Been running and working out fairly successfully for about 8 months now. I’m 5’11" and am done to 160 from about 174. I typically run 3-7 miles every other day, with a long run >10miles every month or so.
I’ve noticed recently now that I’m down to 160 lbs that I’m not able to run as far, or lift as well. Plus on occasion of standing up, I get a bit light headed.
Could this be due to not getting enough fuel in me? I think it is, and I need to eat a bit more and gain a couple pounds back (or at least stop losing weight).
Opinions on this? I will definitely bring it up wit the doctor at my next visit. I’m mostly looking for confirmation, or not, that I should be eating more
What is a typical day’s intake?
Have you recently increased the effort/speed of your runs?
What are your basic lifting routines? (include your # of sets and reps)
I really don’t know the answer to most of those questions. I did my longest run ever,14 miles, last Sunday. I’ve seemed to have lost ~2-3 pounds over the last 3 weeks. And I’ve just started the issues this week, after my longest run.
I don’t pay a lot of attention to what I eat. Not a lot of junk, but I don’t go out of my way to search healthy stuff either. I mostly eat meat, potatoes, squash, spaghetti type stuff. Hamburgers, chili, cheese. Not a lot of veges but a decent amount of fruit, starches and protein.
I must be running a deficit in calories, but I’m not sure that is a bad thing. Maybe I have lost too much and should concentrate on stabilizing my weight…or gaining a bit more. Hence my quest for opinions on it.
Do you eat anything like GU gel packs or drink a sports drink on the longer runs? It’s possible that you are running low on blood sugar after about 2 hours of aerobic exercise.
The fact that you’ve lost weight and your body fat percentage is lower could mean that your ready stores of things to convert to blood sugar are running low. In other words, you have a smaller gas tank now and need to put gas in the tank more often.
I’m a distance cyclist, plus do the occasional half marathon slowly, and I have to put some carbs in my for rides over 3 hours and, trust me, I have plenty of fat in my gas tank. I also have to drink water at about 20 ounces every hour after the first hour or I get dehydrated.
My best running weight was around 180 lbs at 6’1". I’m 30 lbs heavier than that now.
It’s difficult to lift heavy and do a large amount of aerobic work.
You burn appx. 1 gram of muscle tissue per mile. Over the last 8 months that could be 4-7 lbs of muscle.
If you greatly increased the speed you run at, you’ll be burning far more glycogen than before. You might be depleting your stores over several days time.
Lifting is also anaerobic, accounting for more glycogen use.
What days doo you lift compared to the days you run?
Many believe that the timing of your nutrition matters mightily as well.
Some complex carbs an hour or so before a major work out, especially your longer runs, and some mix of carbs with something like 15 to 20 grams of protein within an hour afterwards, with more protein and carbs another hour or so later.
The concept is to get some glycogen stored before the run and to get the protein driven in to repair the muscles afterwards. Getting the protein on board in that window helps avoid a fair amount of the muscle loss that rp references. Some experts curently advise some protein along with the carbs before and during a long run as well. (OTOH some athletes find that it takes only a little protein before and during to trigger some gastrointenstinal issues, so very literally, YMMV.)
Avoiding the loss of muscle mass while running a calorie deficit with primarily endurance cardio is difficult. Not impossible however with adequate nutrition adequately timed, especially if you are doing some resistance training as well.