body you need more calories, when you don't need it.

[pts]

Honestly I would think it would be in your head, thinking you need to eat more. Thats only 15km a week. You don't need any extra calories for running that much. I maybe understand for someone running over 50km a week, and definatley understand with someone running 100km a week. But with 5km your burning 300-500 calories depending on your weight, thats not that much. When I wasn't injured I was running around 30km a week and was only eating 2500 calories a day and losing weight, so it's pretty much you just telling your body you need more calories, when you don't need it.

ROW- I used to run 50k weeks too, so I know how many calories I burn right now at 15k a week. However, bodies are tricky in that they sometimes send signals that you are "hungry" when you increase/change your exercise regime.

[ROW]

Honestly I would think it would be in your head, thinking you need to eat more. Thats only 15km a week. You don't need any extra calories for running that much. I maybe understand for someone running over 50km a week, and definatley understand with someone running 100km a week. But with 5km your burning 300-500 calories depending on your weight, thats not that much. When I wasn't injured I was running around 30km a week and was only eating 2500 calories a day and losing weight, so it's pretty much you just telling your body you need more calories, when you don't need it.

ROW- I used to run 50k weeks too, so I know how many calories I burn right now at 15k a week. However, bodies are tricky in that they sometimes send signals that you are "hungry" when you increase/change your exercise regime.

Yeah thats true too. Haha sorry.

[Irongirl]

Honestly I would think it would be in your head, thinking you need to eat more. Thats only 15km a week. You don't need any extra calories for running that much. I maybe understand for someone running over 50km a week, and definatley understand with someone running 100km a week. But with 5km your burning 300-500 calories depending on your weight, thats not that much. When I wasn't injured I was running around 30km a week and was only eating 2500 calories a day and losing weight, so it's pretty much you just telling your body you need more calories, when you don't need it.

ROW- I used to run 50k weeks too, so I know how many calories I burn right now at 15k a week. However, bodies are tricky in that they sometimes send signals that you are "hungry" when you increase/change your exercise regime.

that's the key though - our bodies are just tricking us. (I say us - because I'm with ya, sister!)

I try to remind myself that it takes 3500 calories burned (i.e. more than I ate) to lose a pound. Therefore - if I run 3-5km....I really don't need anything extra - even if my body tells me that I do!

ETA: eep, that's big. I find the bold doesn't stand out on here....so, that was the best way to highlight those words!

[pts]

Honestly I would think it would be in your head, thinking you need to eat more. Thats only 15km a week. You don't need any extra calories for running that much. I maybe understand for someone running over 50km a week, and definatley understand with someone running 100km a week. But with 5km your burning 300-500 calories depending on your weight, thats not that much. When I wasn't injured I was running around 30km a week and was only eating 2500 calories a day and losing weight, so it's pretty much you just telling your body you need more calories, when you don't need it.

ROW- I used to run 50k weeks too, so I know how many calories I burn right now at 15k a week. However, bodies are tricky in that they sometimes send signals that you are "hungry" when you increase/change your exercise regime.

Yeah thats true too. Haha sorry.

No need to apologize, I wish my body thought as logically as you do!

[Tori]

Would logging your food help? When writing food intake down you have to really think about what you are eating or over eating.

[pts]

Would logging your food help? When writing food intake down you have to really think about what you are eating or over eating.

I know people say logging is not a lot of "work" but I find it to be (and right now I need to only do 'work' that leads to me graduating or getting paid).

I think what was the kicker is that D bought a whole bunch of "junk" for the babysitter (seriously, does a babysitter need 2 packages of fudge-o's, nachos, and cheesies?). And that I have allowed myself to get a treat with my coffee. I will start by cutting out the treat with the coffee, and not allowing junk in the house. Ever notice that when you eat junk, you feel like crap (seriously, I felt so sick because of cheesies this weekend), but then you just keep eating junk??

[Irongirl]

Would logging your food help? When writing food intake down you have to really think about what you are eating or over eating.

I know people say logging is not a lot of "work" but I find it to be (and right now I need to only do 'work' that leads to me graduating or getting paid).

I think what was the kicker is that D bought a whole bunch of "junk" for the babysitter (seriously, does a babysitter need 2 packages of fudge-o's, nachos, and cheesies?). And that I have allowed myself to get a treat with my coffee. I will start by cutting out the treat with the coffee, and not allowing junk in the house. Ever notice that when you eat junk, you feel like crap (seriously, I felt so sick because of cheesies this weekend), but then you just keep eating junk??

I eat the junk so that I get it out of the house.

[Kelodie]

Ever notice that when you eat junk, you feel like crap (seriously, I felt so sick because of cheesies this weekend), but then you just keep eating junk??

The beauty of it is that when you don't eat junk, you don't want to eat it either.

[ultraslacker]

Ever notice that when you eat junk, you feel like crap (seriously, I felt so sick because of cheesies this weekend), but then you just keep eating junk?? :x

The beauty of it is that when you don't eat junk, you don't want to eat it either. :wink:

for some people. not others. :)

[turd ferguson]

I've heard from a bunch of people, and experienced it myself, that ramping up mileage causes you to go up in weight before you go down.

People say on the first of January "I'm going to work out this year and lose weight", the first thing they do is start building muscle, and weight goes up rather than down.

I certainly found that this year when I ramped up my mileage starting on Jan 1. It took about 6 weeks before the pounds started falling off (and that's with a reasonably steady diet).

But even before the pounds started falling off, I could feel and see my shape changing.

[abhainn]

Ever notice that when you eat junk, you feel like crap (seriously, I felt so sick because of cheesies this weekend), but then you just keep eating junk??

The beauty of it is that when you don't eat junk, you don't want to eat it either.

for some people. not others.

