Running but no weight loss!

[OneOfTheGrundys]

Hello! I joined my local social running club last September. I’m now running 6-8 k every other day in lockdown. It’s very hilly where we live so I’m pleased with this.
But. I’m still a size 16 and about 5”4. Eating same as before. What’s happening?
Am I getting fitter? Healthier? Is this worth it? 😭

Some people will come along and tell you muscle turns to fat, but it's not that. There isn't enough of a calorie deficit. You need to eat less calories. Not necessarily less food, but less calories. I ran and dieted and gradually lost loads of weight (10kg) so I know this works. Under the fat, you will have a great, toned body so you are doing the right thing with the running. Try calorie counting just for a.week on what you are currently eating. Count everything. Use myfitnesspal to help. Include your exercise. You will soon see why your weight is not going down.

Definitely keep going, and bloody well done on starting!

When I started running I wasn't fat, and was mightily pissed off at putting almost half a stone on. However, I looked better and my clothes were looser.

(I no longer run and am fat so could do with starting again)

I just wanted to repeat well done for getting into and committing to the running! It's impressive. If you can commit to that, you can certainly find a week to understand your food weak spots and you will also have the discipline to correct them if you.can motivate yourself to go out for a run every other day. And the best bit is the reward for all that running when you do diet a bit will be a really amazing body. It's like Uncovering the Elgin marbles when you exercise and then diet!

I agree with @Pluckedpencil
I have been trying to lose baby weight from my 3rd baby in September and I have been doing loads of running/HIIT/swimming and not seeing much results but once I started logging calories on MyFitnessPal I did see results. I think it’s easy to try and guess calories in portion sizes and some foods genuinely did shock me once I realised how many calories were in them.

@PluckedPencil the Elgin Marbles made me smile!!
Thank you guys.
@Nottalotta we can do this... if you’ve done it before you can do it again!
@TommySpud I need to do this. I have MFP but find it a drag. I need to though as despite clearly being fitter and stronger my bmi is still too high.

You are getting both fitter and healthier!

But as the old saying goes 'you can't outrun a bad diet' so it might be helpful to repost in the Weight Loss Chat topic for that.

The phrase is 'you can't outrun a bad diet'. Start logging calories. Weight loss is 80:20 diet:exercise

Also are you running harder and faster and longer every time? Do your muscles ache? Do you seems to be losing inches but not weight? If so then your muscles are developing and an effectively 'tearing'. They can hold onto water to repair. Happened to me when I first started running and then weight training. Didn't lose a bloody pound but all my clothes from my 20's suddenly fit!

Exercise doesn’t really do much for weight loss

The calorie in calorie out hypothesis is very flawed as it is not as straightforward as it seems.

Our bodies are remarkably good at balancing what available energy we have to what is required of it. It is much more like balancing a budget than an engine. So you’ve £1000 to spend a month, what do you spend it on? You don’t just spend it all in the first week and then crash and burn, you make sure you spread it out over what Is needed.

Once you understand how calories are used, you then look at the fuel you give it. If you give it too much of the fast burning instant hit fuel (sugar and carbohydrate) then you’ll find it gets into a cycle of burn and store, so it will burn the immediate hit energy while simultaneously storing the excess immediate hit energy because it can only deal with so much ( high blood sugar is regulated by insulin which simultaneously burns it for immediate energy and also pushes rate rest into cells for storage as fat). This cycle takes 2-3 hours. Take on high impact energy (sugar and carbs), insulin does it’s thing - burns and stores - then after it has done this, it will ask you for more immediate hit energy. That is, you will get a craving to eat something else. You won’t unless you have consciously cut your carbs, go and use the energy it has just stored for you as fat.

This is why many people don’t lose weight.
You have to allow your body to start using its energy stored as fat.

You can achieve this by fasting or going low carb

@OneOfTheGrundys I would LOVE to start running again, but am single parent to a 3 and 4 yr old, so not happening anytime soon!

I went from obese to healthy weight by losing 3 stone (Weight Watchers). After I'd lost the weight I started running.In my experience, running hasn't helped with weight loss. In fact, when I do a long race (20kg), I tend to put on about 2 kg.
You will get more toned and feel better, which may provide you with the encouragement you need to look into what aspects of your diet might be problematic.
One other word of advice, do make sure you get professionally fitted for shoes. Knees and ankles take a hell of a battering during running.

