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Home » How to lose weight safely » Why You Might Not Lose Weight While Running

Doctors recommend it.

Your friends swear by it.

Even the celebrities you see in magazines do it.

Running is the best way to burn calories we are told, weight just falls off once you start running, you hear.

If that is the case, why can I not evenlose 10 pounds running? Why am I the only one who seems to not lose weight running?

Sound familiar?

Even though you feel like you are alone in this. It is one of our most popular posts, and every day we get emails about it.

Even elite runners have to be conscious of this, and running to lose weight is not even as easy as you would thinkwhen they are training 90+ miles a week!

Feel better now?

So doesdoes running help you lose weight?

Heres the deal:

While training for optimal performance on race day is the main focus for our coaches here at RunnersConnect, many of the athletes we coach set secondary goals to use running to lose weight and generally desire to be healthier overall.

Certainly, sometimes these two goals setting a new pr and losing weight go hand-in-hand, but as coaches we tend to focus on letting weight loss through running come naturally as the body adapts to training and new levels of fitness.

You might be wondering:

How can Ilose weight fast running?

This is partly why I wrote this earlier post on losing weight while running.

Unfortunately, sometimes when a runner first begins serious training, the needle on the scale doesnt immediately go down. Especially for runners who believe that running faster will make them lose weight faster.

That is not always the case, and may evenresult in you gaining weight.This trend can be frustrating and demoralizing to many new runners following a training plan, especially one as intense as a marathon training schedule.

Now:

If you understand the science behind initial weight loss and the practical reasons for why this occurs, you can temper yourself from getting discouraged and make positive and lose that weight for good while also improvingyour race times.

So, here are some reasons why you might actually gain weight when running:

If the scale were a human, he/she would be considered a deceptive trickster.

A scale only provides one number, your absolute weight, which isnt always an accurate measurement of what is happening in your body.

Drink a gallon of water and youve instantly gained 8.3 pounds. Remove a kidney and youve lost 2 pounds.

Extreme examples, I know, but I think it proves that your absolute weight on a scale isnt always a truthful assessment of changes in your weight, or more importantly your fitness.

Here are just a few reasons the numbers on the scale will lie to you:

When you increase your training to gear up for your goal race, your body begins to store more water to repair damaged muscle fibers and to deliver glycogen to the working muscles.

Likewise, you may even be drinking more water to supplement the miles and ensure your hydrated.

All this water adds pounds to the scale, but isnt indicative of your actually weight loss.

True.

While youre not going to turn into a body builder after just a few days of running, your body will slowly begin to build muscle and burn fat.

While this is great news for your overall fitness and race times, youre actually gaining weight by supplementing low density fat tissue for high density muscle tissue.

While it may not look great on the scale, its much healthier and will help you to continue to get faster and fitter.

*Weighs more than fat means that muscle is more dense

It takes a deficit of 3500 calories to lose one pound.

Ideally, you should target a 300-600 a day calorie deficit if you want to lose weight safely and be healthy.

This means, you can expect to lose about 1-2 pounds per week.

Checking the scale every morning is going to reveal very little about your long-term progress or the actual state of your weight loss.

If you weigh yourself everyday, youre simply measuring day-to-day fluctuations in your hydration levels and other non-essential weight metrics.

Just like you wouldnt expect a 1 minute drop in your 5k PR after a week of training, dont expect a 5 pound weight loss after your first week of running.

Heres the deal:

You burn more calories while running than almost any other activity you can do.

Youll learn the science behind losing weight and still running well so you can understand the why of weight loss for long-term success.

Lessons include why simply running more and eating less wont help you lose weight, why your weight fluctuates each day, and the best way to distribute calories throughout your day. Plus more

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Unfortunately, while the energy demands of running are high, this does not mean that you can eat a big mac and a donut guilt-free and still lose weight.

I often hear runners rationalize their dessert intake by saying, hey, I ran 5 miles today, I deserve it.

Likewise, I see many running groups meet-up at Starbucks or the local coffee shop after a weekend run.

Unfortunately, an iced latt and a small scone will quickly eliminate any caloric deficit from the run and negate possible weight loss.

While running does burn calories, you have to be careful not to quickly or inadvertently eat them back with non-nutrient dense foods.

Likewise, as mentioned in my article on how to lose weight and still run well, you should be providing your muscles with the necessary carbohydrates and protein to recover.

This is a delicate balance, and probably the most difficult element to losing weight while running.

As a coach, I think it is more important to focus on recovery and ensure that your muscles have the nutrients they need to rebuild.

The harder you train, the more often you will get hungry and the real secret is to refuel with nutrient dense and high quality foods.

Remember:

Sacrificing recovery for a few less calories is not a good long-term plan.

The numbers on the scale are arbitrary and focusing on them can be detrimental to your long-term progression. If you can continue to build your fitness and training levels, youll be running farther, faster, and be much healthier overall.

On average, a runner will burn 100 calories per mile, but this will depend on your pace, size and metabolism.

Generally, the more you weigh, the harder your body will have to work to cover the distance, and the longer you have been running, the more efficient your body has become, meaning you burn less calories.

Many runners following a marathon training schedule automatically assume they are going shed pounds with all the extra mileage they are putting in.

However, not only should you ensure that youre recovering properly after your hard workouts and long runs by eating the right foods, you also need to account for what I call hidden calories.

Primarily, hidden calories come in the form of sports drinks and energy gels, which have a high caloric content.

If you are wondering how to lose weight while training for a marathon, keep this in mind:

Its critical that you practice your fueling strategy during your long runs and hard workouts for optimal performance on race day.

Likewise, to sustain high levels of training and to complete long and arduous marathon workouts, you need to fuel during your training sessions with sports drinks and energy gels.

But heres the kicker:

However, this also means that the total number of calories you will burn from these long runs and hard workouts will be less than you might realize. Again, for optimal performance and training progression, you need these extra calories.

Unfortunately, they can also be the reason you might not see the weight loss on a scale.

Yes, but with a few stipulations:

Running will not automatically result in an immediate weight loss.

Sure, running burns more calories than any other form of exercise, but the scale should not be the primary metric by which you gauge your fitness level and training progression.

While I understand weight loss is an important goal for many runners, dont become a slave to the numbers on the scale.

Pay attention to how you feel do you have more energy, feel stronger, starting to fit into your clothes better? While not absolute measurements, these emotions are a much more accurate measurement of your progression.

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Why You Might Not Lose Weight While Running

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