losing weight for track season

You do not need any special diet. You just need to run more and cut down on junk food, and the extra pounds will drop naturally. (That means no McDonald, potato chips, soda, candies, ice cream, etc.)

I hear that people who start smoking lose 5-10 lbs.

Track sucks because you always gain muscle mass.

I always weigh about 3-5 pounds more during track than i do in cross.

HAHAHA, that was hilarious about starting smoking.. I love random stuff like that

Are you serious? I've never GAINED weight for track! Crazy! I already don't eat junkfood. Well, occasionally I'll have half a candy bar but that's it. I am pretty disciplined.

And I really can't smoke. I'm on a scholarship.

Just eat a lot of veggies and some protein. The lbs will drop fast.

I gained 10-15 pounds. I ran my 8K XC PR about 10 pounds heavier then I ran my previous PR. I eat a lot of junk foods and cookies. It's my new years resolution to eat apples and oranges whenever I'm tempted to eat cakes and cookies and stuff. If I was you I wouldn't worry to much if you already eat healthy, I would just run more miles and let it happen.

Well, if you eat a proper diet than you need to be honest with yourself- there are two possible solutions: a) you are eating too much, even if mostly healthy food- and running too little; b)you have a not ideal genetics, and you will need to accept it- if not, you may develop anorexia. It won't help you if you starve yourself and lose few pounds just for the sake of seing the digits drop on the scale. Unless your times really improve, it's not worth it.

And for the poster who suggested that he /she gains muscle mass for track- BS, unless you eat like a pig and lift a lot. Perhaps you run much less than during xc season- that's the reason.

Are you serious?? If you still look like you do in your pic here:

http://www.fast-women.com/photos/2004/ncaaxc04/ncaaxc98.jpg

then where do you think the 10 pounds are going to come from?

Hi,

If you actually are the girl in the pic, you do not look like you need to lose weight, and doing so could increase the risk of injury, increase the risk of illness, and also possibly damage your running as it may be very hard to lose weight without losing power - i.e. the strength/weight ratio would drop which is harmful to running.

If you're not, what actually is your BMI - as people can't really advise on how to lose weight/whether you should actually be wanting to lose weight without knowing this. It's a bit different for say a girl with a BMI of 30 to come on here and ask this, as opposed to one with a BMI of say 17.

I actually think you'd be better off discussing it with your coach anyway, as they will know more about your training/racing situation than any of us on here.

That obviously wasn't posted by her... she spells her name "Caroline" ... seems like a troll.

Unless she's posting anonymously.

That's really sad if someone is impersonating her and using these comments to make digs. It's also really sad if this is her, and she does want to lose weight from where she's at. No win situation, really.

Bye

Ripped Fuel

So far the advice here is NOT good.

1) One person told you to quit eating junk food. Bad advice, especailly since he didn't know if you were eating any or not - turns out you aren't.

2) Another told you to just run and the pounds would come off. More bad advice. Obviously you are a runner and that hasn't been working.

In times like these, assuming you REALLY are 10 pounds over weight, you need to take a focuse approach, even if for just a little while to get yourself familiar with how many calories you are putting in your body each day. No one wants to count calories for ever, but you should do so for 10 weeks and get those 10 pounds of fat off (and it's NOT baby fat - you're in college for Christ's sake!).

Here's what you do (assuming you're a woman):

1) Take your weight and multiply it by 11 (if a man, multiply by 12). This gives you the amount of calories you need to take in each day to maintain your weight if you lead a SEDENDTARY lifestyle. So, let's say you are 130 pounds; 130x11=1430. So, if you are a slug, you need to eat 1430 each day to maintain your weight. Since you are a runner, you need to add 100 calories per mile for each day. So, lets' say you average 7 miles a day. You now get to eat 2130 and maintain. If you do lots of other exercise other than running each day, add that to your list. Add 100 calories you CAN eat per 10 minutes of exercise - walking to class, etc. My guess is that you can probably ad 300 calories per day there, so you're up to about 2430.

NOW, in order to lose a pound a week (a healthy way to lose weight) you need a 500 calorie deficit each day for 7 days (as 3500 calories equals a pound). So, at the above fitness level and at a weight of 130 (as an example) you need to eat 1930 calories each day. You will lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks with this method. You can eat it all in ice cream if you want. It doesn't matter as far as weight loss goes. If though you want to be HEALTHY, you will stick to whole grains and whole fruit (not so much juice) and drink water mostly and eat lots of veggies and lean sources of protein. Gotta have the carbs too of course.

You now have the info you seek. Once you get a feel for how many calories are in things, you can stop calculating so much, but you should really break out the calculator for a while so you get the hang of it.

It's all a matter of calories in and calories out (with very few exceptions that have little effect in the long term with regard to weight loss). Anyone can weigh EXACTLY what they want to weight with knowledge, a claculator and the will to do it.

Jim Rome - LATE!

Jim, I don't think that formula is correct.

If an average woman (non-runner) is 5'8 and 140, she needs 1540 calories to maintain that weight? It's more like 2500.

Additionally, if this runner is 130lbs and running 7 mpd, and she eats 2130 (with no other exercise) I think she's going to need more than that to maintain.

We don't know anything about her, or if she really is 10lbs overweight, and I don't think it's very likely either.

BTW I am 5'8 and 120lbs and I eat a lot more than those calories! I start at 2000. If it's a 50 m week, I add on 5000/7 cals each day. Which is similar to your formula in that respect (100 cals for each mile).

Sorry, I meant to write 'it's more like 2000' in the second line.

pound mileage

eat cheeseburgers

drink beer

rinse

wash

sleep

repeat

DONT count calories.....how many serious distance runners out there do you think are weighing their bagels and measuring their sandwiches?