Running a marathon is an incredible accomplishment, and training for one is no less so. The process gets more complicated when you want to reach a certain weight during your preparations. You’ll want to avoid taking drastic measures with weight loss to safely go for long distances. Slow and sustainable changes will ensure that the weight stays off and that you have the necessary energy for training. Fortunately, doing that isn’t rocket science. In this article, you’ll learn tips for properly trimming weight during marathon training. If the answer is 26.2 miles, then this article is for you.
Balancing Performance and Weight Loss
As a runner, your primary focus should always be on improving your performance and staying healthy. While losing weight can be a goal for some runners, it’s important to approach it in a way that doesn’t compromise your training or overall well-being. Before attempting to lose weight, consider your body composition, as the extra weight might be muscle mass, which is essential for running fast and strong.
First and foremost, it’s crucial to understand that this article is about running, not weight loss. If you’ve been following a well-structured training plan and implementing proper nutrition strategies, ask yourself:
- Is my body staying healthy and doing what I’m asking of it?
- Am I making improvements in my running?
If the answer to both questions is yes, then you may not need to focus on losing weight. Your body will naturally shed excess pounds if needed, without any interference on your part. If you’re not losing weight, you might already be at your optimal performance weight.
It’s also important to remember that “heavier” doesn’t always equal “slower.” Some runners, especially women returning from pregnancy, may find that they perform better with a few extra pounds.
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Timing Your Weight Loss Efforts
If you do have some extra weight you want to lose, try to do so before getting into serious training. The best time to start modifying your diet is during the off-season or a base-building phase, so you don’t risk compromising your race-specific running training. Aim to lose about 0.5 to 1 pound per week to avoid negatively impacting your running training. As your diet becomes healthier and you approach your optimal performance weight, the weight loss will naturally slow down. Focus on how you feel and perform, rather than the numbers on the scale.
What is base training?
Keep in mind that weight loss is a gradual process.
Strategies for Healthy Weight Loss During Marathon Training
Here are some basic strategies that have worked for athletes:
Eliminate mindless eating: Identify times and places where you tend to eat mindlessly, and take action:
- Eliminate the food from the situation (e.g., you don’t need ice cream to watch television at night)
- Eliminate the distraction (e.g., don’t scroll through social media while eating breakfast)
- Change the setting (e.g., take your lunch and snacks to the cafeteria rather than eating at your desk)
Hydrate between and before meals: Drink a glass of water when you get the urge to snack between meals and before meals. This can help you avoid overeating and improve hydration.
Beware of liquid calories: sodas, sports drinks, and juices are often high in calories, mostly from fast-acting sugars. Overconsuming carbohydrates, especially fast-acting sugars, when you don’t need them can lead to fat storage. Be intentional about when you choose these beverages over water.
Eat your veggies first: Start your meals with a salad or vegetables. This can improve your diet quality score and help fill you up before moving on to more calorically dense foods.
Use your hand to measure portions: Registered Dietician Amanda Carlson-Phillips suggests using your hand to determine portion sizes:
- Protein: A palm-sized portion
- Vegetables: A fist-sized portion
- Carbohydrates: A cupped, hand-sized portion
- Fats: A thumb-sized portion
Be realistic about snacking: Snacking is okay if it’s intentional. If you snack frequently, counterbalance with smaller meals, focusing on foods higher in protein and fat to help you feel satiated.
Adjusting Macronutrient Ratios
One of the most important things to do is adjust your macronutrient ratio to lose weight during marathon training. Eating the right macronutrients (carbs, proteins, and fats) helps you hit target calorie goals without sacrificing your training or race day performance.
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Start by tracking what you eat for at least two weeks to understand your current ratios between carbs, proteins, and fats. Once you have that data, adjust the proportions to hit the calorie goals that will get you to your desired weight. Be sure to include plenty of complex carbohydrates, which will give you sustained energy throughout your long runs while reducing calorie intake from fat. Remember that as the miles increase in your training your appetite may grow and you may need to adjust your macro targets.
Incorporating Specific Training Techniques
If you’re serious about losing weight while training for a marathon, interval training, strength training and HIIT should be on your list. They can help you get the most out of your workouts by manipulating every session’s intensity. Interval training involves alternating between lower-intensity and higher-intensity exercises, allowing you to train without feeling exhausted for extended periods.
