weight loss for xc girls

Dont even worry about it. Just eat less proccesed food, and keep running as much as you can without getting injured.You are too young to worry about your weight!

Be careful with weight loss, especially in season. If you aren't getting the nutrition you need, you place yourself at an increased risk of injury (as you've already noted) and you probably won't run as fast since you won't have the fuel. If you are dead set on it, talk to your coach. They can help mitigate both of those issues.

Yeah, you can't really worry about it right now. Being injury-free is more important.

I also have a sweet tooth, but if you're eating any significant amount of soda, candy, donuts, etc., that can be really detrimental to performance and health - and pack on weight. Satisfy the craving with fresh fruit. I eat a ton of grapes, apples, bananas, mangos, and berries. Sweet potatoes and carrots taste really sweet when roasted, and are a staple side-dish in our house.

Dairy can help keep you healthy. It doesn't agree with some people, but yogurt has the lactose broken down by the process that makes it yogurt, so even lactose-intolerant people can eat it. I make smoothies in a blender with plain (not sugar-added!) yogurt, a little vanilla, and fruit (see list above) for my family, and they love them. It's a really tasty and nutritious staple. Add a little milk if it's too thick, or ice to make it slushier.

Good luck!

You need to lose the weight. 30 lbs is a huge amount of weight to lose, just be careful and patient. 2 lb per week is about as much as you can hope for, so look at this as something that will take place over the course of the entire season.

If you are starting summer practice at 150 just have a goal of being 120 in time for state.

saralee wrote:

Hi all,

Im going to be a high school sophmore this coming year. last season (freshman year) I started at 140 lbs (I'm 5'4'') lost 10 lbs and promptly got severe stress fractures that left me unable to run until about feburry. I started running (still at 130 lbs) and after a few weeks got stress fractures again even though i followed all the rules about slowly increasing your milage . i swam the last season, eating mostly healthy (though I do have a huge sweet tooth) but found myself no tall er and at 150 lbs which is practically overweight. i had a 23-25 min 5k previously. i want to lose 30 lbs so that i am 120 but i only have a few months until the start of xc season. also i am very injury prone and can only run 20-30 miles a week. HELPP!!

Cut out dairy from your diet and eat as much fruit as you want to replace it. Also, try not sitting down during daily activities like watching TV or going online. If you stand up for an extra 90 minutes a day, I guarantee you'll see improved fitness before you know it.

Talk to your coach and your parents about what you can do between now and the start of school and the Fall XC season with running, weights, cross-training, and diet. Don't worry about getting your weight to a "magic number"--especially in such a short amount of time. You want to stay healthy and benefit from a progressive training load. Think about how much additional running you can do with frequency and duration. Also think about what you can do with strength training/drills to help with injury prevention. If you are doing plenty of running, then think about cross training for additional cardio-vascular training. You may benefit from cutting junk food and better food choices for a balanced diet. There are no overnight successes with distance running training.

I wouldn't stress a ton about your weight right now. I think it's pretty normal for girls weight to fluctuate early in high school - I know I see that with the runners on my team.

I think you'll see gains by focusing on two areas - staying healthy and looking at your nutrition. You will make the biggest gains at your age as a runner by just training consistently. You'll probably get more out of running 25 mpw consistently and staying healthy than running higher mileage in short periods of time, then breaking down. I'm not sure if your team does strength work, but we've had good success with lower leg and hip strengthening cutting down on injuries. You could also add some cross training in if you feel like you are ready for more work but aren't ready for more mileage.

Look at your nutrition as well. I don't recommend restricting calories to try and cut weight. Instead, make some swaps in your diet. If you have a sweet tooth, try and replace chocolate or candy with fruit. Try to drink primarily water throughout the day instead of soda or sugary juices. Make sure you are getting well rounded meals with a good balance of protein, carbs, and healthy fats that will keep you feel full longer. Make sure you are getting period regularly as well. If you aren't, you could be missing important pieces of nutrition that can also lead to injury. Talk to your parents and doctor if that is the case.

