Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
Can We Talk Diets
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
I guess I've found that now I have at least partly sorted out my relationship with food, I can read food labels and know what's in things without getting into that sort of obsessional bind (like not writing things down). And as you say, running helps. For me, running is more about the mental benefit than the actual "calories burned".
I thought I would answer her original question for a laugh cos I have been in her shoes.
I lost (and kept off quite happily) 4.5 stone using Weight watchers. I wasn't running at the time but was a gym rat. (hence my name). Found it good to have company and easy to stick to points so long as i didn't exercise too much - my appetite goes nuts when I run too much.
Now that I am running i am still paranoid about my weight - probably due to all the bloody lycra - anyway, I sort of use
www.weightlossresources.co.uk Great site if you are verging on OCD like me and you can see all your macronutrients in a lovely little pie chart.
This would be brill for you too emmilou - at least for a couple of days so you can see if you are getting enough carbs, protein etc. This is so hard to do purely by reading labels, but sticking them into this site is very easy and then it does all the hard work for you. They also do a three day free trial so you can use that every now and again without having to shell anything out.
and at least 1.5g protein per Kg body weight (if you want to lose body fat yet retain as much muscle as poss that is). If you are weight training as well as running this might need to be a bit higher although top recommended level is 2g per Kg body weight.
I thought they said "pints". D*mn!
These are daily targets.
eg for me:
67Kg so I aim for 268g carbs per day, 4 x 67 - this is 1072 calories worth
and 100g protein (I lift weights - this is 1.5 x 67) This is 400 cals worth
The rest is usually fat with me...... (oh dear) I aim for roughly 1800 a day + a bit more on heavy running days. So the above leaves me with 400 or so for fat which is 45g or 22% of my daily total.
(Ps I am studying sports nutrition at the moment - I am not just a complete diet obsessed saddo - honest)
Thanks
Ems
i just wanted to add another perspective to this debate. i don't think i have a particularly unhealthy relationship with food. i love cooking, enjoy eating good food, drink a bit, enjoy eating out etc. i don't consider myself to be particularly overweight - probably a bit heavy to be a good runner but thats not my frame of reference! i'm 5ft4 and i vary between 10st and 10st10 (currently 10st8)
i do use a food diary for a few weeks at a time here and there - normally when i'm changing my training and i want to make sure my food intake is reasonable for that training level. it was invaluable when i started ironman training and i was finding it hard to eat enough on long bike days.
in the past couple of years i've recorded 4 weeks in march 06, 6 weeks in july/august 05 and 6 weeks back in march/april 05.
i think that people who have (or used to have) a difficult relationship with food may struggle to see a food diary as useful rather than destructive but it is for me. i don't eat less because of it - normally i eat more!
I think I have to agree with you for me I think it will help to start a food diary just to get the hang of working out how much carbs/cals/protein etc I eat in relation to the amount of exercise. I have a healthy relationship with food. I don't crave foods and eat because I need to not just because that cake is sitting there. Nutritional information is conflicting and confusing and for someone new to running and wanting to take it seriously I think it is important to fuel your body with the right stuff for the job!
I think it will also help me to eat more as I am aware I do't eat enough at the moment and I ahve just had some great advice on another thread as to how to wotk it all out in relation to size/weight/exercise etc. But for me I think a diary is going to be a very efective tool
I've kept a record for a few days myself when I was marathon-training, eating what felt like loads and losing weight at an alarming pace. I should have needed 2,800 calories a day; I was actually having about 3,500 calories a day, which confirmed my suspicion that I'm not fuel-efficient when I'm training. It also confirmed that there's no way I could make a habit of recording my food intake.
all your comments make a lot of good info for me - the No Count system from WW sounds good - odd, though I thought all you forumites would be slim and toned and I was the only runner with a weight problem.
I would like to just eat healthily and excercise regularly but I feel as if I need some kind of framework - not a regular diet as these just make one feel deprived and, for me, thats when the rot sets in and the chocs come out, big time.
Surely thats way (weigh) too much?
You can eat huuuuuuuuuuuge amounts - all proper food, nothing is banned, lots of pasta too. The best bit for me is I can have a chocolate bar a day if I wanted to.
Lost 3lb last week.
no it isnt
not if you are exercising too
some fantastic points on this thread
not diet ones
brilliant
sezz-you cant eat fat on SW
I must admit I agree with the healthy eating instead of slimming clubs.
In January last year my scales registered 15st 13lbs. At 5ft 4" obese by a long way.
I had tried every diet under the sun - WW, SW, Scottish Slimmers, meal replacement - you name it I tried it.
