How long to go from 150 to 140 lbs?

Why would you want to go from 150 to 140 if I tell you that in as little as 12 weeks, you can man up and go from 150 to 160.

The ladies will look at you like never before. All it takes is some discipline in the gym and a clean diet with plenty of protein for growth.

Because I want to run fast.

Exactly how "lazy" did you get and how long were you that lazy?

Can you go beyond 50 mpw?

I actually wasn't that lazy, I just ate a lot. Had a bit of an emotional eating problem to be honest. Was running 60-70 mpw throughout. This lasted from around August until about a month ago. I took a week break from running since I was feeling burnt out and just started up again this week. I plan to do a base training phase building from 40 back up to 70 mpw. I said 50 because that's about the average of where I will be for the next few months.

fattypants wrote:

Was running 60-70 mpw throughout.

So you ran 60-70mpw and got fat, and now you want to run even more to lose weight? You just don't get it, eh?

Running, especially slogging, does nothing for weight loss. Go to the gym. Read this:

I'm not running to lose weight, I'm running because I like to run. I've finally conquered my eating problem and I want to get back to the physical condition I was in before. I do go to the gym 3x per week, as I clearly stated.

My question is how large of a calorie deficit would be appropriate for my situation. Lots of fat people lose at 1 lb per week with no problem, but should I be losing at a slower rate since I'm already quite thin by normal standards? I won't be doing any races for several months so it's OK if I'm a little fatigued, but I don't want to be in the danger zone.

I think 1 pound a week is easy. All you need to do is eat clean and create a ~500 calorie deficit every day. Two pounds is easy too, but you'll be a little more tired from cutting ~1000 calories.

Until you're running 70 mpw don't eat like you're running 70 mpw. I use current weight x 12 for an estimate of my daily maintenance calories and current weight x 8 for an estimate of daily weight loss calories.

fattypants wrote:

This past summer when I weighed 140 I was in the best shape of my life and ran my 5k PR. Then I got lazy and pigged out a bunch and got up to 150 with something like 14% BF. I'm looking to get back to where I was. How long should this take me while running 50 mpw and lifting 3x per week? Would 1 lb per week be too aggressive? I'm 5'10.5" by the way.

The biggest thing that will make you lose weight is your diet. I've been doing lots of reading on this subject lately as not only do I need to lose weight currently, but I just want to be overall more healthy. Unfortunately for me, my favorite food in life is bread of some sort...bread, cereal, pasta. More and more evidence shows how bad too much of that is for you (and weight gain causing too).

Want to lose weight? 6 days a week do NOT eat - flour of any kind, pasta, rice or potatoes or sugar unless it's in fruit that you eat.

One day a week, eat anything you want. Don't drink ANY calories...drink all the water you want. Debatable about whether you can drink diet drinks with zero calories...best to stick with water.

On the 6 days, the main parts of your diet will be:

Lean meat prepared without any carbs on them - chicken breast, turkey, pork, lean cuts of beef.

Eggs

Legumes - lentils, black beans, pinto beans, etc.

Vegetables - Almost nothing bad here...don't go nuts with caloric avocado.

Fruit - Keep this to no more than 2 servings a day.

With 50 MPW, you may find you need to eat more carbs than the above allows (remember you can eat anything you want on the 7th day), so add more if you need to.

I currently need to lose 30 pounds, and I'm going to start eating like the above today.

Good luck.

Regarding diet soda, I heard from a diabetic that although you don't get calories from diet soda your body still reacts to it as if it's getting the sugars. He said you still get the spikes and fat storage. Anyone know if that's BS?

paliolithic diet is the thing. Breakfast: lots of egg and bacon. Heavy fuel that keeps you going as a duracell rabbit!!!!!

We are pretty similar. 6 months ago, I was 152. Now I am 139. My mileage fluctuates from 50 to 85 mpw. Here's how:

Calories consumed < calories used = weight loss.

1 lb of human fat = roughly 3500 calories.

Maintenance calorie requirement (assuming you are a male in your 20s/early 30s), that is the amount of calories you would need to live without exercise = about 2000, +/- a few hundred.

1 mile = roughly 110 calories.

Eat about your maintenance calorie requirement and run. Whatever burned during running will be lost. But don't take this to an extreme and not eat anything. If you run 10 miles a day (70 mpw) on average, that's 7,700 calories, which is almost 2 lbs in 2 days. But this takes a lot of discipline and control.

Losing weight is a very simple thing: eat low calorie foods that take up stomach volume so that you feel full without consuming necessary calories. The foods that work best include most foods that come out of the ground such as vegetables and fruits. Fruits take up a lot more stomach volume than pasta and has fructose (simple sugar), which is used almost immediately and does not get stored as fat, if you run as much as you say. Also, in regards to protein, eat about 1.6 gram of protein for every kg of body weight.