Interval Training and HIIT
For marathon trainees committed to weight loss, incorporating intense workouts such as interval training and High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) into your regimen is beneficial. Interval training alternates between phases of lower and higher-intensity exercises, enabling sustained training without overwhelming fatigue. HIIT, a more defined form of interval training, consists of short, intense activity bursts-often under a minute - followed by brief recovery periods. Both techniques are invaluable for burning more calories, playing a pivotal role in marathon preparation.
Strength Training
Running daily can quickly deplete both your physical and mental energy. It’s beneficial to dedicate a few days each week to strength training. Most crucially, strength training develops muscle, which in turn enhances your calorie burn even when at rest. Integrating regular strength training into your marathon regimen can significantly amplify your weight loss efforts.
Doing bodyweight exercises or training with weights can help reduce the risk of running injuries. Also, it is not likely to make you as hungry as running.
The Importance of Meal Prepping
Meal prepping plays a huge role as you train for a marathon. Having meals prepped beforehand means you don’t have to rely on spur of the moment snacks or fast food. All you have to do is heat up your pre-prepared meal and enjoy. It helps you get the nutrients and vitamins your body needs during this intense training period using your daily meals and intentional snacks. That makes it easier to regulate your overall consumption. Another great thing about meal prepping is that it can be done in bulk. You can cook enough for entire periods and store it in individual containers to eat right on schedule.
By preparing your meals in advance, you eliminate the temptation to fall back on quick snacks or fast food. Simply reheat your pre-prepared meal, and you’re ready to go. One of the standout benefits of meal prepping is its suitability for bulk preparation. Dedicate time each week to plan and prepare your meals, ensuring you always have healthy choices available.
Smart Hydration Strategies
You might think you must avoid drinking anything besides water or other low-calorie drinks to stay hydrated, lose weight, and perform at your best for marathon training. But that’s not the whole truth. Drinking with care is about understanding when and what types of drinks will help your performance and maintain your weight.
- Water and low-calorie drinks: Staying hydrated while training for a marathon should be on everyone’s priority list. This doesn’t mean you can’t drink anything else to quench your thirst. The key is to focus on these two and take the rest in moderation.
- Rehydration drinks: These are specially designed to replace lost electrolytes, essential for maintaining optimal performance while reducing the risk of dehydration. Some of them also provide carbohydrates, which can speed up the recovery process after intense exercise sessions.
- Alcoholic beverages: Drinking alcoholic beverages is detrimental to losing weight while training for a marathon. The body will prioritize burning the calories from alcohol before stored body fat so it can hinder your weight loss goals. It’s important to note that if you do choose alcoholic beverages they should always be consumed after runs, not before or during them, due to their dehydrating properties. In addition, alcoholic beverages contain lots of calories, which could increase weight when consumed excessively. Consuming alcohol in moderation won’t necessarily sabotage your weight loss goals during marathon training. It’s critical to drink them only after runs, as their dehydrating effects can be detrimental if consumed before or during.
While hydration is essential for athletes, it’s equally important to be mindful of the calorie content in beverages. Choosing water or low-calorie alternatives like unsweetened tea or coffee can ensure you stay hydrated without the added calories.
The Importance of Whole Foods
Following a previous point, whole foods are the best choice for controlling weight while training for a marathon. On the other hand, processed food is often chock-full of added sugar, flour, and fat, which makes it higher in calories than whole foods. If your diet consists of whole foods instead of processed ones, you will be able to stay energized and hydrated during your training sessions. Fueling your body with a healthy diet and the right nutrients is essential for both marathon training and weight loss. Focus on incorporating nutrient-dense foods such as lean proteins, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables into your diet. It’s also important to pay attention to your body’s hunger and fullness cues and avoid overeating or restricting calories too much.
Vitamins, Minerals, and Supplements
Vitamins and minerals provide the body with the components for a healthy metabolism. You may need help to reach your daily requirements. Regular bloodwork can help you know if you need to use supplements. Enhancing your diet with essential vitamins and minerals becomes crucial. These key nutrients are instrumental in sustaining a healthy metabolism and can aid in reducing cravings for unhealthy snacks, thus preventing overeating. Incorporating these supplements into your nutritional plan is vital to prevent deficiencies that could hinder your training progress. It’s especially important to ensure your body receives all the necessary nutrients when preparing for a marathon and pursuing weight loss goals. For specific advice on addressing nutrient deficiencies and selecting the most beneficial supplements for your unique needs, consulting with a healthcare professional or a registered dietitian is recommended.
Calorie Balance and Deficit
The secret to losing weight while training for a marathon is to burn calories and achieve a calorie deficit. Theoretically, if you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. So if you burn 3,500 calories and consume 3,000 calories daily, you create a daily shortfall of 500 calories. However, this model doesn’t perfectly mirror reality. A better strategy involves being able to lose weight and burn fat by eliminating 300 to 500 calories from your evening meal.