Seeing 15st13 on the scales gave me a hell of a fright. Here I was 51 years old and heavier than I was with any of my pregnancies.
At that moment I decided I was not going to register 16st anything. I was really very upset.
I had given up running several years ago when I got cellulitus which I have had 6 times now. At that time I was running 4.5hrs for a marathon and 1.50 for a half.
Over the course of 4 years I gained 5st and it was time to get it off.
Instead of going back to a slimming club I decided to dump the junk food ie microwave meals, white bread, instant food, package food, biscuits etc and do some real cooking (something I have never done because I hate cooking).
I started having chicken and fish (have not eaten red meat for 12 years) loads of fresh veg, fruit, wholemeal bread and wholemeal pasta, drank water rather than loads coke.
I started back to running - well more walking than running and slowly built it up.
Result - 3stone lost in 1 year, 4 marathons run, each one faster than the last albeit it I have just got back under the 6hrs - FLM was 5.56.
How else did I do this - well it was with the support of everyone on these threads. I started a thread of the Health one called 'Too fat to run' last January and I still post there.
I have struggled a bit over the last few months and have not lost any weight. I still have 3st to lose but reading all the advice and support that people have been giving on here and writing this has really given me the motivation to get back to a healthier eating plan as it has gone astray lately.
Believe me though if I can do it and I swear I am addicted to food, I eat because I enjoy eating, then once you get your mind into thinking health not fat then it can be done.
Good luck Mad Julie and I hope to hear how you get on. Come and join us on the 'Too Fat' thread. We all encourage each other.
THAT is how to do it
(i have emotional isues that are keping me fat)
Respect yourself with exercise and friends. Keep posting on here for a start.
We all need the occasional chocolate cake followed by cheeseburger, a mars bar and a bacon roll washed down with a gallon of coke - but as Hips says these are generally caused by emotional issues. Focus on dealing with the emotional issues (highly recommend finding counsellor) and the weight drops off - because you don't 'need' food in the same way.
I got rid of my emotional fat first and am now trying to lose my exercise fat. Just remember you aren't alone. x
I find excercise bikes incredibly boring, but I found a comfortable one recently, am thinking of re-reading "Lord of the Rings"!
To bore you all, I will say that I did loose 3 stone initially. I can't attribute it wholly to running as I honestly did not start running with loosing weight in mind. In actual fact, I had resigned myself to be lardy ass, smoking slob for rest of my life. Until I started to run. By then the scales had been ''well and truly'' ditched. So I had no idea that I was loosing weight. Until my clothes started to feel a bit loose. Even then I did not acknowledge weight. But sure enough it came off. And when i did acknowledge I started to consider eating habits. So in the end running did help me to loose the weight.
But the big question is. Why can I not sustain this then? I now feel like lardy ass! I'm not back to where I was, but always it is lurking at the back of my mind. And I am certainly heavier than when i lost all of the weight.
I feel despondent as seem to have lost my self discipline.
I don't want to become obsessive about it. I realise that I am excercising now as opposed to prior couch potato. But I am struggling to find a balance as I get so hungry after a hard effort.
There is no solution is there? Yet again I have to realise that the only person that can sort this is me.
and your body
Blidy impossible if you ask me
I dont want a life of "constantly watching"
but
sigh
Piggery was the word for it.
Yes Hippo you are right as well - emotional reasons kept me fat. A hubby who didn't care if I was fat or thin but then moaned when I ate - so I ate all the more.....
why..
because I could. I suppose it also made up for the lack of attention I get. Food was the comfort I don't get at home.
Eventually I thought 'Stuff it, I am only hurting myself because he doesn't care'.
Maybe thats when the mind went into losing weight mode.
Does that make sense to anyone.
not quite prepared to sday all on herr about weight issue
but skirted roiund edge of eating disorder in teens-dont want to go there agsain
and if I ever get thin again---------well----theres the sex thing
One thing I do realise now though is that there is no short term fix. I thought I knew it all and could keep the weight off and even get the next 3 stone off but I became complacent over the last few months and after coming back from Turkey last week was shocked to see I had put on 10lbs.
It goes on a hell of a lot easier than it comes off that's for sure.
So much as I don't want to have to watch what I eat for the rest of my life - if I want to be healthy and enjoy my plodding and wear clothes out of anything but the outsize shop then I need to be aware of what I am eating and contol it every day of every week.
But I also need to be able to enjoy a glass of wine , a bar of chocolate or a cake every so often.
Im not going to post about that
I will refrain from posting about that other too...