@hamstersarse

Thank you!!!! I’ve put on 7lb in lockdown and feel so deflated. I needed to read your post this morning.

Any chance you could start a thread in weight loss telling us what we should be doing?

You can’t outrun a bad diet, as someone else said.

I have run 100 miles in April and I weigh more than I did at the beginning of the month.

The average woman burns about 100 calories per mile walked or run. You’re doing 4-5 miles every other day, so let’s say 450 calories on average 3 times a week = c. 1350 calories burned.

To lose 1lb in a week you need a calorie deficit of 3500 calories, so you’re not even getting half of that through running. Add in that you’re likely to be more sedentary during lockdown (not walking as much eg on commute/school run - I walk 4 miles per day usually) and your running is probably only able to stop you putting on weight, not actively lose it.

You need to accurately track what you eat (eg on MYFitnessPal) to find out your calorie intake and eat less.

Exercise is for toning, not weight loss. Weightloss comes 90% from diet. When you exercise you might get more toned. The extra weight looks more tight and firm, but you wont lose weight of you dont change your diet.

You are eating too much. To lose weight you need to burn more calories than you consume.

Salene

It is not as simple as that. The body is not a straightforward combustion engine. As above, if you give it 1000 calories a day, it will manage its budget carefully. It may start giving less energy to the brain ( brain fog), it may give less energy to hair (hair loss) and it won’t necessarily use the fat it has stored. Usually because it doesn’t know how to because it is confused by the level of high carbohydrate it keeps getting every few hours (anything less than 4 hours)

It matters what you fuel your body with. Of course calories have some impact, and if you consistently fed it 800 calories a day, you would lose weight eventually but it would be at massive cost to your health as it takes energy from other functions to survive.

You need to look at what you eat. And when you eat it (spaced out)

Well done that’s great!!
However if it’s weight loss you’re after it’s more about the diet. As my mum would say - ‘you can’t outrun a bad diet’ (she says while wondering when she’s going to sort out her own diet!)

Some people will come along and tell you muscle turns to fat

To be fair, I hope no-one was going to come on and say that .

OP I started the new year at a size 20 and took up running a long with a diet. I am now a 14-16 running 4k 3times a week and eating approx 1500 calories a day. Can you record your calories today and see what you're honestly eating?

@hamstersarse
Thank you for sharing your knowledge- what you're saying makes sense but I can see it's not a case of 'one size fits all'.
Do you have any book recommendations to help me learn more about this?

@hamstersarse can I second the request that you start a thread about this please? I've started walking 10k steps in the idea that I might build up to running .... but I've put on about seven pounds over my own "normal" weight. It's not huge, I'm not overweight but it's big for me. I tried 1,000 calories a day for a couple of weeks, no loss at all. For three lockdown weeks I ate between 2,000 and 3,000 calories a day 😳 - no gain. It's as if I am stuck firmly at my current weight and cannot move from it - it coincided roughly with my 50th last year. It's annoying me.

So much great information here. Thank you, especially @hamstersarse. Diet it is... I’m an absolute carb a holic. So... not dieting necessarily but diet. I’m guilty of grabbing whatever’s in the kitchen, munching my way through tiredness etc. Also comfort eating (been a crap few years) so I need to kick my arse into gear.
I weighed myself. 13 stone, heavier than ever. Things need to change 😬

@Lobsterquadrille2

Weight is controlled by hormones - insulin, cortisol and our sex hormones. They are the 'things' that do the divvying out of the energy I have mentioned. They are the flaw in the calorie in, calorie out model - they mediate how you use your energy, so menopause is a great example of how your hormones will be all over the place (sorry, if you are not actually menopausal, but I would guess you are somewhere near)

To demonstrate this further - we all know that we get weight gain just before our period despite what we eat in terms of calories. We all know this. All women know this. And this very simple example, dispels the myth that it is all about calories in and calories out, and in fact we need to look to the hormones we have rushing around our body trying to organise the energy we put in. Insulin is the key hormone here, hence the mention of sugar and carbohydrate, but there are more, such as leptin that is crucial for us in weightloss and health.

@hamstersarse thank you. I thought that being menopausal must be the root of it - I have no signs, but the right age. If I really wanted to lose the seven pounds, what would be the best way?

I’m starting with 3 square meals I think. Well I tried this yesterday and day before and so hard not to snack.
I hope I’m interpreting this correctly-you have to retrain your body out of its need for sugars so often?

How are you sleeping? Work on that too to reduce snacking.