Losing weight is achieved through a calorie deficit, which means your body is burning more calories than it is taking in through food. This can be done by moving more, eating less or, ideally, a combination of the two.
Addressing Common Misconceptions
You might be surprised to know that many new marathoners don’t lose any weight during training. In fact, many people actually gain weight when they train for a marathon. Scan any running blog or online forum, and you'll find countless posts written by frustrated runners who (reasonably) expect to slim down as they slog through their weekly miles. But instead, race day arrives, and they are no leaner than the day they started training.
It is easy to overestimate the number of calories that you burn during a workout. Even if you wear a fitness monitor that tracks calories burned, the number can be inaccurate.
Prioritizing Goals
Working towards both your weight loss goal and the marathon goal simultaneously is possible, but you should prioritize one. Making the decision may depend on your current weight and state of health. For example, if you are overweight or obese, losing weight may help you run a marathon more comfortably and efficiently. In this case, losing weight would be a wise priority. But if you are heavier than you'd like to be, yet not overweight, running may help you be more comfortable with your body. You might learn to love your body the way it is, based on what it can do rather than on what it looks like. In this case, marathon training would be a smart priority. If weight loss gets in the way of reaching your running goals, then postpone it.
Nutritional Guidelines for Marathon Runners
Be sure to get balanced nutrition during training. Avoid diets that eliminate or severely restrict a food group, especially carbohydrates. An athlete exercising 3 to 6 hours per day at an intense level in 1 to 2 daily workouts for 5 to 6 days per week would need to consume 8 to 10 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of weight per day. For protein, consuming 1.4 to 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of weight is recommended. Try to avoid refined grains and processed foods. Instead, spend most of your carbohydrate allowance on filling and nutritious whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. However, keep in mind that immediately before and during your long runs, you need quick energy. If you're an evening runner and you've fallen victim to the late-night-eating habit, consider moving your biggest meal to the middle of the day. You can also use meal prep strategies to improve your food timing. Prep healthy pre-and post-run snacks once each week and have them ready to go when you need them.
Ensuring proper nutrition before, during, and after long runs is essential to maintain enough energy for both training and recovery.
Integrating Running into a Broader Fitness Plan
Running is a simple, effective way to get in shape and even support weight loss. All you need is a good pair of running shoes and a surface to run on-whether it’s outdoors or a treadmill-making it one of the most accessible forms of exercise.
Gradual Progression
When starting a new running routine, it’s important to start slow and build up your endurance. One of the most common mistakes people make is going too hard, too soon, which can lead to fatigue, injury and eventually burnout. Before lacing up and hitting the pavement, it’s important to ease in with intention. If you’re new to running, a smart way to start is with run-walk intervals. This involves running for a minute, then walking for a minute or two to recover (you can also make the intervals longer if preferred). As you become more comfortable with running, it’s a good idea to add some strength-training exercises into your routine. This can include weight training, body-weight exercises, Pilates and yoga, all of which help to build muscular strength and stability.
Cross-Training and Rest
Many beginners don’t realize how critical cross-training is. Taking rest days is also key, as it allows for proper muscle recovery and reduces the risk of overtraining and injury. As a beginner, you may need to add in more rest days at first while your body adapts to these new demands. Recovery is the unsung hero of progress-it helps you stay consistent, ensures longevity in your training and keeps you on track for results in the long run (pun fully intended). So what exactly should you do on rest days? While your body may simply need a break, low-impact workouts are also a good idea. Optional: As you become more comfortable with running, you may choose to add in one or two strength-training days each week. Tip: As you become stronger, you may wish to gradually increase the time or intensity of your runs.
How Often to Run
There are no hard-and-fast rules in terms of duration or frequency that a person should be running. Research has found that engaging in as little as 30 minutes per week of aerobic activity-such as walking or running-can lead to modest weight loss. But achieving at least 150 minutes per week leads to more meaningful reductions. To put this into perspective, that equates to about 21 minutes of activity per day over a week, or 30 minutes per day for five days a week. Keep in mind that while these are good goals to reach for, some people may need to start with fewer sessions and gradually increase their running frequency as their fitness improves.
Additional Tips
- Choose non-food treats to reward your efforts. For example, after a long run, you might get a massage.
- Seek the guidance of a registered dietitian with knowledge and expertise in sports training or running. Your nutrition professional may also be able to help you sort through your goals.