Endurance Training and Weight Loss

[944fan]

Context - I ended last year and started this in a mess. The anxiety I have had for years was at its peak, I had stopped exercising, put on loads of weight, was eating crap and drinking enough to make Oliver Reed say "fking hell mate, calm down". I decided this year I would sort it for good. The wife and I committed to stop drinking forever, I went back to the drs, had blood tests and am being treated for low testosterone (possibly the cause of the anxiety), had counselling and importantly got back to excising. I decided I want to do something big so I entered a half ironman triathlon.

Now to the point of the thread. During the training I have lost 2.25 stone. But in the last month or so it has plateaued massively. I have hardly lost anything. Partly this is because I am in peak phase of training and just cannot manage the volume or intensity without eating a lot but mostly I am in calorie deficit.

I know endurance training is not optimal for fat loss and HIIT and strength training are better but I needed something I could get into and maintain. Any ideas on how I can continue to lose weight whilst still doing training that is effective for endurance sports?

Was thinking of maybe after the event doing low carb again as that worked for weight loss, but not for training and then maybe have 4-6 weeks of weight loss specific training to drop some pounds before resuming the base training over the winter?

[944fan]

I use MFP religiously. I have been trying to get most of my carb intake around exercise but that isn't always possible. I try to get a good portion of protein (180g) and the rest carbs and fat. I eat a good 8 portions of fruit and veg a day, mostly veg, not mad keen on fruit so usual limit that to 1 apple, 1 or 2 satsumas and possible some dried fruit with nuts.

Early on it worked well but the volume and intensity was low. Then I was aiming for about 500 cal a day deficit.

At this moment in time the training is huge. Yesterday I did 4.25 hours on the bike, this morning I did 2.6 km swim in the lake and am just about to go for a 19km run.

I wonder if perhaps the exercise cals are being massively over estimated by my Garmin. On the bike I have a power meter so the cal consumption is "quite" accurate as it directly measures work done. Swim and run it uses a formula. When I switched to the power meter the cal estimate for a ride dropped considerably, by almost 50%.

Perhaps I should halve the calories reported by Garmin ?

[944fan]

I've been taking photos every few weeks. Can notice the difference from early on but not recently.

I have also been using a hand held body fat scanner and calipers. I know these aren't very accurate but they seem consistent and those numbers aren't shifting either.

I don't think I am putting on muscle. I put on a bit last year when I was swimming loads but I think I have cashed in my beginners gains already.

I think it must be the Garmin over estimating. Yesterday I did 2.6km swim in the lake which took me 43 mins. I wasn't even trying and wearing a wetsuit I wasn't out of breath when I finished. Garmin had clocked 720 cals. I just don't think that is correct.

I am going to take half of what garmin says on run and swim and leave bike as is (this is pretty accurate from the power meter) and see how I get on.

I think I need to get this half ironman out of the way first then go back to some focus on weight loss. I might do a sprint tri later in the year and that is more about power and speed and so HIIT training will work better for that and boost weight loss

[944fan]

popeyewhite said:

Hoofy said:

Endurance training is certainly good for burning loads of calories but you need to eat loads of calories to do the training.

Not quite correct - the principle here is that the body will adapt to the rigours of training and will NOT need extra calories. It's possible the OP is ignoring the "NOT need calories" bit In truth most endurance runners I know, and I know a lot, have tiny appetites.

I had made that mistake early on. I was doing long runs and taking gels because I thought I was bonking, in reality my legs were just giving up through lack of run strength. I have been doing 90 mins run empty stomach a couple of times.

Swimming makes me extremely hungry for some reason.

ETA - I guess the endurance runners you know are all tiny though? I still weight 104kg so need to eat a far amount. Would love to get down to around 90kg. I am 6'5' and quite broad so will never by light,

Edited by 944fan on Monday 13th June 11:34

[944fan]

RizzoTheRat said:

Are you using a heart rate monitor with your garmin? My understanding is they calculate calories more accurately with hear rate data, but it's also dependant on which device you have as some calculate it differently.
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/11/how-calorie-mea...

Yes. So on the bike it uses the power meter (most accurate), running uses HR (slightly accurate) and swimming it just makes it up as you go along. I believe the newer Garmins have HR monitor that record in the water and then download when you get out but mine doesn't.

Mine does have the option of uploading the VO2 file if you can get one but I haven;t been able to find anywhere local that does VO2 testing. I also understand the VO2 max is fairly useless indicator so it doesn't seem worth seeking one out..

[944fan]

ewenm said:

If the OP is interested in food for endurance training the book "Training Food" by Renee McGregor is excellent. Explains the science, and provides great recipes.

Thanks Ewen, ordered on kindle.

[944fan]

I read "Training Food" by Renee McGregor. Its a good book but still quite dogmatic with "you need a fk ton of carbs". I prefer to use fewer carbs and consume them only around training.

I am back on track, have lost another stone and still continuing to improve my times in all events (obvs running improvement a lot comes from the weight loss) but I am back on top form swimming and my bike FTP has improved too.

Interestingly I think as I have got fitter my body has got much better at burning fat. This morning I did 17km, rolling terrain at 6:08 km/mile pace on an empty stomach. Some days it is hard to actually eat enough. Yesterday I did a tough 4km swim and 70 mins Z2 bike. Garmin said 2200 calories for them, I added 1400 to MFP but that is still 3000 cals with a 500 cal deficit to fill. Easy if you go for a pizza or couple of Mars bars but hard to eat that amount of fruit, veg, wholegrains and lean meat.

I am having one cheat day a week where I go nuts and then avoiding all sugar and refined carbs the other 6 days.

Bit worried that I might be losing weight too fast and it being muscle not fat, but my body fat is decreasing and as my times are improving I don't think I need to worry.

I weigh the lowest I have in a decade, set 3 running PBs this year, blood pressure is perfect (Was a little high when really fat).

Need a new set of clothes though.