i2runner

 

Weight Loss & Running – part2

 

This is now the Part2 of my Weight Loss Series, where I would share my personal experience and elaborate more tips. In part1, I’ve mentioned I’ve lost 39pounds in 2years. If you average that, you would end-up with 0.4pounds/week. That’s quite slow, but most weight loss programs would recommend slow gradual loss of only 1 to 2pounds/week. This should ensure that mostly fat is being burned; otherwise muscle could be sacrificed if the weight loss is too fast. It is also observed that weight being lost too fast could be gained back quickly easily. Of course results would also vary between individuals with different body weights. On the other hand, running helps keep the weight down especially when weekly mileage is really high.

My personal History – Elementary to High School, College, and then Work
Like I’ve said, I’ve never been fat as a child even as a teenager. I would say I’ve been normal looking teenager, not too thin or too fat. I have been physically active like most young teenagers, loved playing basketball. Running looked tiring to me, and was wondering why my dad loved running for hours. When I tried running in high school, I could only last for 20minutes and I couldn’t run as fast as my dad. I was probably only in the 10 to 12minute/mile pace. I could sprint fast, but I wasn’t a long distance runner. Not yet.

Then in college, I was already inspired and convinced by my dad that long distance running was a great challenging sport for all people of all ages. If he could do it, I can do it, maybe even better. Even though I was a thin college student, I still tried to experiment with weight loss to maximize running performance. I ran up to approx 40miles/week (60kms/wk) and watched my diet. I lost weight until I only weighed 125pounds. Most of my friends would be surprised how thin I was, even though they themselves were already thin as most college students are.

When I started working, the workload was initially too much and I had to stop running. The surplus income meant I could buy any food I want, and eat as much food as I wanted. When work allowed me to travel to Belgium, their beer was so delicious that I got addicted to its taste. Not to mention Belgian chocolate pralines! Surprise surprise, I gained 10pounds in 2weeks! Then over the years I ballooned to 169pounds. Tried dieting without exercise, sometimes my weight would come down, but it was never consistent. Then one day I went to my friend’s place where he had a mini-gym. He worked out consistently and looked muscular. I then began to ponder, could I shape up again like I did in College?

Monitoring Weight
Monitoring weight is done best in the morning after waking up, going to the toilet, and before drinking or eating anything. Take off your slippers and clothes before stepping on the weighing scale. The lowest reading should be your official weight, since anything higher could probably be food or fluids. Monitor this weight daily, since this would fluctuate often, and it is recommended that the average be taken weekly.

Quantity, The Math, counting calories
I believe the real key to successful weight loss is deficiency of 3,500 to 4,000 calories per week. That’s about 500calories/day. That should translate to 1pound of weight loss per week. As I’ve mentioned, gradual weight loss should minimize muscle loss, and should not affect running performance nor have any health risk.

This means that after eating food, then burning it through our normal daily activity, we should have a net of -500 calories. We could do this by eating less, or running more, or both!

Deficiency = +Food intake –Normal Daily Activity –additional Exercise (example is Running)

The normal daily activity is usually termed as “Basal Metabolic Rate”, which is a factor of Body Weight, sex, and age. There are a lot of sources of information of food calories online, and you’ll probably be surprised how much calories there are in the food that you normally eat. Running is no doubt the best exercise there is to burn a lot of calories and consistently.

Calorie counting is not necessary, but is really effective. Most of the time, we have no idea of how much we are eating, according to some sources, we tend to underestimate the quantity of what we eat by 20%. In these modern times where delicious restaurants are all around us, and advertisements tempting us, it’s really hard to avoid over-eating especially with surplus 13th month bonus (18 to 21mos. for SM*RT employees) in the holidays.

I remember using my old P1i which had a mini-office excel to list down all the food that I eat, and monitor the net calories I’ve consumed, real time. So if you have one of these Cellphones or PDA’s that have excel or other similar programs to monitor calories, use them.

Quality and Nutrition
In the beginning of any diet weight loss programs, it is really hard to be consistent and persevere. I know, I’ve experienced this myself. Often you would feel hungry all the time, and you may even see yourself going past that -500calorie limit. In fact, running moderately could sometimes trigger hunger pangs. These normal primitive urge needs to be controlled. Hunger could be minimized by eating food that is high in fiber content such as oatmeal, whole wheat bread, and brown rice. Vegetables and fruits are also very low in calories but can have high fiber content and even water, which can give the stomach a fuller feeling. Whenever I crave for sweets, I eat a lot of ripe delicious mangoes which have fructose instead of sugar. At one time, I ate 5mangoes in one sitting because I loved them! They have a lot of fiber that also kept me feeling full.

I also tried to avoid fatty foods, sugar, and alcohol. Though sugar can be good in sportsdrinks in long distance running, it can be converted to fat when it’s not needed. Fat is available in most cheapest food, that’s why even poor people can still become fat, as long as they could afford junk foods. Meanwhile, the poorest of the poor who live and work in farms eat naturally nutritious food, and you’ll probably never find a fat farmer here in the Philippines.

Bottom line, as long as nutritiously sound food or well balanced meals are being consumed, you should be able to get your required vitamins and minerals, and high fiber content should enable you to become feel full most of the time. Avoiding sweets and only consuming complex carbohydrates would create a more stable sugar level that lessens low blood sugar that can often create hunger pangs and sluggish feelings.

Benefits of Running
Numerous studies have mentioned that slow, easy, and relaxed running enables the body to burn more proportions of fat than carbohydrates. Also when running exceeds 30minutes, fat becomes the dominant fuel. This is why long runs are highly recommended in training for longer races especially the marathon. It teaches the body to burn mostly fat, while sparing the precious limited supply of carbohydrates in form of glycogen.

Meanwhile, fast running like tempo runs and intervals burn mostly carbohydrates but have an “after-burn” effect in which you would keep on burning more calories after your workout even while sitting. I noticed that my heart rate seems to be higher than normal hours after a hard workout.

So should we run slower or faster? For beginners, it is recommended to run slower until they have enough endurance to run faster. For stronger experienced runners, running slower longer distances AND running at higher intensities have benefits that are greater than the sum.

When I started 2 years ago, in December 20, 2007, I could only run for a maximum of 20minutes (2miles or 3kms), 3 times a week. Total mileage per week was only about 6miles, a little less than 10Kms. That’s only 0.17pounds lost per week, and most weighing scales would not be able to read that small resolution. I didn’t mind burning too little calories. I knew, that basing on my running experience in college, I could soon increase my endurance and be running really long and be burning a lot of calories. So the first 3 months was all about increasing mileage slowly but surely. This was all about increasing my body’s fitness to run longer, and not rely on running yet as a way to lose weight. I had to really sacrifice by eating less, count my entire calorie intake and target a deficiency of 3,500calories/week.

Then as soon as I was able to run longer, life became easier. I was able to eat more, but still monitored my calorie intake.

Later during my marathon training when I was running 35 to 45miles/week (56 to 72kms/week); I reached my goal weight of 130pounds. I no longer needed to count calories; in fact I had problems digesting all the food I was eating.

Easier said than done
When I was injured with ITBS after the marathon, when I couldn’t run anymore, it became harder and harder to keep a low body weight, especially when my priority was to heal my injury as soon as possible. Then weeks became months of minimal running and I’ve gained 10pounds. Now that I’ve realized that running is really what inspires me to lose weight. Otherwise, I’ll be back to my old fatty self.

Last week I was able to run 30miles or 48kms, and that included quality running with speedwork and tempo runs. Hopefully my knees would be stronger before the start of 2010. For now, I’ll concentrate on the 5K’s while I’m still a little heavy with knee problems.