Weight Loss & Running – part1
Last Friday Beth and I attended takbo.ph’s first Christmas Party. I can’t believe that just last year there were only a few of us in our first LSD EyeBall and now I can’t recognize half of the members anymore. It’s really great our little group is now a big organization, and it keeps on growing! I badly just need to catch-up with the names of everybody there.
What really caught my eye was someone whom I thought I recognized but wasn’t so sure. It was Bryan. He lost 34.4pounds in 42 days, and won the first “Biggest Loser Contest” of takbo.ph. Just 2 months ago when I met him he really looked big, like it would take years before he would look like the stereotypical skinny, light & swift runner. Now he looked really fit, fast, and strong. His weight loss is a real inspiration. In case you think you also need to lose weight yourself, you can follow his method in his blog here http://planettrumania.blogspot.com/2009/12/lose34lbsin42days.html
My new idol Bryan
Big Bryan
Lighter, Swifter Bryan. Incredible!
I then remember more than 2 years ago I was also fat and had a huge beer belly. Well actually I have never been fat all my life until I had my first job in year 2000, when I have started to eat junk food and learned to drink beer. I balooned to 169pounds, and at 5′7.5″ tall, I have to admit I was fat. Then it was 2years ago when I made a conscious decision to try losing weight but it was really difficult with just “health” and “looks” as motivations. I would often lose 10pounds in 3months, and gain them back in a week. But losing weight became more consistent when I started running.
Personally, my real motivation for losing weight was just for running performance. I wanted to run faster and longer, and I know the extra weight around my waist was just holding me back. You don’t need a rocket scientist to explain to you that running with less body fat weight would help you run faster and longer.
At the beginning, I had poor endurance and could only run for 20minutes 3 times a week. Then I followed hal-higdon’s 5K and then 10K programs for a year. At that time, my mileage was well below 35miles/week, so I needed to really watch what I ate, and restricted the quantity of the food I ate. I even used calorie counting as my method, and found it realy effective. It was so easy to lose the first 20pounds as long as I monitored my calorie intake and expenditure. The next 10pounds took a longer time. Then after a year, I decided to train for the marathon. I was 140pounds at the time, not really fat anymore, but had an ambitious plan to break 4hours for the 42K. The training program forced me to run longer, peaking at 45miles/week, roughly 4,500calories/week which could burn 1.28pounds/week assuming my diet remains constant. It took me 6months to finally lose 10pounds more, until I reached my desired weight of 130pounds. Then a lot of my fat officemates and friends started to worry, saying I’m too thin. Well I try to tell them nicely that they’re too fat and they should start to run as well 
Most of the time, they don’t agree with me, until I point a healthy normal skinny teenager to them.
So in the end, I accomplished most of my running goals I’ve set for myself. The longer I ran, the more weight I lost, and this gave me the ability to run even longer. From 169pounds, I lost 39pounds in 2years to 130pounds. That’s a lot of time in comparison with Byran’s 42days. I was doing it slowly but surely. But it’s not impressive if you look at the time frame, while Bryan’s weight loss was incredible.
I would like to share how I looked like when I was 39pounds heavier and in comparison after my weight loss. I’m sorry for being half-naked in the picture, I didn’t have any intention of having the fat picture published. I still don’t have a body (like Argo’s) I could show-off, but I’m no longer ashamed to take my shirt off in the beach.
Beth and Argo insists I hit the gym and lift weights to bulk-up my upper body. I believe having too much upper body weight can be detrimental to running performance. A lot of runners think lifting weights to increase upper body strength could make them a faster runner, but I think ample amount of hills, speedwork & interval workouts already gives the right amount of stress unto the upper body that is specific to strong running. Anything more upper-body workout would be just for aesthetic reasons–that I’m not really motivated to improve… Well, maybe I’ll do that after I have maxxed out all of my running potential.
In addition to weight loss, I believe proper diet is really important to all runners–including very skinny runners. I see a lot of skinny runners eating huge amounts of hamburgers or other junk foods that are full of cholesterol. They think running wouldn’t make them fat anymore, they may be right, but running cannot clean-out the plaque buildup in the arteries. Wrong diet will speed-up the irreversible plaque build-up in the arteries that can cause hypertension and/or heart disease. Skinny thin people who have poor diet could still have this disease. Even high-mileage running cannot solve this. That’s why even the old runners like Alberto Salazar and Bill Rodgers have cardiovascular problems later in life despite their > 100MPW (160Kms/week) training!!! Alberto’s was a genetic problem that his cholesterol was naturally high, while Bill Rodgers ate a lot recklessly when he was young. Plaque build up increases blood pressure and loses elasticity of the artery walls that is needed for optimum running performance.
