Running and diet

Afternoon all, long time no speak.
Nice to see you all, but have a little question. I have looked over the internet but as usual the sources for this sort of subject are a little unreliable, so I figured I would try a real world source, namely the org.

First a little info -
I've been doing a bit of running as I don't get down to the gym as much as I would like any more. At the moment I'm up to 2.5k twice a week and depending on how a I feel about 70 sit-ups and 80-100 reps on the beam-lift near the end of the run. Now I'm thinking about trying to aid my weight lose by moving over to a meal supplement like a shake or something similar. So as such I might replace my lunch time meal with this, then when I run have a extra snack to help recovery.

So I'm just wondering if anyone here as done something similar or has good experience with meal replacement shakes, and recommend some. There are loads about like 'Celebrity Slim', 'Slim Fast' and other own brands like 'Superdrug'...

Cheers.

rubbish.. its december, its time to chub up for crimbo

ps.. i know nothing about shakes.. sorry

[anna]

Hun, I would strongly advise against using shakes for meal replacements when you are trying to loose weight, they might work for some but honestly the second you change back to normal diet you put the weight back on.

If you are running as well you certainly dont need to stop your intake of food to increase your weight loss efforts, you just need to change your diet a little and intake more protein. I know that Grunty giggles has written a fantastic post about weight loss program and it is widly recognised structure she laid out there will work, the trick really is eating every 3 hours.

Im sorry I know people will disagree with me but I honestly dont agree with shakes as meal replacements, I dont believe for one second that they are a healthy choice.

Running increases your metabolic rate and you certainly dont want to hinder your body in its attempts to burn off food by not feeding it.

... Im sure others will come along in a second and disagree.

If you are interested in strengthening up your core etc rather then the sit-ups and endless workouts check out http://www.bodyrock.tv as they do interval training with new work outs every day only lasting 12-15 minutes, you will see results a lot quicker following them then the countless hours in a gym.

Ooh another fan of bodyrock.tv! Their videos are intense yet nice on the eye at the same time. Or just check out the video feed for the site at http://www.youtube.com/user/charliejames1975

A guy at work is using slim-slow albeit you don't want to lose weight too fast in any case. You could try having kellogs cornflakes for lunch as well as breakfast. Or, make yourself a shake by blitzing some porridge oats with a banana, milk and ice-cubes and a splash of agave syrup. That would give you some good energy for your run.

I'll take a look at http://www.bodyrock.tv though my main reason for the shakes to try to kick of some sort of drop in my body weight that in turn would help with my training. Decrease my core weight so I'm not carrying so much about, I don't seem to have a enough time to do enough session to really hit my fat. So all I seem to be doing is burning the sugars in my body, I did think about fasting before a run but I was worried that would make me ill.
I've been running for about 4 months now and I can't seem to get past a 2.5k run twice a week, if I push further I useless for the rest of the week. If I try to increase the session to 3 times a week then I spend the following week aching and unable to move, so I loose that week overall.
The sit-ups are just there as I don't have access to a back-curl machine to help strengthen my back muscles from the aches and pains I get. I do the beam lifts to try to push some more burn time on my arms and chest as its a large muscle group, which does seem to be getting better. Up from about 60 reps first to over 100 now.
I know that protein shakes aid muscle growth, but that is not a issue for me now. 3 years in London going to the gym and doing lots of weight work has sorted that. Now I just need to shift the fat layer, so was thinking to just loose my lunch to a shake to help aid that.

This is a subject I do have an interest in, as I am a runner (well up until March this year when that very nice man in handcuffs broke my ankle), I used to be a running coach at the running club & as I'm now also diabetic, what goes into my mouth is important.

One thing that stuck out about your post was that you're only doing 2.5k twice p/week & if you do more you're in pain - what shoes are you wearing & are you sure they suit your gait???

One area that I noticed as a coach is how ill prepared some people are with regards their footwear. I've seen people wear branded/designer shoes just because of the "bling" factor & because some running brands just have no street cred. The wrong footwear can go on to cause serious long term problems with joints etc. It might be a worthwhile trip to a specialist running shop to get checked out on their treadmill.

The distance your running isn't one that starts to tap into the fat burning mode, most runners programme in at least one, if not 2 long runs per month & the running magazines/coaches etc often call this a weight management run. In order to burn off fat the body must first burn off what it has in the tank, ie what you've eaten in the hours before your run. It's not a good idea to fast & run, certainly you need something inside. Long distance runners often talk about the wall; that is at the point when the tank is then empty & the body is then going to quite literally eat itself, ie burn off the fat reserves.

You could look at things like portion control, reduce your carbs, cut out the sweets/puddings etc but I'm sure you know all this. With regards the running bit, if you could gradually increase the distance you go & how often you do it & get up to doing it 4 times p/week & get the mileage up to about 8k (that's 5 miles in real money terms) then the weight would simply drop off.

With regards the meal replacement thing, no, I'm against that sort of stuff. I look religiously at packet labelling now (diabetes does that to you) & it's just a false economy. You give your hard earned cash to the company that makes it for 2 whole weeks & yes you do lose weight. But, and there is always a but, you will put on the weight you lose, unless within the 2 weeks you lose it you somehow get up to running 6-8 miles 5 times per week!!!!. So after a while you decide to give more of your hard earned cash back to the company again by buying another 2 weeks of shakes etc.

If you want a kickstart to aid some weight loss, try a variation on the Special K cereal for breakfast & cerial for lunch option. Have cereal for breakfast (not just Special K & not just 1 bowl either) but at lunch try a large bowl of muesli but instead of milk try yoghurt & mix in a sliced banane, apples etc. A girl I work with often has muesli & fruit mixed in with 2 pots of Muller light yoghurt. She says it fills her up, it's healthy & she does a bit of running as well & says it gives her energy.

Best of luck with the running, I'm going this afternoon for my first run in months, probably a nice gentle 2 mile jog. I've looked back at my training records for before my ankle was kindly broken in 2 places - my last run was a relaxing 9.3miles on a Sunday before my Sunday lunch, the run before that being a tempo run of 5 miles, with the middle 4 being done in a time of 24 minutes.

Cheers for the info, it might be just a personal thing as when I was at school I never was a big runner. Most of what I was doing then was sprinting, 100, 200, 400 meters and relays, then sports like rugby. So distance was not a issue, lots of speedy bursts and stamina for a long game.
When I started about 4 months ago about 2k was as far as I could manage, and even then I couldn't run initially that far it was more a walk with lots of little runs in between. Maybe I'm just being impatient, as there has been improvements...

[timwilky]

imagine Bear behind you with a big smile and ...

2.5 mile will disappear in an instance. 5 mile will soon be the norm.

Good luck, I am too knackered after a mile every morning. But cross trainer beckons because of the dark/wet starts.

I had a car crash years ago and hurt my back. When I went back to work I could barely run a mile. I now run about 10 for a fat burn with the dogs. For weight loss you need to be running for at least 45 mins for a fat burn with about a 60% heart rate. If you don't have a heart rate monitor watch, you should be able to hold a conversation whilst running otherwise your training your heart and lungs instead.

Just build up your runs by a further .5 of a km at a time. Make sure you stretch afterwards too if you don't you will feel stiff and crap for a week.

[anna]

Grinch have you tried the couch to 10k programs? They build you up bit by bit and encourage you to run further but not feel like you are.