Paleo.

After a year of injury and other factors, I was a mess.

Have gone from 165 to 145 in something like 3-4 months, while ramping up mileage from 0 to 50 mpw.

No carbs.

I didn't *mean* to go Paleo (from a running standpoint), but it turns out that you *don't* need constant carbs for long distance (at least *I* didn't).

Speed is just now coming back. Slow progress may be due to low carbing, more likely due to the year of not running... That said, high protein diet seems to speed recovery from tough workouts--and, perhaps coincidentally, I have suffered none of my usual aches, pains, and injuries.

Just sayin'.

Six-pack or bust, bra!

redux wrote:

Regarding diet soda, I heard from a diabetic that although you don't get calories from diet soda your body still reacts to it as if it's getting the sugars. He said you still get the spikes and fat storage. Anyone know if that's BS?

I've heard that too, to the point that it's becoming the standard piece of advice. I'm not 100% sold on it, but there is a bunch of crap in diet soda that a person doesn't need, so it's good to cut it out.

Here's why I don't 100% buy what your diabetic friend told you (though I still think there MIGHT be truth to it):

1) A recent study showed that the group given diet soda lost weight while the group drinking regular soda maintained or gained...everything else was the same.

2) I realize that humans and birds are different, but there was a story once upon a time where a woman was filling her hummingbird feeder with liquid she made from a no-calorie sweetener...the hummingbirds started to starve to death until someone told her that she needed to use sugar.

Thanks for the responses guys. I actually have been monitoring my calories the past week. Been eating about 2300-2400 per day, lots of protein, lots of vegetables, lots of fiber. I am already quite hungry pretty much all the time and have very little energy on my runs, which worries me. I may consider bumping to 2600, or maybe eat at maintenance every third week or something. I think my maintenance has to be around 3000 at this point. I'm young (23) and I have a high metabolism.

Regarding diet soda, from what I have read from various sources I believe it's harmless. I find it to be a useful tool in fighting hunger, along with unsweetened tea, plus lots and lots of water.

Fruits take up a lot more stomach volume than pasta and has fructose (simple sugar), which is used almost immediately and does not get stored as fat, if you run as much as you say. Also, in regards to protein, eat about 1.6 gram of protein for every kg of body weight.

No fruit.

Tuna (GOOD tuna--in olive oil, even). Salmon. Canned chicken. Vitamins & veggies (LOTS of spinach). Certain soups. Peanut butter (no bread) for a treat (Mmm...). Vanilla seltzer (or, um... wine--hey, a dude's gotta LIVE).

Bronkaid. Coffee. Aspirin. (That is, if you have upper respiratory requirements...).

redux wrote:

Regarding diet soda, I heard from a diabetic that although you don't get calories from diet soda your body still reacts to it as if it's getting the sugars. He said you still get the spikes and fat storage. Anyone know if that's BS?

Farmers have been using artificial sweeteners for a long time for their pigs. It leaves them more hungry and makes them eat more. Pretty sure that's how it works in humans, too.

I know correlation and causation are two different things but most people who drink diet pop are fat.

OP, could you be anemic?

Flagpole wrote:

1) A recent study showed that the group given diet soda lost weight while the group drinking regular soda maintained or gained...everything else was the same.

By whom was this study payed?

They should compare diet soda to water in a study. I know what the result would be.

fattypants wrote:

Been eating about 2300-2400 per day... I am already quite hungry pretty much all the time and have very little energy on my runs.

I do NOT recommend my diet, but here is yesterday's meal:

post-workout breakfast = fish oil, one apple, half cup milk. Coffee throughout the day.

Lunch = one can tuna

Dinner = Tilapia (fish), spinach (LOTS), half glass wine, lots of vanilla seltzer.

Today = 1/2 can of organic, low-sodium "healthy" chicken soup. I'll eat the other half for lunch. Dinner is spaghetti squash with tomato sauce & meat.

My point? The hunger goes away and, eventually, so does that lack of energy while running. Again, I do NOT recommend this extreme for others, just sayin' it works for me.

fattypants wrote:

Regarding diet soda, from what I have read from various sources I believe it's harmless.

Diet soda conditions you to want/need/crave something SWEEEEET. Get over it. (It also allows you to say "well, gee, I had that diet soda so that cancels out this Snickers (tm) bar...) Also, any man-made chemical difficult to pronounce should give one pause.

Soda of any sort is linked to all sorts of bad things. I would recommend tea with one sugar pack over diet soda any day. Flavored seltzers do the trick for me (replacing calories but still tasty). Water sucks, but I've gotten used to it. Coffee is my crutch of choice for many reasons.