How Did I Gain Weight Training for a Marathon?
Yesterday Kristen told you why she stopped going to Weight Watchers. I, however, need to get back to it.
During my marathon training I, amazingly enough, gained about 10 pounds. Some of that is due to my missing two of the last three weeks in my training plan (thanks, knee) but most of it is just due to my eating everything in sight.
You might remember the Biggest Loser a couple of seasons ago when Daris was home training for his marathon…they showed video of him eating like crazy, and he had a great moment where he told the camera that he just couldn’t control it. That resonated with me then, and does even more so now that I understand how crazy marathon training can feel.
On my long run days I was burning SO many calories that I could…had to…eat a lot of food. Unfortunately, at a certain point that triggered my “eat everything” mode and carried over to every day, running or not. So I’d just eat and eat and eat, all the way through the week – healthy food, junky food, the kids’ snacks, whatever I could find.
I’d reverted back to my old ways, and it was so easy to justify it.
I was a little annoyed at Bob and Jillian when they yelled at Daris for gaining weight (especially after he killed that marathon), and I’m even more annoyed now. I don’t think they really understood what the marathon training was going to do to trigger his eating.
Anyway, he got back to it and so am I. He had the support of the show, I have Weight Watchers. Fortunately, by stripping off practically all my clothes, I didn’t have to pay last month. And now I’m back to eating healthy foods, going through the detox again, and waiting for the cravings to go away become tolerable. Along with the exercising I know I’ll see results.
But it’s hard.
How about you? Are you making eating changes during this Ripped in 30 Challenge?
I have run two marathons and while training for the first one my weight went down because I was working two jobs, eating healthy and training. But while training for the second one I definitely gained weight. I attribute this to eating whatever I wanted thinking I would just run it off. Didn’t work! But after a few months I was able to drop the extra 10 pounds or so and was back to normal again. You can get it back Bill! Plus you won’t lose all that endurance you built up! Congrats on the marathon!
Man, I’m really hating the detox. I swear that I feel much more hungover, slow-witted, distracted, and generally grumpy now than after the few beers that SHOULD have made me feel like crap! I used to feel satisfyingly full after a nice burger or something, but now the thought of one turns my stomach – so I’ll have an apple and feel starving rather than satisfied.
I haven’t run a marathon, but last year when I did 5 half-marathons, a 6-hour endurance event (as a duo), and the 18.something miles in 2 days for “The Relay” I definitely gained weight! It was easy to, because I ate when my body screamed to eat.
Really hoping to find a balance where I’m exercising enough to make a difference, and then eating enough to properly fuel and keep myself comfortable, but not so much that I gain weight!
I know you can do it, Bill. And so can I.
I have this EXACT problem – I hit my goal in December 2010 and then started training for a 1/2 Marathon (and have been training for some sort of race since that time). And I have gained back about 10 pounds. I think realistically I could lose about 5 pounds but I definitely have to cut back on the near constant snacking and eating. In this month’s Runner’s World there was something really interesting about eating and what constantly grazing does to your appetite:
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/1,7120,s6-242-304–13860-0,00.html
(#5 is where it talks about grazing). I am soooo guilty of thinking “I ran 20 miles this week – I can have 20 cookies this week!!!” as well as eating nonstop.
I’m 4 weeks into my training plan for my first ever half-marathon and carbs have found me in a big way! I’ve only gained a couple of lbs so far but with 10 weeks to go until race day I know I need to cut back on muffins and stick to the healthy carbs as part of a balanced eating plan. I don’t want to be hefting an extra 10lbs around on that 13 mile run!
Throughout my 20’s and 30’s I ran regularly, sometimes a lot. I ran lots of half marathons and exactly one torturous marathon in 2001. I always believed that the more I ran, the thinner I would be but it never worked out like that. Looking back I can’t believe that I never made the connection that running long distance made me crazy hungry and I would always inevitably eat more than I burned, even when I was doing 20 milers.
There was a great article in Time Magazine in 2009 that explains why exercise can make it trickier to lose weight: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857,00.html
Since I read that, I have tried to exercise between 30-45 minutes doing all sorts of things (not just running) which I’ve found is usually enough to burn calories and build general fitness but not trigger that crazy hungry feeling where you have no control over what you eat. In other words, exercising less means it is easier to eat less. It’s my latest theory anyway