Interesting post that I've been following for a few days as I too gained about 5-7 lbs training for my IM last year and can't do a damn thing to get it to come off despite the fact that my training (and eating) have been curtailed - though still am working out 10-14 hrs/week.

Anyway, I had a doc appt today with an endocrinologist to whom I complained about my weight and my inability to get it to come off. She suggested I try Alli and said she's had moderate success with patients who have tried it. She said that for someone like me who was working out a lot and eating pretty well (wicked sugar tooth - but when taken into consideration with the general american public I eat INCREDIBLY well) sometimes Alli worked to "jump start" the system and she's seen people like me lose that 5-7lbs that just won't seem to come off despite doing everything else right.

I'll admit that I've always been very skeptical of weightloss drugs but she's a Harvard MD, Brigham and Women's residency - so a really smart doc and she does understand what being an athlete is all about. So I bought some today and am going to give it a whirl in addition to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I'm keeping my fingers crossed cause as someone with no thyroid there's not a whole lot I can do to increase my metabolism. As always - "consult your doctor before beginning any new exercise or diet routine."

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http://smallfoodbiz.com
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Make sure you read up on the side effects of Alli. You may want to start the drug on a day when you don't have to leave the house.
http://community.myalli.com/forums/t/651.aspx

Come on, who doesn't like a little anal leakage every once in awhile????

;-)

Jodi

Oh yeah, I just read through everything and it's a tad frightening! Though my doc said that those side effects apparently only really happen if you exceed 30g of fat per meal and I think it's pretty safe to say I'm not eating 90g of fat per day. But yeah, if there are side effects I'll be thankful I work from home! :) On the plus side, the little "healthy eating" book that came with my starter kit gave me a bunch of new ideas for healthy lunches which is great as I'm currently eating the same thing day in and day out for lunch and it's getting a little boring.

I'm still somewhat skeptical given that I'm a good 40lbs under the weight guidelines for Alli for my height but I'm just going to trust my doctor on this one.

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http://smallfoodbiz.com
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Let me know how it goes. I might try it for 5 lbs that I've gained and can't seem to drop. And no, it isn't muscle. My pants are tight :-(

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Jen

"In order to keep a true perspective on one's importance, everyone should have a dog that worships him and a cat that will ignore him." - Dereke Bruce

Jodi, I had a bad experience with peanut butter a couple weeks ago and now I can't touch it... I got some of the natural stuff and it was so oily and icky, ugggh.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

i lost 6-8 pounds promptly after stopping the IM training. it was great!

now if i could get a little motivation and quit eating ice cream i might get somewhere.

sorry to hear you're bumming about the weight gain. it's crazy, ain't it? all that output...
IM training made me hungry like a mad person. just crazy for food, and it never seemed like it was enough. also i think all of the sports drink made me "swollen". very weird.

i have no advice, but i can tell you that it happened to me! you are not alone by any means, but i admit to being a little surprised at how many womens go through this! even petite womens!

Thanks again for the feedback – this is my first ST post and it has been really helpful. After learning that this happens to so many women, I have decided not to stress about it. I am just going to keep up with the training & try to eat the best I can.

Isn’t it sad when you eat a healthier diet than most people you know, and still feel bad about a little chocolate or peanut butter here and there?

Someone told me yesterday that you know you are at a good race weight when your friends wonder if you are sick. That is not my goal & I am sure I will never look underweight. I just want to feel good on race day – besides, I could never live without peanut butter – it is just not worth it.

My one time Ironman experience: I lost weight, was anemic, recovered poorly, and had a hard time eating properly. After workouts I would practically binge eat and ate too much sugary foods (chocolate chip cookies). I should have gained weight with what I was eating but I didn't. I also had terrible GI problems that had cropped up with a vengeance on the run.

If I do it again, I will consult a nutritionist. Losing weight isn't all it's cracked up to be so I wouldn't worry about a few pounds unless you're a female pro or trying to win your division at your IM.

