Training More but Gaining Weight?

Here’s Why...

Why did you start running? Was it to become more “zen”, improve your mental health or was it because you were fed up with hearing your friend bang on about their runs so you thought you might as well join in? Or, in all honesty, was it to lose weight?

When I used to run Facebook ads for the RunVerity Beginner’s course I knew that if my advert had the strap line “Want to lose weight?” it had more clicks and interest than if it just said, “Want to learn how to run?”. Recent research has also suggested that 34% of people who start running do so because they want to lose weight.

So, what happens when you start to train but then you start to gain weight? In May I wrote about body mage and running (My Body Isn’t on TripAdvisor, it Doesn’t Need a Review) and how weight management is so often misunderstood and at times poorly practised, in sport and especially in running.

It’s so difficult to jump out of our societal approach to nutrition, weight management and fuelling and even more so, in my experience, at a grass roots level, especially if exercise/running is used purely as a calorie transaction.  Add this to the consistent echoing of “keep going, there’s cake at the end” in a race environment or how many times have you told yourself that you deserve a treat because you ran 10 miles that morning, or maybe, “It’s ok for you, I bet you can eat what you want because you’re a runner”. Unfortunately, this narrative has the potential to set people up for an unhealthy cycle of either binging eating or restricting calories bypassing the importance of educated nutritional practices, ensuring that you do in fact feel good when you ramp up the mileage, and improve your performance with enough recovery to do it all again the next day. Not to mention that it’s well documented that under eating is a big driver for training injuries and fatigue.

And of course, I learnt the hard way through bitter experiences when I first started marathon training nearly 20 years ago. Back then, there wasn’t really any sports nutritional advice on offer, just the usual; you need to be stick thin to run fast and because your neither fast nor stick thin you don’t need gels = you’re not a proper runner. My marathon training runs were hence fuelled on naivety and Lucozade Sports because, well, for no other reason than it had sport written all over it. I rewarded myself post run with cashew nuts, a Snickers Bar and probably cake.

Please don’t get me wrong, finishing a run with tea and cake is comforting, and enjoyable, it’s a social ritual that I love, it strengthens friendships and communities, and I always actively encourage this. However, in those early days of my running journey my weight didn’t plummet as I presumed it would. I neither became stick thin or fast (well I did, but not by the measures of the stuffy run clubs at that time).

I believe those early marathons were, on hindsight, under fuelled by this horrendous cycle of being surprised that I didn’t morph into a Twiggy/Paula Radcliffe type of runner overnight because, well I was training for a marathon so rather than fuelling/recovering (yes the cashew nuts/snickers bars and cakes all disappeared), I restricted calories (I remember feeling so proud that I’d run a marathon in a fasted state and a few sips of water, I was even congratulated for this feat of endurance and wore this as a badge of honour). It wasn’t until I attended an England Athletics workshop led by Renee McGregor back in 2011, who was not only a breath of fresh air with sensible nutritional advice, but she was one of the very few Sports Performance Nutritionist sharing her passion, that the penny started to drop.  

There are several factors to why runners gain weight as they increase their mileage, and I wish I’d known them, so here they are for anyone who needs them:

1. I know we’ve heard it all before but as you increase your muscle strength and power you can increase your muscle mass which is denser than fat and therfore may result in weight gain

2. The repetitive stress of longer distance running can cause muscle fibres to break down and rebuild, contributing to muscle growth.

3. I know so many runners who don’t drink enough, it’s mainly women and it might be due to as your training increases so does your body’s need for water and the higher water intake and response to retaining more water can contribute to temporary weight gain and the feeling of being bloated.

4. The body stores glycogen (a form of carbohydrate) in muscles and the liver. Each gram of glycogen is stored with approximately 3 grams of water, this natural, positive reaction can lead to increased water retention and weight gain.

5. Hopefully we all know how important carbs are for runners, but if you leave all your carb eating until the night before your long run, you can feel bloated and feel as though you’ve gained weight but it’s just due to the associated water retention with glycogen.

6. Did you know that intense training can elevate your cortisol levels, this stress hormone can contribute to weight gain, particularly around the tummy, added to this is that cortisol can increase your appetite and cravings for high-calorie foods…. where are the chocolate biscuits?

7. When starting a new training program, the body undergoes various adaptations, most things take time so some initial weight gain can occur as the body adjusts to the increased physical activity and builds the necessary muscle and glycogen stores.

8. And it might take some time for the body to start shedding fat, especially if it’s prioritising muscle gain and glycogen storage initially, give your body a break, it’s literally doing the best it can.

9. Intense training can cause muscle inflammation, which may lead to temporary water retention and weight gain and it’s so important that you get enough rest which is essential for recovery, so even if you think you’re resting but you’re walking the dog/kids to school/shops it all contributes to the imbalance between training and recovery leading to prolonged inflammation and subsequent water retention.

I always say find what works for you, I know that when I look back I could kick myself wondering what I could have achieved if fully fuelled rather than worrying about whether I was skinny enough or whether I looked like a runner. I don’t even like typing the words “putting weight on is normal” when marathon training, so I’ll rephrase it, eating to fuel your body when training for a marathon is normal and it will serve you well when you cross the finish line.