Weight Problem

oh! at the same time last year my PRs were 1:59 and 4:10, im still 3months away from my peak

Do you follow any particular diet plan? If you want to loose weight knock out any fatty foods, anything with loads of sugar, chocolate bars, fizzy drinks etc. Make sure you eat at least 9 portions of fruit and veg a day, add things like sunflower seeds into your diet and dried apricots (good for iron so ideal for after a training session)eat a few oat cakes during the day. Do all this and you will loose weight and it will help you long term with your running. As you are exercising you don't need to act as if you're obese, but follow this 80% of the time.

I eat very healthy.

I have not eaten chocolate or drank coke for 4years! (origionally stopped myself eating it, now ive grown to hate it).... I eat alot of fruit, also yoghurt, pasta, crumpets, jams, honey, cereals, fish.... i rarely have potato chips or soft drink, only if i am at a party, and have givin up drinking beer, now i just stick to topshelf (i find vodka leaves no hangover)

I think the only things that needs to be taken out of my diet is the boiled lollies that I pig out on abit (and prolly the alcohol, but i doubt that will happen lol).... and I probably need to add a few more vegetables and natural stuff

My mum and I went to visit a natropath about a month ago and she (mum) is right into it and does the shopping for my house so I get looked after pretty good

fat kid on the block wrote:

I eat very healthy.

I eat alot of fruit, also yoghurt, pasta, crumpets, jams, honey, cereals, fish....

There's your problem right there. You probably eat too much. Weight gain and weight loss is all a game of calories. You could easily get fat off of eating the healthiest, cleanest foods out there, if you're eating too much of it.

Incidentally, from the looks of it, you DON'T eat all that healthy.

Doogie Howser, M.D. wrote:

fat kid on the block wrote:

I eat very healthy.

I eat alot of fruit, also yoghurt, pasta, crumpets, jams, honey, cereals, fish....

There's your problem right there. You probably eat too much. Weight gain and weight loss is all a game of calories. You could easily get fat off of eating the healthiest, cleanest foods out there, if you're eating too much of it.

Incidentally, from the looks of it, you DON'T eat all that healthy.

Agreed. Too much sugar (or simple carbohydrates) in what you've listed there.

Here's what you do if you want to lose weight:

Take your weight (in pounds) and multiply it 12. That is your base limit for the number of calories you need in a day. (Example - 140x12=1680). This is what you require if sedentary. Figure 100 calories per mile run extra and then another 100 calories per 15 minutes of other working out. If you consider yourself active outside of running, add another 200-300 calories per day.

Now, to lose weight at a rate of one pound per week, you need to have a calorie deficit of 500 each day (3500 calories is a pound).

Here's how to improve your diet.

Cut those simple sugars! Good grief man, jam, honey, pasta, crumpets...!

For breakfast, stick to whole grain cereals ONLY, and find some that have smaller amounts of added sugar.

Lunch and dinner - NO pasta until you lose some weight. Only WHOLE grain bread, and then only one serving per meal (that's ONE piece of bread). Once you lose the weight, you can add some more back. Main course suggestions (everything BAKED in NO or VERY LITTLE butter) - chicken (breast, skinless), fish, lean cuts of pork and beef. DO NOT slather them in sauces or coatings. VEGGIES - you are seriously lacking here. Best ones are DARK GREEN ones - broccoli, kale, spinach, asparagus (will make your urine smell funny). Also eat carrots, green beans, and less frequently peas and corn (corn is really a grain anyway). Eat WHOLE fruit and don't drink juice. Drink WATER almost exclusively as your beverage.

Habits - spread your meals out so that you have 4 or 5 smaller meals if you can. If you can't, that's ok. Don't eat within 3 hours of going to bed. No magic here except that it's just calories you don't need right before sleeping. It's ok to go to bed a tiny bit hungry. You'll sleep all night, your body will have to use fat stores for energy, and you'll wake up NOT hungry initially. Easy to do. Drink AT LEAST 64 oz. of WATER each day.

Accept it - People aren't naturally large around their stomachs. If you are, then you're just too fat. Work on it. Eat like I suggested and use the calculator for a while to get an idea how many calories are in things.

Good luck.

Run more than 50km a week, that's around 30 miles a week. I know weekend warriors at the health club who put that much in. Double it. Run more = weigh less

hey, thanks for the advice, I will start trying to cut back on those simple carbs and try n get the old girl to start cookin me some more vegies...... if i will remember i will report back in a few weeks with progress.

Current Weight - 78kg

Crumpets?

Would "Flome" give me some advice.

I used to run track and cross country for Mansfield University (1980-82), running school records of 14:42 (indoor 3 mile at Bucknell, Feb, 1981) and the Marathon - 2:37.41 (Maryland Marathon, hilly course, December 1980). The three mile race came just 8 weeks after the marathon, and I was just doing base training of 80 miles a week with no speed work. A bit of tempo now and then.

Flash forward to 2005. My present weight and height. 184 pounds and 6 feet 2/3 inches (depending on whether I stand straight or not).