Right on. We should embrace it.

how is it going with the alli?
after reading your post I was tempted to try it, is was the endocrinlogist who recommended it? can I ask how much you weigh? curious. If you dont want to respond I understand but we dont 'know' you here.
I will tell the truth,I am 142 which is great after doing this for so long at 155, but the last year I have really plateaued, and no I dont want to accept that this is the weight my body wants. What about ME dont I have any say in it :) ?
I think 130-132 is realistic but at my age 40 I find its harder to lose, even running more than 60mpw. Upping the running got me from 155 to 142 but I have been around that for a year now and feel I need a little help. Extra help.

It was an endocrinologist who recommended I tri Alli. The reason she suggested it is that she says it can be harder for people on thyroid replacement (even when at the right dose) to lose a little weight and since I was already doing 95% of what they recommend for weight lose - the other 5% is my sugar addiction which I'm desperately trying to kill - she thought this may be what was needed to "jump start" my body as she has had other patients who have had "moderate" (exact words) success with Alli.

I'm 5.7 and at last check I was 137 in a bathing suit. I'm also 32 years old and had a total thyroidectomy in 2002 and have been on thyroid replacement ever since albeit the doseage seems to forever be changing. The weight I had maintained for years and years before the thyroid issues and with a decent amount of muscle tone since I was a Div I athlete in college was between 132 so that's where I'd like to be. Obviously I'm not trying to drop a significant amount of weight by any stretch of the imagination. My issue was that during IM training I gained 5-7lbs which I attributed to muscle gain but it simply won't come off since I'm no longer training for IM distance regardless of what I do.

As for how Alli is going. So far I'd give it a B. The day I started Alli I had gone to my endocrinologist and weighed in at 141 fully clothed and shoes. I started Alli that night and was pretty freaked about the side effects so I was being very concious of what I ate. I was still eating my normal diet but was definitely making sure I didn't have that one extra cookie after dinner as I was afraid of what may happen. I went along for 4 days without a problem. However, my energy level was pretty low which makes sense as Alli is essentially not allowing part of the food you eat to turn be digested which, while tri training, can run you at what one would assume is a pretty significant calorie deficit.

On Friday I weighed myself for the first time right around the same time of day as the day I started taking Alli and I weighed 139 clothed/137 in a suit (I tried both ways to try and get a good read) so it's possible Alli helped me lose two pounds but it's also equally possible that it was a slight fluctuation in water retention, hormones, or any of the other fun things that can have us women flucuating slightly from day to day, or a combination of both.

Also on Friday though my stomach started to become pretty upset. Not in the "outwardly" upset fashion the side effects talk about but just really grumbly to the point where I didn't really want to eat too much. It continued into Saturday morning so I stopped taking the pills since I didn't want to have grumbly stomach during weekend tri training (and my sister was coming to visit). I've started back up with the pills today but may only take them 2x/day with breakfast and dinner to try and avoid any grumbly stomach issues.

At this point in time I think the beauty of the product is that it really does make you think about every single thing you put in your mouth if, like me, you're terrified of the side effects. Not to say I wasn't doing this before but I was certainly giving myself a pass to eat that ice cream as I justified it based on the training I was doing. Trust me when I say I'm the last person who thinks you should live life without your favorite foods (I'm a pastry chef for goodness sake!) but I do think that tri training subtly changed my eating habits so that I was eating really well but also allowing myself to eat bad stuff b/c of the amount of training I was doing. I'm being more concious now of making sure that everything I eat is for a reason - either b/c it's nutritious or if I want a sugar hit I'm making sure to only take a small amount rather than eat the entire bag of skittles.

At the same time I am going to continue taking the pills b/c I decided I wanted to try it for a month baring any major side effects disaster to see what happens. If it can help me get down to my goal weight and also help me do a minor shift in my eating habits then it'll be great.

Two things I have learned from the little alli program thus far - eat more protein. May seem like a no brainer to us triathletes but I was a vegetarian for years so I definitely tend to skip protein for carbs a lot of the time. And secondly, when you need a little afternoon sugar hit the Viactiv calcium chews (in caramel flavor) are just enough sugar to get me over the craving while also helping me get my needed calcium.

