Gaining weight while running high mileage....WTF am I supposed to eat?!?!?

WTF am I supposed to eat?!?!?

Less.

Please don't listen to this troll. Cut out the processed sugar/carbs such as pasta, pizza...etc. Get on a strict diet of only drinking water as well. Don't waste your time with Sugar drinks. I only mix gatorade or electrolyte if I'm going over 1 hour of running.

Relatable problem, I starting eating more protein for breakfast (after runs of course) and that seems to help quite a bit. Like whatever your breakfast is, add peanut butter wherever you can.

Lydiard Cerutty is the most optimal advice in my opinion. The links that he posted are priceless and you should all investigate these links to learn the optimal dietary lifestyle especially for an endurance athlete. Thanks for posting your links for everyone Lydiard Cerutty.

ahhh..... a good ol' fashioned nutrition thread with the requisite anti-carb/paleo whacko vs intense vegans/vegetarians battle. Man, this brings me back. Way back. It's been awhile. And yes, I used dominate (in a good or bad fashion, depending on which "team" you were on) these threads.

Dudeitsnothard wrote:

Dude you’re way over complicating this

Cut back on the carbs... there is no need to eat a ton of carbs when you’re sitting at a desk all day

That’s a recipe for weight gain, which is exactly what happened to you.

Cut back to like 100g of carbs per day - that’s plenty to fuel you through relatively low mileage

Doesn’t take a genius to figure out that you’ll get fat if you eat a lot of carbs and sit at a computer all day

Love it. This is like the guy's 4th post on this thread under 4 different names. Classic. Carbs, carbs, carbs, CARBS. Utter and complete nonsense. Oh sure, cutting carbs will sometimes help one lose weight BECAUSE: one doesn't always replace all those carb *CALORIES* with other calories, and because some foods that people consider "carbs" (like Pizza and desserts) also have tons of FAT (and are super calorie dense)

Cutting carbs per se does not help people lose weight. Say it with me: Cutting carbs per se does not help people lose weight. However, cutting carbs can, indirectly, help one lose weight because people who are "cutting carbs" are often cutting TOTAL CALORIES and FAT. It isn't and never was the carbs directly causing weight/fat gain.

[And furthermore, when you eat less carbs, you lose water weight (which I don't think most people are trying to lose when losing weight.) So yeah, whoopee, I lost 2 lbs of water!]

You think that you gained weight after cutting tons of calories but keeping activity levels constant??? I hope that's not what you are believing.

San Diego Hobby Jogger wrote:

As for the taubes hate article, an underfunded, and incorrectly done study doesn't dispelled his hypothesis. It's sad how funding in the research world has to turn a scientist into a salesman

Lol! What's sad is that anyone believed a word Gary Taubes ever said. Why would you? Because he, *gasp* was "telling you everything you ever learned about eating was WRONG!" How sexy. What a great selling point for a book. Too bad dozens of other best selling authors didn't think of it/copy it. Oh wait, they did.

jaguar1 wrote:

Spot on. I was discussing this with an elite marathoner friend recently. Early in her career she was putting on weight and didn't know why. She met with a dietician and found out she was in a significant energy deficit (like the -1000kcal above). Because she wasn't eating enough she was fatigued and sleeping a lot too, which further slowed down her metabolism. She started eating more and eating frequently/snacking. She kept a food journal/calorie count at first-- changed her snacking habits to healthier food choices while also getting in more kcals daily. Within a few months she got lean again and was performing great.

C'mon. You are being misleading or are simply deluded. The only way your friend was "putting on weight" while experiencing a 1000kcal energy deficit was................she actually had cut down on her activity levels greatly because she was tired, and therefore was ......NOT ACTUALLY in a 1000kcal energy deficit.

(Don't you have a degree in nutrition or related field??? My God, don't espouse pseudoscience. C'mon now. )

HahaRiiiiiiight wrote:

You just quoted the US Department of Health and Human Services for nutrition advice - this is literally the LAST place you should be looking. Have you seen the food pyramid they put out? The US Gov't is largely responsible for the obesity epidemic in this country - by pushing a high carb low fat diet. A good rule of thumb is to do the exact opposite of what they will tell you...

I just knew one of you paleo nut jobs would jump all over that post of his.

The US Gov't never told anyone to sit on their couch and watch tv all day, or sit in an office or their car all day, and then subsist off of fast food and junk food. NEVER.....HAPPENED. That is why people are fat. Has nothing to do with the, gasp! EVIL FOOD PYRAMID!!!!

My God you trolls never stop.

You're simply stating the obvious here - of course many Americans sit on the couch and eat fast food all day.

The US Gov't did tell people to eat carbs all day (bread, potatoes, grains, etc) and oooooooh fat is sooooooooo bad - don't eat it! In reality the opposite is true. The food pyramid should be flipped upside down. These are FACTS. And no I'm not paleo.