Bottom line, we should run a lot for our health, and try to be healthy for our running.
Comments (19)
man, that’s some transformation over the past two years.
I’m a transformer? Hehehe.
nats,
grabe ba? dako gid ang gin tranfom sang imo dagway. daw taga iban nga planeta halin. hehe.
btw, running is something that we are in real addicted and you see it later. hehe, there are lots and big big change in our life.
ti? hay nano?
hey, natz!
thanks a lot for the feature. very touching. 
frankly, even before going thru this post, i already considered you as one of those who inspires me to run as i know that you did a sub-4 in your 1st marathon in milo.
well, i’m only aiming for 4:30 as a long term goal.
i appreciate very much your story as i could definitely relate to it.
from 166 lbs, i’ll maintain just up to 180-185 lbs. i also agree that building too much muscle might be counterproductive to running performance and i just plan to tone a bit, not bulk up.
see you in the next races, dude!
Coach Salazar,
Aliens man guid ang transformers, di bla? Hehehe. You’re right about addiction, but it’s good! When I came back running again, I realized how great I felt even after running. My mind and body feels more active, like drinking coffee.
Idol Bryan, I’m happy to have somehow influenced you in your running. Don’t worry, you’ll probably be surprised with faster running later because of your weight loss. Maybe someday you’ll be lowering that 4:30 goal. I believe you can do it, it’s not easy but just keep on believing in yourself.
As for your weightloss, I’m a little bit worried because you lost all that weight so fast, it could also come back so fast if you neglect your diet. But it probably won’t happen to you since you’re already a runner, and running somehow stabilizes body weight.
Good luck in maintaining your weight bro, we’re so proud of you!
Holy shit. You guys are the bomb! Idol kayo coach!
Hi Sadrina, if we can do it, you can do it!
is all the weight loss from running?
No Sadrina, I’ve also watched and monitored what I eat. Like I said, I also counted calories. Running only makes it easier to lose weight and keep it off.
To answer Sadrina’s question,
Nope. Its a combo of diet and running. I didn’t do drastic changes to lose 19lbs, I only upped my mileage..i was probably running 17-20km/day the last 2 weeks of the competition. At the same time, I was controlling my food intake.
Natz, balik kna sa weight mo, you did gain weight nga.
Sadrina, Sam, this is only Part1, I still have Part2 to post. So abangan
[...] 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 [...]
Lifting weights can still improve running performance. Remember that the upper body isn’t subjected to the right amount of stress by running alone. So it is also important to train it. Weight training is not all about bulking up. Emphasizing the number of repetitions over the amount of weight can definitely improve running form.
Hi CK, thanks for stopping by. I will have to disagree with your opinion. Upper body does get the right amount of Running Stress needed for Running by Running Intensely like in speedwork repeats, intervals, or tempo-runs. By running faster, you subject your body to more stress, and the upper body has to work extra hard to balance the legs. So the stress/workout done unto the upper body is really specific to running. Lifting weights could probably improve running performance, but not as significant as speedwork/intervals, or doing the running itself. That’s why I would rather spend my precious time on the road running than in the gym lifting weights.
katawa ka natz! talaga ung before pix malungkot pa… hehehe!
too bad i lost sa BLC… i just can’t keep up sa winners.
Imagine the 12lbs weight loss i had was nothing compared to them!
Kudos to you and to all the BLCees!
12pounds lang na lose mo pero laki na ng diperensya bro! So you’re still a winning loser! Congrats to you, you’re a great inspiration too!
Di ako naka ngiti sa “before” picture kasi wala naman akong planong ipublish yan. For personal reference lang dapat. Hehehe. Kaso dahil sa BLC nyo, share ko na rin kahit naka “bold” ako. hehehe.
fantastic weight lost. you really look good and keep the tan. you look better. congratulations
Sir Patrick, thanks, I also like the way I looked, but some of my friends didn’t
My weightloss is nothing compared to yours, and it looks like you’re not even trying.
Your bodyweight is around 8%, right? My lowest was only 14%. Hope to get it to single digit someday.