I’m hoping for a little input. I’ve been training all summer between 12-20 hours a week and have stayed exactly the same weight all summer–167lbs. I’m 5’9" tall and ideally could be 155lbs. I know that when I’ve trained more, I’ve also eaten more, but to maintain high volume and intensity, I have to recover well by eating plentifully.
My body seems pretty resistant to losing that last 10lbs.
Do training programs run against weight loss programs? If I run a 700 a day caloric deficit, I don’t seem to be able to maintain high volume because I don’t recover well. Suggestions? Advise?
Should I cut back training by half and focus on losing weight? Or is it better to train and stay the same weight?
btw: I don’t eat sweets or fast food. I’m a lifelong vegetarian.
No, but the last 10 lbs is the hardest to lose and takes incredible discipline to pull off in a healthy and sustainable manner. Search the weight loss threads. Some good info there and you’ll read “FOOD LOG” more times than you can imagine. If you are actually 700 calories deficient daily and not on meds forcing you to retain water, you’d be losing weight.
Good luck.
I’m fighting the same battle currenly. I’m 3 lbs into my last 10 lbs and it has been a bitch! Roughly 1 lb per month since I realized I was gaining weight in March. I was getting leaner, but gaining muscle from increased cycling and running volume and intensity. It’s a tough balancing act and your ideal may be very different from another persons of the same height. Set realistic goals and get a realistic idea of your caloric intake. One slice of bread or one can of soda per day may be the difference. Do you really have a handle on where all your calories are coming from? For instance: A pack of orbit gum is around 70 calories.
losing weight when training hard is very easy… but required a lot of motivation and will power…
here s the rules of eating for athelte by brian stover
**By Desert **Dude strict rules for eating while at the LHPTC. They are as follows:
No eating after 7:30 unless coming back from a late evening workout over 30min. If under 30min you may have 1 gel and a piece of fruit or 1 energy bar.
Dinner is all you can eat, as long as it fits on the coffee saucer the first time. There are no refills in this all you can eat establishment.
Hungry at night? Tough - you should have eaten more throughout the day. Have a glass of water instead of whining. Whiners pay rent irregardless if they trained that day or not.
eat something within 20 min of completing all workouts.
Insure you are taking in adequate calories during your day
Eat a bigger breakfast or lunch if you feel you need more food
Make sure you are fueling properly when in your training sessions.
Still hungry? Pay rent for whining
Send all complaints to the administator of the facility to the address below:
High intensity training and weight loss are mutually exclusive in my opinion.
Low intensity training not necessarily.
I’d say go slower/longer and run more. High intensity exercise = burning carbs which you will replace by eating or you will suffer. You can burn fat and not replace it and recover.
If you want to lose weight - hike the John Muir Trail - carrying all your own food - you should drop 5-10 pounds easy…
My vote on #2: Train more and ignore weight. What is your goal though?
Good question. The conventional wisdom is that high-intensity training and weight loss are mutually exclusive. At the same time, we hear advice from top pros/coaches that we shouldn’t be too light for early races (meaning that we need to lose weight on our way to “A” races.) In my case, I can lose weight as I approach my “A” race, but I need to do so gradually and carefully. Typically, I overdue it at least once a season and end up with one workout where I hit the wall with no energy.
Desert Dude’s list is a good one. For me, the keys are portion control, front-loading calories toward the early hours and going very light on dinner (with nothing afterward.) Another key is to fuel properly during workouts. If I cut back on calories during workouts, I tend to binge on regular food when I get back home.