You are getting injured because you are lacking calcium, protein and iron in your diet. These are the main areas of your diet that you need to concentrate on if you are to stay injury free and thus train consistently. Consistent training and a healthy diet will produce the weight loss you are looking for.

Female runners have different dietary requirements than males. Girls need more calcium, for long term bone health, and injury prevention. They also need a lot more iron in their diet than their male counterparts. If you don't have any tolerance issues with dairy DO NOT cut it from your diet in a bid to lose weight. Dairy is an excellent source of calcium and protein. Eating plenty of fruit is good advice. Replacing dairy with fruit is terrible advice. There is minimal calcium or protein in fruit!

Refuelling soon, within 45 mins, after a work out is also extremely important and often neglected. A post training drink of chocolate milk will refuel your body and satisfy your sweet tooth at the same time. :-)

Most girl runners need an iron supplement unless they are eating very significant amounts of red meat regularly. If you do decide to use an iron supplement, ideally with the approval of your family doctor, don't take it at the same time as calcium rich foods. Calcium suppresses iron absorption.

If you are eating well and running far (25+ miles a week ) you will lose weight. Stay off the cake!

Threads like this are a reason to keep this message board even though theres a lot of nonsense.

good advice from many. just eat when youre hungry and eat healthfully. also like the last guy said ca,iron,and ill add vitamin c which also helps with absorbing the iron.

I eat mostly fruits + veggies, although I've been trying to get more milk in there (i like to go to starbucks and get a venti nonfat milk with no syrups or anything and a fruit cup for breakfast after our practices) should i be taking an calcium supplement too? Ive noticed that even though I've also been eating more, i feel stronger (i don't know about slimmer, i haven't weighed in yet)

ssaarraalee wrote:

I eat mostly fruits + veggies, although I've been trying to get more milk in there (i like to go to starbucks and get a venti nonfat milk with no syrups or anything and a fruit cup for breakfast after our practices) should i be taking an calcium supplement too? Ive noticed that even though I've also been eating more, i feel stronger (i don't know about slimmer, i haven't weighed in yet)

Some girls need calcium supplements and some don't, so it's hard to say. Most girls can still get enough calcium in their diets without a supplement. Some vegetables like spinach, kale, and broccoli are also great sources of calcium. If you enjoy eating fruit after practice, you could try doing fruit and yogurt for a good combo. it sounds like you're making a good effort to get what you need, so I would guess that you are okay without a supplement right now.. Make sure you are getting the protein you need as well throughout the day. It's great to hear that you are feeling stronger!

To start, make sure you're getting plenty of sleep. A lot of recovery happens when you're asleep!

I would also recommend replacing any carb-snacks with nuts. So, for example, replacing chips & dip with walnuts and/or almonds.

Cut out pops/sodas and sugary drinks (which includes things like cappuccinos, lattes, etc.). If you like drinking juice, make sure it's 100% juice (no sugar added) and water it down (so a glass half full with juice, and fill the rest with water. The goal is to cut away refined sugar, including candies.

Choose whole-grain breads or multi-grain breads instead of white breads. Choose multi-grain pasta instead of pasta made with typical/white/all-purpose/bleached flour if you can as well. With the pasta, you will notice immediately how much more filling the multi-grain version is -- you only need 1/2 to 2/3 as much of it to feel full.

In addition, I personally take supplements of fish oil to get omega-3 oils that help decrease inflammation for better recovery from any micro-tears in muscles. You may want to consider this (especially if you don't eat much fish or seafood), since you say you're injury prone.

There are a lot of fine points to nutrition, so if you want to know more about these suggestions, just ask!

Don't try to lose that much weight in that short amount of time.

Runners and weight loss is a slippery slope. I think runners need to pick one of the two things they want to accomplish: performance, or weight loss. I don't think it's healthy to try to run competitively and lose weight at the same time. You gotta pick one. If you try to do both, they're both going to suffer.

Whichever you choose is fine, just don't try to do two things at once.