I jog 4 miles 3/4 times a week. And also walk about 20-30 minutes a day. I use a bike everywhere from April to November, but not in the other months as I live in Montreal where there is a lot of snow.

My diet:

Breakfast - bowl of oatmeal with 2% milk. 4 slices of toast with butter and jam. Cup of tea.

Lunch - homemade soup (carrots/onions/garlic). 2 cheese sandwiches on white or brown bread with either mayo or humus.

Supper - 2 plates of spaghetti, with tuna fish, tomatoe sauce/garlic and onions, olive oil.

Dessert - usually some cookies and chocolate bar.

Snacks. Every day I usually have one orange and one apple.

Drinks - tea, apple juice, water, soda water.

You said the formula - pounds multiplied by 12. For me that would be 184 times 12= 2208 calories.

By the way, I travel a lot to "hot countries" for a couple of months each year. Places like Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, etc...and each time I come back, I notice that my weight drops to about 176 pounds in those places.

Is this due to the heat and humidity?

ghost,

I'm wondering if you are being serious here. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and set myself up for the fool just in case you aren't kidding.

Breakfast - HORRIBLE. The oatmeal is fine, but better to use skim milk, and then you eat FOUR slices of toast?! WAY too many pieces. If it's white bread, that's even worse. You might as well be eating handfulls of sugar. Better to have the oatmeal with a piece of fruit and then ONE piece of toast with a half serving (1 tablespoon) of peanut butter and jam. The tea is fine (don't put sugar in it).

Lunch - The soup could be bad or good depending on how you made it. If it's a cream based or milk based soup, then bad. If it's broth based, better. If you weren't a runner I'd be concerned about the sodium content, but since you are, I'm not. TWO cheese sandwiches! That's one too many. Have ONE sandwich, and quit with the white bread. Brown breads are much better, but you want 100% whole grain, none of this enriched flour crap. And, what's with the MAYO? Cut that out! How about mustard (ZERO calories!). Or, just don't use a condiment. Dip your sandwich in your soup if you like. Hummus is usually pretty fatty too. How about some vegetables man! Carrots in the soup, but you need more. How about some RAW baby carrots? A salad? Cook up some frozen veggies. Frozen veggies actually have MORE vitamins and minerals in them than MOST fresh ones (unless you get them the day they are picked) because they are picked and frozed right away. Just don't boil them all away. Steam them or gently boil them, stopping while they are still a little crisp.

Dessert - First of all, desserts are NOT necessary and should not be a part of your DAILY diet. You should be eating to fuel your body, and desserts are NOT proper fuel. If once or twice a week you need to feed a dessert craving, have some dessert, but keep it small. Some cookies and a chocolate bar every day is bad news.

Snacks - One orange and one apple per day - sounds good to me.

Supper - TWO plates of spaghetti?! Dude, you are killing me, and likely yourself if you keep eating like that. Where are the veggies? Go down to ONE plate of spaghetti (or even 3/4 of a plate), have some broccoli or asparagus or green beans or spinach as a side dish. You could even have some fruit. Glad to see you make it with tuna (just don't eat more than about 2 cans of tuna PER MONTH or risk mercury poisioning - that's all debateable, but I had it from too much tuna although at the time I was eating 10 cans PER WEEK). The olive oil is good for you too, and tomato sauce or tomatoes prepared in any way is very good for you - for men especially. You should have some meals where you have VERY little carbohydrate at all. Example - Baked skinless chicken, green beans, banana, sweet potato or yams. Still carbohydrates there, but WAY less than 2 plates of spaghetti. I'm no adkins fan, but an excess of carbohydrates makes you retain water and unnecessary weight. You are running enough to be eating that many carbohydrates.

HOT COUNTRIES - My guess is that you are eating a lot less in those countries, and that is why you are losing weight while there.

SUMMARY - You're eating WAY too many simple carbohydrates - white bread (GOOD LORD!), pasta, 4 servings of toast for breakfast. You need to cut that out. Where are your veggies? You've got to add them.

If you want to drop some weight, just do it. Many will tell you to run more. That will work of course, but if you ever go back to running 3-4 times per week, you'll need to attack your diet. In my opinion, to get the body you want requires an 80/20 ratio of attention to diet/exercise. Diet is THAT important for people who need to lose weight.

Good luck.

The answer is yes to all questions.10-12 kgs is my normal weight gain during yearly 3 months rest.Get it off by running long and slow then work on speed.

are cherrios ok to eat for breakfast? I like them 3-4 days per week...easy and quick to "prepare."

ghost, If you ran a 2;37 on the old Maryland Marathon course that very respectable..That course was hilly as hell....Did you ever know Charlie Koester a 2;27 marathoner at Maryland Marathon.?

OMBTS is right the old Maryland Marathon has a really tough hill in it.

injuries are the devil wrote:

are cherrios ok to eat for breakfast? I like them 3-4 days per week...easy and quick to "prepare."

Regular Cheerios are great. Don't add sugar, and use skim milk and you've got a decent breakfast. Get your fruit and veggies later in the day if you only eat cereal for breakfast.