I’m not fat by any stretch. When I started running marathons I lost a few kilos but that platteaued. I’d like to shift that last bit of belly fat, but all the advice I can find is to do short interval training and lift lots of heavy weight. Obviously a heavy weight training program would intefere with the endurance stuff. Anybody know some good ways to lose fat on an ironman training schedule? I’d have thought the volume would be enough but evidently it’s not.
You do your weight lifting when your training volume is lower.
obviously
that’s my point. all the “plans” i can find are weight lifting centric. That’s clearly unsuitable.
Eat 300 Cals/day less than you burn. You should lose 1/2 lb/wk.
Your body can only deal with so much training load unfortunately. If you add weight training to you heavy endurance training load, something’s going to break, and it isn’t going to be pretty. :\
According to this app on my phone I’m well under.
does it matter about carb/protein ratio for your cals?
you’re missing the point of what I’m asking
I understand this. I don’t want to weight train. It ruins my long sessions as I’m overly sore/broken etc. What I am asking is what I can do as an alternative to acheive the same results. Google how to lose weight and all I get is “lift and eat protein” which is not a viable option.
Ahh, I see what you’re saying now.
Here’s another weight loss strategy to look into: http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=1192183
Edit: and it’s spelled losing, loosing is something you need when you’re constipated.
Not being a smart ass, but simply eat less.
as I said, according to a calorie counter I have on the phone, I’m well under. I eat about 1200 and according to the app i should be on 1800. That obviously goes up on weekends when I do 5hr sessions etc.
According to this app on my phone I’m well under.
does it matter about carb/protein ratio for your cals?Perhaps the app on your phone is wrong. How are you estimating your caloric expenditure for cycling and/or running? e.g. how many calories does your app estimate for a 3 hr bike ride? Apps are notoriously inaccurate for estimating cycling calories, running is easier to estimate.
The ratio of carb/protein might affect your performance if you aren’t getting sufficient protein or carbs but it shouldn’t affect the overall calorie balance equation.
How far are you from your A race?
My weight has plateaued the past few years in triathlon and I was pretty steady in my build up to IMC until the past two or three weeks, when about 5 pounds stuffed off without me trying. Most of the IM folk I know seem to get super leanin the three to four weeks prior to their race, I think it’s just a function of the training.
So maybe patience is required if its just a few pounds you’re trying to lose?
my garmin estimates exercise for me for 3hr bike it tells me 1500 cal. I’ll assume it does that based on height/weight/heart rate.
I’ve tried several apps, this one seems to be quite widely regarded. The app is sort of a food diary, so it counts the input and it told me my RMR which is how much you burn just existing. even conservatively if the garmin is off by a bit I’m still quite often 800+ calories under so theoretically should be losing weight.
trying not to sound vein when i say I want a flat stomach, there are some practical reasons in play too.
next IM is about 6mths, but I have a marathon and half IM in 2-3 months.
It’s something I’ve noticed over the last few years. Like I said, when I first started I lost a bit. I’ve been the same for about 18mths although my volume has creeped up and up over that time.
also: i think garmin may be lying. one 10km run says 350cals, and a 17km run says 1000. both the same pace and average HR.
Ditch some of the carbohydrate out of your diet and replace it with fat. If your training is mostly aerobic work then you don’t need a huge amount of carbs if you’re already eating plenty of fruit and veg. If your training intensity is high, or you’re doing sessions beyond two hours you’ll need some carbs, but most people really over eat on them.
I’m going to be obnoxious:
Please fix the thread title: It is losing, not loosing.
Thank you.
I’m not fat by any stretch. When I started running marathons I lost a few kilos but that platteaued. I’d like to shift that last bit of belly fat, but all the advice I can find is to do short interval training and lift lots of heavy weight. Obviously a heavy weight training program would intefere with the endurance stuff. Anybody know some good ways to lose fat on an ironman training schedule? I’d have thought the volume would be enough but evidently it’s not.
this is what I do. Note that it only works when I’m in an endurance-focused training block. it is counter-productive for “threshold” blocks i.e. when I’m training with the primary goal of increasing critical power.
I do 2 long runs (2 hours+) per week in a carb depleted state. Let’s say I have a long run on a saturday. I stop eating carbs on Thursday after my swim, or on Friday morning. I then do the long run on saturday, drinking only BCAA and (if it’s hot) electrolytes… no carbs during the run. Once I’m finished the run I eat carbs again, ready for my next ride. I repeat for the next long run (tuesday). It feels weird at first but over time you improve quickly as your body gets more efficient at burning fat. I make sure that I’m eating 2g of protein for every kg of body weight (this is essential).
I also do this on some long rides (6+ hours), but I take carbs with me, ride through the first 2-3 hours with no carbs, then start taking them in. I can maintain lower steady power output on zero carbs but not much higher - so I only do this for long rides. The added benefit is that it forces me to not ride too hard.
Normally running burns 1 Cal/kg/km regardless of pace. Your app doesn’t sound very accurate so I’m going to be sceptical of the BMR it is predicting as well. How much do you weigh and what is your BMR?
Not everyone can have a lean looking, ripped set of abs. It depends somewhat on your body composition when you were young. If you have a lot of fat cells around your stomach you aren’t going to get rid of them short of liposuction. You can shrink them but you may have to accept that not everyone can comfortably function at a low BF%.
Here is something else to think about (and what worked for me)
Coming from a weight lifting backgorund I was big on PWO nutrition and although it made recovery a breeze, it also made me hold on to a lot more body fat that I liked.
Changed it out so that on anything less than 2 hrs I didnt bother at all with anything PWO, just ate normally.
Between 2 and 4 hours I had a small glass of choc milk (if its good enough for Crowie…) and then ate normally.
Over 4 hours I had a protein shake as I found I wouldnt eat anything solid for quite a while after a long workout.
These days I rarely do anything over 2 hours (racing sprints) so rarely have anything more than a glass of choc milk, and more often than not, not even that. I just eat normally.
YMMV but ti worked for me.
In my experience it is what you eat rather than calories that makes the difference. My advice is to eat plenty of natural whole foods and avoid processed foods. For example, eat plenty of nuts, oats, dates, fruit, veges and wild fish rather than muesli bars, bread, pasta, tinned soup, cheese, factory farmed chicken and pork.