I dont know whether or not you run doubles or not but , i eat very little during the day and have only really have lunch before arvo track session, then i eat alot after to replenish

Captain obvious here, add more cardio. Add another EASY 30-60 minute jog (or bike, walk or swimming) to your day on top of what you are already running.

I'm in agreement with your statement that "The US Gov't did tell people to eat carbs all day (bread, potatoes, grains, etc)" In the same report that I previously attached they state as a myth:

"Myth: Grain products such as bread, pasta, and rice are fattening. You should avoid them when trying to lose weight." and then state: "Fact: Grains themselves aren’t necessarily fattening—or unhealthy–although substituting whole grains for refined-grain products is healthier and may help you feel fuller."

So, yes, the US Gov't does recommend carbs, although they do recommend grains over refined-grain products.

I disagree that the US Govt said "and oooooooh fat is sooooooooo bad - don't eat it!" In the same report that I previously attached they state as a myth:

"Myth: You should avoid all fats if you’re trying to be healthy or lose weight." and then state: "Fact: You do not have to avoid all fats if you’re trying to improve your health or lose weight. Fat provides essential nutrients and should be an important part of a healthy eating plan. But because fats have more calories per gram than protein or carbohydrates, or “carbs,” you need to limit fats to avoid extra calories. If you are trying to lose weight, consider eating small amounts of food with healthy fats, such as avocados, olives, or nuts. You also could replace whole-fat cheese or milk with lower-fat versions."

So, I think the OP is better off following the advice of US Govt studies, over anoynomous message board posters

intenserunner wrote:

You probably eat too much carbs/sugar. Eat more fat. Check out "Eat Fat, Lose Fat" by Dr. Mary Enig

While she was right about trans fats, she was quite misguided relative to the role of saturated fats and the incidence and prevalence of atherosclerotic vascular disease. And while eating sugar is a not beneficial if one is trying to lose weight, the consumption of high complex carbs actually helps promote weight loss, and lowers the incidence of diabetes, vascular disease and colon cancer.

This guy is listed as 170cm/48kg. How much weight can he lose if he cut back on his rice consumption?

https://www.gettyimages.com/pictures/yuta-shitara-8769504#yuta-shitara-of-japan-crosses-the-finish-line-during-the-tokyo-2018-picture-id937594612

If you’re in too much of an energy deficit your hormonal milieu shifts so your metabolism slows down and goes into a preservation/starvation mode to store what you eat. You add chronic levels of stress on top of it, and it further compounds the problem. To lose the added wt and restore hormonal balance you need to increase caloric intake- eating more frequently can help achieve this and increase metabolism.

For anyone wanting to lose wt you want to have a deficit, but not in excess as pointed out. Working with a registered dietician is very helpful to figure out your energy balance and how to make changes to meet your persoal needs.

Another update:

I've been feeling pretty bad on all my runs this week and today I could barely even slog out 9 minute mile pace. Usually my easy days I start around low 8 pace and work down to low 7. Also the weight just keeps going up, my gut is huge and my weight is now 158. Just feel like total crap. Maybe I'm overtraining? Definitely don't feel like running tomorrow. Could overtraining be causing weight gain and hunger rather than my diet?

snow blow wrote:

Another update:

I've been feeling pretty bad on all my runs this week and today I could barely even slog out 9 minute mile pace. Usually my easy days I start around low 8 pace and work down to low 7. Also the weight just keeps going up, my gut is huge and my weight is now 158. Just feel like total crap. Maybe I'm overtraining? Definitely don't feel like running tomorrow. Could overtraining be causing weight gain and hunger rather than my diet?

Go to a doctor and check your hormones, vitamins, and mineral levels.

snow blow wrote:

Another update:

I've been feeling pretty bad on all my runs this week and today I could barely even slog out 9 minute mile pace. Usually my easy days I start around low 8 pace and work down to low 7. Also the weight just keeps going up, my gut is huge and my weight is now 158. Just feel like total crap. Maybe I'm overtraining? Definitely don't feel like running tomorrow. Could overtraining be causing weight gain and hunger rather than my diet?

Make sure are not hypothyroid. That often leads to weight gain/sluggishness.

As far as overtraining making you fat: no, not directly. Contrary to some suggestions on this thread, you don't start gaining weight when activity levels and calories are kept constant but "stress" hormones, or something like that, have become elevated {and if so, it would be by an extremely small amount}. And , no, you don't gain weight when starving yourself because your body is "holding on to calories". The only explanation there would be: if while cutting calories you reduced your activity levels even more than you were cutting calories ).

Now of course overtraining could indirectly lead to weight gain, but only if you became so tired from overtraining, you started training less volume and less intensity, and being less active overall, i.e., you reduced your calories burned throughout the week but kept calories consumed constant. OR.....you kept activity levels constant, but became depressed from being tired and out of it, and tried, consciously or unconsciously, to feel better by eating more than normal. Those would be the indirect explanations. But eating too little (while keep activity levels constant), or exercising too much (while keep calories consumed constant), doesn't directly make you fat, despite some of the physiological wizardry promoted on this thread.