Avoid Marathon Training Weight Gain

written by runnergirl training 

When training for a marathon, often runners lose weight. This may be intentional or unintentional as a byproduct of logging many miles. However, sometimes weight gain may actually occur. Let’s take a look at a few reasons why. See below!

Problem:

When logging so many miles it is quite easy to think that long run calorie burn equals 2 cheese burgers. That may happen more often that realize that you’re over-indulging. Weight gain can creep up behind you before you know it.

Solution:

Try to balance out your food intake throughout the day. Remember to eat before a long run so your body has fuel to burn. And eat around 20 grams of protein post run to refuel and recover.

Problem:

You need to keep up your hydration level when increasing workout duration or intensity. An increase in the number of runs per week, length of run & intensity of run need to be met with an increase in water. Often our minds tell us we’re hungry when we’re actually thirty. We hear an internal alarm & meet it with food, when we really were dehydrated.

Solution:

1-2 hours before your run, drink 16-20 ounces. During your run, drink 5-12 ounces every 20 minutes. Make sure during the day your urine is pale yellow.

Problem:

More workouts or more intense running increases your metabolism. You will most likely feel hungry frequently. Have high quality snacks and meals mentally prepared so after a run you aren’t prone to scarf whatever flies out of the refrigerator the quickest.

Solution:

Great fuel sources for running are complex carbohydrates, protein and lots of vegetables. All of these food groups take a while to digest and provide excellent sources of energy.

Problem:

You are diligently watching what you eat, hydrating according to plan and logging those marathon miles. Yet, you’re still gaining weight. It could be muscle gain. Muscle is accumulated when the body works against resistance and also increases in size with adapting to repeated use. Muscle holds water so the scale reflects that too.

Solution:

If your weight has gone up despite being a healthy eater and you have no known medical problems to cause weight gain, it is most likely muscle gain from the training. This is a good weight gain since muscle will power you through those long miles and increase your metabolism, as opposed to gaining fat.

There are a variety of reasons why weight gain can happening while training for a marathon. Learning why it is occurring can help make sure you have healthy and balanced habits during your marathon training season.