First off, I did a cross-training workout this morning on the rowing machine. I did 5 minutes of easy rowing, then 10 hard, 5 easy, 10 hard, 5 easy. Just in one week I feel more comfortable on that damn machine. The worst thing about the rowing machine is that my headphones cord kept getting caught underneath the seat as I would slide backwards on the rails.
Anyway, the point of this post is to talk about eating and weight loss while training for a marathon. I have noticed in the past 2 weeks that my appetite has become ridiculous. I am pretty much hungry all the time. This will hopefully go away soon as my body becomes more efficient at using the fuel I put into it. Right now I'd guess I'm eating somewhere between 2000 and 2300 calories a day, and burning an average of 500 calories in my weekday workouts. During my long runs I'll burn anywhere from 1000 to 2000 calories. To make things simpler, let's say my "average daily calorie burnage from running" is 570. For reference, someone my height and weight needs around 2000 calories a day just to maintain weight and support normal bodily functions.
If my math is correct, that means I'm definitely in a calorie-deficient mode.
I eat 2300 calories a day
I use 2000 calories just by living
I burn 570 calories by excercising
So I'm down 270 calories a day, about 1900 calories a week. This also doesn't take into account the "Afterburner Effect" which refers to the increased speed your metabolism runs at for a few hours after excercising. Even if this effects gives me only 100 extra burned calories a day, I'm up to 2500 calories for the week that I'm burning off.
Burning off 2500 calories, as a general rule, equals 1 pound of fat. This doesn't strictly apply to me since I've lost a lot of fat already, but I definitely seem to lose around a pound each week as I train. My goal for this marathon is to get close to 155. I weigh 174 right now, and there are 24 weeks until the maratahon. I think my goal is attainable, but it will be VERY hard once I get into the lower 160's.
One trick I use is to only eat garbage on the weekends. I find that most diets fail because there is no "light at the end of the tunnel" as far as when the diet can end. The reality is that diets don't work because they are, by definiton, temporary measures. To ensure that the weight stays off you have to change the way you live your every day life, which is VERY hard to do. I've found that it's easier for me to eat pretty healthy stuff on the weekdays as long as I know that on the weekends I can eat pretty much whatever I want. This works partly because on Sundays I do my long run, which can burn thousands of calories. It also works because by the time the weekend rolls around, I'm not really that interested in pigging out anymore. I'll have a nice dinner or a few beers, but I don't go on binges that would sabotage the results of my discipline during the week. The "Weekend Rule" works for me, so that's what I'm sticking to.
So, if anyone wants a surefire way to lose a lot of weight, just run a marathon and only eat junk food on the weekends. It's that simple.
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