Running and Weight Control

A lot of people assume that if you are a runner you won’t have any problems with weight control. This is a fallacy! If you had trouble with weight control before running don’t assume that becoming a runner will solve your weight problem. If you don’t change some things it could actually make it worse. On the other hand, some lucky individuals have very high metabolisms and don’t really have much of a weight problem. Often times these individuals are young, and if they continue to eat the same way, will develop weight problems as they get older. So what are some of the problems affecting runners and weight control?

For one thing, running can dramatically increase ones appetite! And, it is really easy to think; “I ran so many miles, so now I can reward myself with food.” This kind of thinking can be disastrous when it comes to weight control. I don’t know how many times I have heard the phrase, “I run to eat!” Often it is said in a jovial manner, but for many it is their mantra! In addition to this problematic thinking there are other factors that can affect weight.

While it is true that calories in vs. calories out or calories expended is a key to weight control, there are other factors involved. I have seen it myself; I count my calories in and count my calories expended, with a significant deficit, only to discover that I didn’t lose any weight at all or worse actually gained weight! What went wrong?

Let’s address the problem of “running to eat” first.

It is very easy to not really be aware of how few calories were actually depleted during a one-hour run. Most calorie calculators give you the total calories burned during the hour but do not give you the factor of how many calories you burned above your Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR). Let’s say the average person burns 100 calories per mile at a 10 minute per mile pace. That equals 600 calories burned. But if their BMR is 1500 calories a day (1500/24=62.5 cal per hour) they only burned 537.5 calories more than they would normally have burned during that hour just sitting.

Let’s use these 537 calories expended as our example and let’s say that you run 5 hours a week. So 537x5=2685. That is a pretty significant calorie deficit, right? I mean that is equivalent to roughly a little more than 2/3 a pound of weight loss in a week. Sounds good, right? However, we all know that we need to replace glycogen by eating carbohydrates (carbs). Mentally and physically we feel a bit drained from our run and we then eat a recovery meal. Unfortunately, we often miscalculate the amount of carbs needed to replace that glycogen spent during exercise. Even though we expended 537 calories, roughly 60% of those calories were glycogen, which we replace through carbs, and 40% were fat. If we make the mistake of thinking that we need to replace all 537 calories as carbs we can quickly run into trouble if our goal is weight loss. In other words 40% of those calories will be converted to fat by the body instead of glycogen, so we don’t want to replace all 537 calories with carbs. We only want to replace 322 of those calories expended with carbs. In actuality it is even more complicated than this if you are going to count calories. I just used this example to illustrate how we can trick ourselves into eating more than we really need. In fact many of us don’t do the calculations at all; we simply guesstimate and we are usually way off the mark.

How about the person that really is meticulous about their calorie counting and eats “healthy foods” only to discover they remain the same weight, or worse, gain weight? What is going on with them? I have found myself in this situation where I did lose weight but only to a certain point, then no matter what I just couldn’t lose those last 10-15 pounds. Mind you, I was not clinically overweight but definitely had extra weight I could lose in order to be a better runner/athlete!

According to Lyn Genet Recitas, author of the book “The Plan”, some of the foods that you are eating may be causing an inflammatory response in your body that you are not aware of. This inflammatory response can cause weight gain because it releases hormones like Cortisol into our blood stream and causes our metabolism to slow down and burn less calories and actually store more fat. Mrs. Recitas has been working with people and their diets for many years and has recorded responses to foods. She has listed the most reactive foods on her website ( http://lyngenet.com/ ) and in her book. While you might be tempted to just use this list to stay away from those foods that are the most reactive, you would really be depriving yourself of a lot of foods that you may not be reactive to. Everyone is different so everyone needs to follow the plan to find those foods that may be giving him or her trouble.

The Plan starts with a 3-day cleanse type diet to get your body out of its potential inflammatory state. While the food is a little bland during the three days, it is not really that bad. I love my food and I had no problem with it. At the end of day 3 she introduces meat back into the diet. If you are vegan or vegetarian she also has a plan for you on her website but you still need to read the book first to understand how the plan works and what is going on.

My wife followed the 20-day plan regimen first and had remarkable improvement with the inflammation she had been feeling in her legs and knees. She found that she was reactive to Salmon, Oatmeal and some wheat breads. She had to experiment after the initial 20 days and found that she was not reactive to all wheat breads. Apparently those that use yeast are the most reactive for her and also multi-grain breads. While not trying the diet to loose weight, she lost 9 pounds during the initial 20 days and an additional 2 pounds after the 20 days with an ending weight of 112 pounds.

The plan is not a diet in the sense of cutting calories to lose weight. It is more about finding your reactive foods and eliminating them. Don’t get scared about this as it will probably only be a few items. It’s not that you can never have these foods again, you just have to know what your reaction will be and that after a few days of eating your good foods again you will be right back to normal.

After seeing my wife’s results I started following “The Plan.” I did not find things that I was reactive to during the plan but then again I did not eat many of the things that were normal to my diet during that time. I lost 13 pounds and seemed to recover from my runs much faster, especially my hard runs. I have yet to try Salmon, which my wife and I previously had 2-3 times a week. The bread I have been eating is the same bread my wife found she was not reactive to and I have not tried other breads other than restaurants, which skews the results because of the high sodium content in their meals.

During my 20 days on “The Plan” I exercised, but not as much as usual. On day eight I did a 23-mile bike ride and totally ran out of energy on the return trip. My best guess is that because I had dropped 8 pounds in the previous 7 days that my body was trying to conserve. You see our bodies try to maintain our weight if we have been at the same weight for some time.  After that day I felt great! I did a 16 mile run three days later without any problem at all. Remember that I was not cutting calories; I was simply eating differently with a lot more fresh vegetables, spices, and good fats than usual. This required more planning both in buying foods and preparing foods. We have generally, as a society, gotten way too dependent on prepackaged and prepared foods. This is another thing that is making us fat.

By the way, I now eat almost twice as much fat in my diet than before and I still lost and maintained my new weight. The difference is they are healthy fats from avocado, nuts, goat cheese and olive oil. Fats are essential for satiety in our diets. If we don’t get enough of the right kind of fats we will never feel satisfied and will get hungry faster and more often. Don’t be afraid of these good fats!

So what is the bottom line? If you have been struggling with losing those last 5-15 pounds I highly recommend “The Plan” by Lyn Genet Recitas.” And by the way if you plan on buying the book through Amazon, please click through one of the Amazon ads to the right of my articles. Once at the site you can do a search for the book.

Thanks and Happy Trails,

Russ Barber