| Sweetums |
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There may not be much more to glean on this subject... but I am about 183 pounds, 6' 1", running 80-90 mile weeks, and trying to figure out if it's feasible and/or advisable to lose weight, particularly muscle mass. I doubt I'm any more than 9% fat, and seem to have gained weight in the last year despite doing a fair amount of volume. I've run a 1:12 half/32 minute 10k while weighing in at 183ish, and can't help but think that I could be faster with less meat on there, but I feel like taking it off would be treading in dangerous territory, nor do I really know how to go about it safely. Unfortunately most of the mass is in my legs (My thighs are about 23 inches in circumference, and my calves about 17 inches). Advice? |
| uy7e |
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We need more background. |
| Sweetums |
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I'm 23, been running competitively for eight years, just got out of a DIII college program, weighed around 175 for most of college, and have been inching up on the scale despite doing more volume and not gaining discernable fat. I do a considerable amount of physioball exercises, so I kind of wonder if I cut back on those whether I would lose some mass, but I'm reluctant to do so because I feel they're crucial, personally, in preventing injury. I was somewhat chronically injured for my first several years of running, so it wasn't until the last two years that I've been consistently getting in over 70 mile weeks. Prior to that it was ~50s with assloads of crosstraining and somewhat regular periods of little to no running because of knee/achilles/metatarsal trouble. |
| you are what you is |
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You are naturally muscular. It might not be advisable to lose weight for distance running. We are all built differently. If your times at different distances are comparable, then you don't have a problem. |
| jorvack |
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Why don't you get your body fat actually measured. I would see a nutritionist. |
| Sweetums |
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This has always been my mentality, and what I expected in terms of responses, I just figure I might as well see if anyone has any thoughts that haven't occurred to me. |
| you are what you is |
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Train harder and don't be discouraged. There will always be those who say you are too big to be a distance runner and if you even believe that just 1% it will affect your morale negatively. On the subject of calorie intake, I believe that a slight calorie deficit makes us more energy efficient up to a point, and over eating makes us stronger up to a point. We have to find the right balance and how it affect us in training and racing. |
| UURTDR |
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Drop the miles and do more speed work. |
| Xfitguy_the_real_one_1 |
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I have another thread about this one open. If you want to not only lose weight but FAT then you're much better off weightlifting then running. If you still want to throw in a couple of running miles or sprinting here and there, look no further than: CROSSFIT |
| voiceofreason |
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This response is an epic fail because you won't listen to the fact that not everyone wants to do the weightlifting volume you do, because you fail to realize running is important to him and he wants to get faster at long distances which throwing in a "couple of running miles or sprinting here and there" will not help, and because he was asking questions about losing lean body mass, not just fat. It was fun playing. Stop by the board again when you have something worthwhile to contribute. Bye Bye.
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| Flagpole |
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I agree with the one who said to get your body fat tested if you really want to know where it is. Your guess is likely incorrect. Some people are definitely more muscular. I'm one of those too, BUT if you are doing the same things you were doing before and you aren't lifting tons of heavy weight and TRYING to pack on muscle mass, the most likely answer is that you're putting on fat. Easy to say and hard to do, but you simply need to eat fewer calories. Me too brother. |
| SomeWeirdSin |
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Try a thru-hike of the AT or PCT I went from a lean 200 pounds to around 160. Although lyme disease was a big part of that as well. Or up-distance. The guys running ulrtras fast are heavier than the guys running road marathons. |
| regadfasdg |
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Stop lifting and you'll lose that muscle mass. |
| Sweetums |
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Lyme disease it is! Either that or some kind of parasite. While we're on the topic of strength exercises affecting muscle mass, do you think core oriented general strength exercises have all that much of an impact on muscle mass? Regardless I don't really think it's worth scaling back. And completely unrelated from the issue of weight, do people think that once strength/balance/muscle patterns have been established by doing a significant load of, for example, physioball or pedestal exercises, one can then cut back and maintain the benefit from them by only doing them once or twice a week? Or perhaps just cut back on them toward the end of the training cycle so as to alleviate that stress so as to adapt more easily higher intensity running? |