+1

And I feel the same whether I eat crap or not *sigh* so that's not a motivation not to eat junk.

[ultraslacker]

I've heard from a bunch of people, and experienced it myself, that ramping up mileage causes you to go up in weight before you go down.

People say on the first of January "I'm going to work out this year and lose weight", the first thing they do is start building muscle, and weight goes up rather than down.

I certainly found that this year when I ramped up my mileage starting on Jan 1. It took about 6 weeks before the pounds started falling off (and that's with a reasonably steady diet).

But even before the pounds started falling off, I could feel and see my shape changing.

But I thought running doesn't build enough muscle mass to make that weight increase.

I just started ramping up a few weeks ago, and I definitely feel hungrier. I'm trying not to eat more. Even now, sitting here, I've eaten a reasonable breakfast and lunch (and treat), and I'm not hungry, but I want to eat. I definitely think that increased mileage contributes to that... the hard part is not giving in to the desire to ramp up our calorie intake. :)

[turd ferguson]

I've heard from a bunch of people, and experienced it myself, that ramping up mileage causes you to go up in weight before you go down.

People say on the first of January "I'm going to work out this year and lose weight", the first thing they do is start building muscle, and weight goes up rather than down.

I certainly found that this year when I ramped up my mileage starting on Jan 1. It took about 6 weeks before the pounds started falling off (and that's with a reasonably steady diet).

But even before the pounds started falling off, I could feel and see my shape changing.

But I thought running doesn't build enough muscle mass to make that weight increase.

It better.

I'm not talking overmuscled freakshow here, just a few pounds of muscle. Enough to offset the modest weight losses that you'd see in a few weeks of a running program.

As in keep your eating steady, run 30 km, drop a pound of fat and add a pound of muscle. The scale says nothing's changed but its not true. Do that for 4 weeks, you're much fitter but the scale is still lying to you. But then you stop adding muscle and start dropping pounds.

[Jwolf]

I would be surprised if you can actually build muscle that quickly. I certainly wouldn't expect that running 15K/week would cause significant muscle gain. It definitely doesn't happen after running 30K (and it takes 35 MILES to lose a pound of fat-- that would be one month of running 15K/week).

One change that does happen is that our bodies become better at storing water, which can make a difference in apparent weight gain.

The other thing to remember is how much hormonal changes affect weight gain and loss. This is significant after women give birth and while we are nursing, and in general female hormones make it more difficult for some women to lose weight.

My personal experience is that the hungry feeling when increasing activity level is real, and we simply need to train our brains to eat less. I say "simply"-- it's not easy but it's not complicated.

[turd ferguson]

It definitely doesn't happen after running 30K (and it takes 35 MILES to lose a pound of fat).

Damn you, metric system. I knew that didn't sound right when I was writing it.

[babysteps]

It definitely doesn't happen after running 30K (and it takes 35 MILES to lose a pound of fat).

Damn you, metric system. I knew that didn't sound right when I was writing it.

No kidding. I WISH it were true in metric!

I find my appetite increases whenever I move off a plateau too, where ever that plateau may be. Right now, breaking the 40k per week mark has me hungry pretty much all the time. I also find if my LSDs go over 18k my appetite is through the roof the next 2 days. It's so hard not to eat when you're hungry, even when you know you don't really need the food. My hungry brain doesn't like to listen to my logical brain.

[randomgirl]

UGH!

I too am a gainer when I run - put on 30lbs while training for a half marathon a couple of years ago I logged my food for a while, and realized that I wasn't eating that much more - but that my times for eating had changed. Since I needed to run after work for three hours or so, I'd eat a big lunch, then just have a sandwich or something when I got back from my run (often a 9pm).

I have a guess about what happened - I think my body likes routine. So when I upset that routine, I "scared" it - it wasn't certain about the next meal, and it "knew" I'd have chunks of huge energy expenditure. I am thinking that this caused it to go into "storage" mode - it wanted to store as much energy (as fat) as possible, just in case I had a huge energy expenditure or in case I didn't eat one night or something.

May be crazy, but I am convinced this is what happened!

I am determined now to keep my Kms down for a looooong time so that my body can get used to it all!


RG

[Engmomma]

I have no andedotal proof that this works or not. Could you try adding in interval training to your 5k run?

Your body may have become efficent at the 5k steady but a 5k interval will certainly up the heart rate. Also adding in some weight training may help.

For me the cardio just isn't enough. I need the all round conditioning to drop the pounds. (I say that like I actually do it in practice )

[pts]

I have no andedotal proof that this works or not. Could you try adding in interval training to your 5k run?

Your body may have become efficent at the 5k steady but a 5k interval will certainly up the heart rate. Also adding in some weight training may help.

For me the cardio just isn't enough. I need the all round conditioning to drop the pounds. (I say that like I actually do it in practice )

Oh, I could try that (the interval training). In terms of weight bearing stuff, I get enough carrying G around I think. Actually, I am pretty sure that is why I was at my lowest weight since I had last been a "gym bunny" in uni.

[La]

I have no andedotal proof that this works or not. Could you try adding in interval training to your 5k run?

Your body may have become efficent at the 5k steady but a 5k interval will certainly up the heart rate. Also adding in some weight training may help.

For me the cardio just isn't enough. I need the all round conditioning to drop the pounds. (I say that like I actually do it in practice )

Oh, I could try that (the interval training). In terms of weight bearing stuff, I get enough carrying G around I think. Actually, I am pretty sure that is why I was at my lowest weight since I had last been a "gym bunny" in uni.

See, that's the thing - your body gets "used" to certain activities and activity levels, so if it hasn't already, it will get used to you carrying G around and not consider that to be strenuous.

Variety and mixing things up (to keep your body guessing what's coming next) is usually an effective way of ensuring you don't hit a plateau.