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http://smallfoodbiz.com
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ok, so I have never trained (yet) for an IM. Tho, I have done several marathons and I do train for tris and am now training for ultras. Anyhow, don't sweat the gain. I know that it is difficult being a chick and all. I really hate feeling fat"ter." I'm also a practicing RN and I do know that the studies for heart related instances for endurance activity is not good. Bear with me here, I think our bodies adjustment as women is in our favor. If our bodies want to hold onto fat or if the wt gain is both muscular (probably most likely) and a little bit of increase in fat % it is a good thing. Think of it this way, our systems are trying to maintain balance aka homeostatsis, so with that in mind maybe it is something we should just deal with and after the race(s) you will probably go back to where you were prior. I'm probably not making much sense to you, but bottom line is not too worry. Go out and train, eat right and have a great race. :-)

ok, sorry did not read all the posts before responding. Alli has been proven, but the side effects, weeeell our just that effects. Expect diarrhea if you eat too much fat, that is how alli works from what I know, also it can be rather spontaneous. If you are having some stomach issues you might want to rethink taking it until after your IM?

Oh no, I'm not doing an IM this year. Just one little olympic and one little HIM. I actually want to have some time this summer to do things other than tri training (gasp!) like hiking, rock climbing, and sleeping in the sun on the porch on a lazy summer afternoon. :)

I would agree that I wouldn't have tried this if 1. my doctor hadn't recommended it specifically for me and 2. if I was trianing for an IM. Infact my HIM isn't until July so my hope is to do this for a month and then get off of it so that the tiredness I am feeling will be less of an issue for HIM training.

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I also went up a few pounds training for my first iron distance and it was definitely body fat, not muscle. I didn't worry about it too much, though, because I'd overtrained earlier in the season and didn't want to get into that hole again by not getting enough nutrients and energy for the training volume. I also was planning on getting pregnant after (which worked!), so I really didn't see any point in worrying over getting real lean. Needless to say, that at 19 weeks pregnant, I've definitely not lost the weight and have put on quite a few more pounds since!

Rachel's probably right about the female body responding to the heavy training by saving up. I imagine it can be overcome by really watching your nutrition, but it's got to be tricky getting it just right.

P.S. Like you, I generally carry a lot of muscle and weigh a lot more than people think. I'm barely over 5'6" and weighed in at 143 for Silverman, although better race weight would be about 5 lbs less.

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http://www.aliciaparr.com/blog
http://www.performentor.com

Yes, I too am on Facebook. And LinkedIn. And Twitter. Which begs the question - do I exist in the physical world? Do I?

Hello, I'm a 28 yr old guy.
Started training for triathlons a couple years ago, and came from a decent running background (3:02 Boston). My weight was ~155.
First I had to learn that whole "side breathing" thing......essentially I had to learn how to swim. Two years later, I've just finished my first IM this past Sunday, and throughout my training I stayed around 155. I look completely different now, however, than I did as just a runner.
I think one generally gains a little weight in triathlon training, especially coming from a weak swimming background. All that swimming adds muscle, and sure you lose fat, but muscle is more dense. And the swimming gave me more structure and definition to my chest, shoulders, and back. I still laugh at myself in the mirror, because I was used my thin torso, equating it with speed like all the other distance running guys. Now I look like some silly tri-model-guy.

From what I understand, most IM athletes get down to their 'race weight' (whatever) as an incidental byproduct of those long-ride/long-run weekends.

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2012 Races: Salem Black Cat 10 miler, Heartbreak Hill 1/2 marathon, Getting Married in August

I am training for my first IM (LP). As prep I did my first marathon in february (it kinda sucked, but I learned a lot). I had expected that dramatic weight loss would be inevitable with all that training, and allowed what I now realize was way too much alcohol and junk calories. Not crappy food per se (all organic, natural, blah blah blah), but too much and at the wrong times. (an organic, vegan, wheat-free brownie is still a brownie it turns out).

I am trying to be a lot more aware of what I was eating- not being neurotic, just conscious. I also started lifting weights again and that seems to have made a noticeable difference. I tore out a training guide from Triathlon mag and am doing it 2.x week. I had always felt that if I didn't work every muscle 3 or 4x week it didn't count, but twice really feels nice.

So far I am down about 5 pounds, but still not at what my coach calls "fighting weight." Am afraid to ask what that is, because it's almost always 10 below where I am.

