Does running maintain your weight/keep you lean?

It's great for weight loss if you keep it up. When I get above 90 mpw, I have to stuff my face until I'm sick every night just to maintain my weight, though I do eat extremely healthy.

ParityCuber wrote:

It's great for weight loss if you keep it up. When I get above 90 mpw, I have to stuff my face until I'm sick every night just to maintain my weight, though I do eat extremely healthy.

Do you track your calories?

I find this applies to me in the summer, but in the winter idk if it's cause i sweat less or whatnot but i can't seem to lose as much

I started doing very heavy strength training/lifting few months ago. Eating 6000+ calories a day.

Weight gain? Almost none. My body wants to build muscle and weight so badly but running 50+ mpw at a good clip with hard workouts, a few hours of cycling per week and some hours of core work prevents anything from building up. If I remove running from the routine I would gain weight immediately.

My lifts are all stalling because I'm not able to gain weight while running, the catabolic nature just destroys and outweighs anything else.

I do think this is highly individual tho, for some people the lifting and caloric surplus might still lead to a weight gain of a mix of fat and muscle mass.

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

I started doing very heavy strength training/lifting few months ago. Eating 6000+ calories a day.

Weight gain? Almost none. My body wants to build muscle and weight so badly but running 50+ mpw at a good clip with hard workouts, a few hours of cycling per week and some hours of core work prevents anything from building up. If I remove running from the routine I would gain weight immediately.

My lifts are all stalling because I'm not able to gain weight while running, the catabolic nature just destroys and outweighs anything else.

I do think this is highly individual tho, for some people the lifting and caloric surplus might still lead to a weight gain of a mix of fat and muscle mass.

A lot of people simplify it to calories in, calories out, but I think running also sends certain signals that prevent, or at least limit, fat/muscle gain

Yeah Phil, some do have a next to impossible time gaining weight while running. A person that does not run or workout usually can not even comprehend how a runner can eat so much and not gain weight. They just don't understand things they haven't experienced themselves, it's human nature. They think, eat food = get fat because they do not do regular (cardio) exercise themselves amd they are not burning many calories aside from their basil metabolic rate.

weak runner wrote:

A lot of people simplify it to calories in, calories out, but I think running also sends certain signals that prevent, or at least limit, fat/muscle gain

Exactly, it changes the entire hormone system. Especially if someone has been doing endurance training for many years.

The opposite would be true for powerlifters - if they lift heavy weights their entire life, they probably won't get as lean as they would like to if they start running or reducing their calories. Their body will still store in anticipation of big lifting sessions, just like the runner's body will try to stay lean for the upcoming anticipated endurance events. This is simple evolution.

Look at Ryan Hall - if he had kept running even just 60+ mpw, there is no way he would have been able to bulk up like that. He had to stop running completely for a long time, and send a very strong shock/stress to the system to successfully do his transformation.

Then you have people like Mo Farah, or any former NOP runner really, who started lifting heavily 2-3x a week, and never gained more than 1-2 pounds max. Put any normal person on that lifting regime who are not runners, and they put on 20 lbs of muscle mass easily in just a few weeks (most strength programs, like Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting Strength have proven that).

Could you explain that further please?

(No weight lifting experience)

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

The opposite would be true for powerlifters - if they lift heavy weights their entire life, they probably won't get as lean as they would like to if they start running or reducing their calories. Their body will still store in anticipation of big lifting sessions, just like the runner's body will try to stay lean for the upcoming anticipated endurance events. This is simple evolution.

No it’s not.

[quote]LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Look at Ryan Hall - if he had kept running even just 60+ mpw, there is no way he would have been able to bulk up like that. He had to stop running completely for a long time, and send a very strong shock/stress to the system to successfully do his transformation.

Don’t you think a heavy drug regimen probably helped too?

I think for runners the calories don’t matter as much as what those calories are.

There’s been a couple times during base where I’ve just started eating lots of pizza and other unhealthy foods cause it got the calories in a lot quicker and cheaper. I never put on much weight doing this but my body composition changes. My ab definition goes away and I don’t look as muscular.

I think the way to go is lots of salad, vegetables, rice and protein, along with vitamin and mineral supplements.

My take Is that for runners running 50+ mpw along with lifting there’s really no such thing as overeating as long as it’s healthy stuff. The body adapts to what you train it to do and unnecessary weight gain doesn’t help you run faster or longer.

When I am at 50 a week, I can eat whatever I want and stay at around 148--normal people thin, but not runner thin.

Around the holidays, I got lazy and dropped to 2 mile runs everyday. I put on 10 lbs over a 3 or 4 week period.

I have been running 30 a week and watching what i eat for around a month. I have lost 2 of the 10 lbs.

I won't get to 50 a week until the weather turns around, so i hope this horrible diet starts kicking in soon.

I feel that. I tore my hamstring around this time last year and put on about 15 lbs of straight up fat and my legs atrophied cause I couldn’t really cross train or even walk that much due to the severity.

It’s not a fun feeling going from the type of person that has to wear size 32 width pants just for the extra leg room to someone that wears 34s that look baggy cause your waist is decently wider than your legs. Depressing time for me haha!

I’m a much more muscular set middle distance guy at 6’1 165-170 so perhaps that contributes to my metabolism when training.

weak runner wrote:

Ok recently I've been noticing there's a lot of debate over whether or not running is good for weight loss, does it slow the metabolism, how many calories does running burn, you can't outrun your fork, blah blah blah

Sounds like you've been on reddit too much. Of course, if you're running a Redditor level 10 miles a week followed by a venti caramel latte and a muffin after each run, then running is not going to help much.

You can outrun your fork, it just requires a lot of miles -- and even then some discipline.

Essentially, you could lose weight by not eating 500 calories or you could run ~5/6 miles (depending on your weight). The problem will be that after the run, you'd be tempted to get "something extra" as a reward... If you can avoid that -- or make a sensible choice for your reward you can lose weight.

Yes, I agree and I've done enough calorie counting in the past to know how it works but I'm honestly fed up with worrying whether eating an extra sandwich or going out to eat is gonna make me really fat if i'm running daily (barring injury ofc then i'd have to be more mindful).

I think it depends on how much and how often you run. If you're running 5-6 times a week and running 35-50 miles a week you are probably on the thin side. Maybe not elite level thin but definitely average person thin. I know that when I was in my 20's and running 65-75 miles a week I was about140-145. In my 50's and running 10-15 miles a week my weight is more around 200. Of course as you age your metabolism slows down which does make it harder to burn calories.

Running helps! wrote:

I think it depends on how much and how often you run. If you're running 5-6 times a week and running 35-50 miles a week you are probably on the thin side. Maybe not elite level thin but definitely average person thin. I know that when I was in my 20's and running 65-75 miles a week I was about140-145. In my 50's and running 10-15 miles a week my weight is more around 200. Of course as you age your metabolism slows down which does make it harder to burn calories.

Yes, I agree, but as you said 10-15 miles a week is not really a lot, hence my claim of running "high mileage"

Not saying that weight gain is inevitable with low mileage ofc