My final trick--- I got a puppy! I know this sounds silly, but I think it made a difference. Since getting her I seem to be losing more weight than before, and I couldn't figure it out. I read something today about pet therapy counteracting the effects of cortisol (the evil stress hormone that promoted abdominal fat storage)....maybe it's that, or the fartleks we do in the park...

Add me to the list as well. When I was racing olympic or half IM distance, I found that with training came weight loss, which was pretty nice!

I'm 26 yo, 5'6" and am usually about 132 race weight, but for IMAZ I clocked in at 138 and had been creeping up in weight leading to the race (due to taper?!)!! I agree with all the posts before - I definitely felt a gain in muscle, especially in the back and shoulders from swimming 4 days a week and doing strength training. I also felt like my quads and butt were pretty solid muscularly. BUT, I noticed that my belly started to get a little squishy as my volume increased, and I was going insane because I was doing tons of core work!! Although I did let myself slip and have a few extra desserts here and there, by no means was I eating unhealthy! Quite the opposite, in fact.

I feel relieved to read that I'm not the only one. I was definitely my thinnest when training for a marathon in 2006. Not sure what to expect next!! Except that I'll be nibbling on the veggies until the extra comes off...

Jodi - say it ain't so about cutting the PB!! I swear, PB runs in my veins... ;) Perhaps that is my problem...

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sassyshanracing.blogspot.com

All: Tigerchick is quite the sh*t. I love her advice. I know this may be redundent for you but I wanted to share my findings this morning with my nutrionist:

So I finally went to my dietician this morning. I brought her my training plan for my next IM and daily food journal I’ve been keeping. She was shocked about how much working out I’ve been doing comparing to what I’ve been eating on my food journal. To make a long story short—she created a meal plan for me to follow while IM training. Previously I was eating about (1500-2200 and didn’t really have an appetite) This week, it consists of 2800 calories a day including 73-90 fat grams a day. Keep in mind this was NOTHING close to what I was eating. She confirmed that once I start eating this much—it will help jump start my metabolism and that I will eventually get off this plateau that I’ve been at FOREVER . She said initially that I may gain a few pounds and that would be totally normal; since my body will be in shocked that I am actually getting a lot more calories for my regular activity and sustain IM workouts. So, that’s the scoop here. I feel so much better that I went and saw her.

I'm glad you had a positive experience with the nutritionist. Good luck with your training, and I'm sure you can find plenty of yummy things to eat to get the energy you need too.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

What are you eating to increase your good fat intake? I don't eat nearly enough fat and am interested to hear what you are eating. Thanks.

Avocado, olive oil, regular cheese. But to be honest-- I am still working on bumping up my fat intake. I used to be afraid to eat "fats." Update-- Day one of my 2800 Calorie intake-- I had AWESOME workouts yesterday-- ran 9 miles of hills and swam 3700 in pool-- and felt MUCH better then normal and MUCH more energy.

What? No peanut butter for you? I can't believe what I'm reading!

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http://trainingoferic.blogspot.com/

I am a guy who has experienced similar results. A few years ago I decided to take my fitness seriously and lost 50 lbs. I then re-gained 10 lbs which put me at a more healthy weight but I always felt that 5 down from that was a good race weight for me. Whether it was or not it turned out to me near impossible to loose that 5 lbs. Hard training and sensible diet didn’t do it. Sometimes I gained under those conditions. I finally stopped stressing about it and just tried to be healthy and get faster. Having put in some strong training weeks to prepare for my first wildflower I just recently lost those 5 lbs. and don’t feel tired, run down or ravenous. I feel like I’m just fitter and need to eat less to train just as hard, but really I can’t explain it.

I did read an interesting article in a muscle magazine that talked about fish oil. The article was warning body builders to avoid fish oil if they wanted to gain mass. I guess fish oil is a natural anti inflammatory. That is why it is so good for your heart and circulatory system. Anyway if muscles don’t get inflamed then your body doesn’t see them as damaged and doesn’t try to rebuild them bigger. For a weight lifter this is bad but I read it as a useful trick to possibly keep myself from bulking up with all the tri training. I take a single fish oil cap after every hard workout and/or at least once a day. It certainly won’t hurt and might help.