CHAPTER 14

Slimming Down: The Runner’s Weight-Loss Program

MANY WOMEN COME TO THE SPORT OF RUNNING WITH THE GOAL OF LOSING WEIGHT. They’ve come to the right place. If reducing the number on the scale is the goal, just about any regular exercise program can help, but running is one of the most efficient sports for weight loss, burning an average of 100 calories a mile. That’s a lot more than most activities.

Compare running to walking, another favorite of women who want to regulate their weight: For a woman who weighs 150 pounds, half an hour of walking at 3 miles per hour (mph), or 20 minutes per mile, burns about 120 calories. The same half-hour of jogging at 6 mph (twice as fast, 10 minutes per mile) burns roughly 350 calories. (The precise figure varies depending on speed, size, and fitness level.)

When it comes to the overall number of calories required, cross-country skiing provides a comparable workout and is one of the few activities that generate such a high calorie burn, but how many women can pop out the front door and go skiing any given day of the year?

Running can melt off the pounds faster than most other activities, because simply put, running takes more energy than most other sports, exercises, or activities. For one thing, during a run you alone are fully bearing all your weight. That means you don’t have the benefit of, for example, a bicycle or the buoyancy of water to support you. Also, and partly because of that, running uses more of the body’s muscles than just about any other activity. Your legs, of course, get a full workout, but when you stride across the ground, you’re also putting your arms and trunk to work.

When you begin to run, weight loss becomes easier in other ways, too. The aerobic exercise tends to moderate the appetite, especially during the window of time immediately after a run. Many runners report that the activity encourages a general shift to a healthier lifestyle, too; they crave healthier foods and are less likely to engage in self-defeating behavior, such as bingeing on junk food. The gains in fitness bring more energy and a less sedentary life overall.

While running itself encourages weight loss, your eating habits obviously have a big influence on the process and results. You can help ensure safe, healthy, and comfortable weight loss by following these basic principles.

RELEARN HOW TO EAT

The most important step you can take on the road to weight loss has nothing to do with finding a miracle slimming food; it’s not about some magic ratio of carbohydrates to protein; it’s not about denying yourself the foods you love. The most important thing you must do in order to stabilize at a healthy, comfortable weight is to change your attitude toward food.

Women with a tendency toward being overweight often have developed an understandably antagonistic relationship with food. Food has become the enemy. It’s fattening and tempting, a necessary evil to be battled every day.

Does that sound familiar? If so, imagine thinking of food in this way: Food is pleasurable and nurturing. Food is a source of energy, joy, and resilience. It is an enjoyable and essential part of a happy, healthy, and balanced life.

It sounds good, doesn’t it? Do you believe it? When you do, you’re half the way toward healthy eating and therefore healthy weight.

Thinking of food as inherently fattening and therefore bad is a set-up for a nasty relationship with eating that is endlessly defeating.

“People see food as fattening. Or they make up excuses, they say, ‘I don’t have time to eat,’” says Nancy Clark, M.S., R.D., author of Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook, now in its third edition. “No. Food is fuel. It’s really life sustaining and life promoting.”

Clark goes on to point out that the relationship between women and food ultimately must be one of respect. By eating well and healthfully, we are respecting our bodies. After all, we wouldn’t expect our car to run without gas. “People just aren’t responsible with their food,” she says. “They think, ‘If I skip a meal, I’ll lose weight.’”

In fact, it’s the opposite. Studies have repeatedly shown that people who skip breakfast tend to be overweight, and that calorie restriction during the day often leads to overcompensation at night. Clark points out that studies also illustrate a correlation between dieting itself and being overweight: The very act of dieting exacerbates the problem. The way she puts it sounds downright radical: “When people eat, they tend to be thin. People who diet are overweight.”

For women, that’s good news. It’s a reason to give yourself permission to eat, to eat well, to eat healthfully.

If your goal is to take off some pounds by running, here are some further guidelines for sensible weight loss and optimal overall health.

How Many Calories Do You Burn in a Day?

Nancy Clark, R.D., offers the following formula to calculate how many calories your body uses in a day.

Multiply your body weight by 10. This gives you your resting metabolic rate, the number of calories your body uses just in functioning.

Calculate how many additional calories your body uses during the day in the following manner. Multiply the figure you arrived at in Step 1 by 20 to 40 percent if you are sedentary, 40 to 60 percent if you are moderately active, or 60 to 80 percent if you are very active.

Determine how many additional calories you’ll expend running. You can add 100 calories per mile.

Add together the numbers you arrived at in Steps 1, 2, and 3. This figure is your total daily calorie expenditure.

Follow the training programs in this book. There’s no magic training program for weight loss, no different way of exercising. If your goal is to lose weight, follow the training programs in this book for either the beginning or the intermediate runner, depending on your experience level. The same programs that help you get in shape will also help you gradually take off pounds.

Consistency is the most important aspect of training when it comes to losing weight. Try to run or walk/run three or four times a week, and supplement your program with other active pursuits on your off days. Although it’s true that longer or faster running will burn more calories, you shouldn’t try more strenuous workouts without first working up to them with the more basic training schedules. Taking on extra workouts to lose weight faster presents the same pitfalls as any rapid increase in a training program: increased risk of injury and burnout.

Don’t starve yourself. Some women think that because they’re burning calories while running, they can double their rate of weight loss by also cutting back what they eat. But severely restricting calorie consumption while running is not a recipe for successful weight loss. In fact, it can have the opposite effect. Taking in too few calories can leave you feeling weak, tired, and irritable, diminishing the amount of energy and willpower you have to run. By dropping your consumption below what your body requires to function, you can also cause your metabolism to slow down.

“Women who cut way down on calories at the same time they increase their exercise intensity run the risk of injury and exhaustion and won’t see the benefits of a running program as quickly,” explains Susan Kundrat, R.D., a sports nutritionist and founder of Nutrition on the Move in Champaign, Illinois.

Kundrat, who specializes in working with female athletes, advises women to adjust their eating habits gradually. “A lot of women who start exercise programs want to make sweeping changes in diet at the same time because they are very motivated, but it’s important not to make those changes all at once,” she says. “Rather, let your body get used to the changes that come with exercise. Make sure that you’re getting enough fuel. Then, once you are feeling good with your workouts, you might want to assess where you are, determine what your goals are. You might wish to lose body fat or get stronger. Then you are in a position to make changes that can complement your exercise routine.”

If you’re running primarily to lose weight, let the exercise do its work gradually. Eat consciously, without being too restrictive. Listen to your body, eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full, and make wise and healthful choices when you do eat. By doing this, you’ll ensure that you have enough energy to run. Follow this formula and you’re more likely to lose body fat gradually, in a safe, conservative manner. That means you’ll be more apt to keep it off, too.

Watch your calorie intake. Although I just told you not to severely restrict your food intake, you should pay attention to your overall calorie consumption. That’s because it’s the total number of calories consumed that has the greatest impact on your weight. Fad diets continue to offer all manner of formulas to achieve weight loss, but the bottom line is that whether you eat grapefruit or steak, the total number of calories you consume will determine the pounds you gain or lose.

You can watch your calories in a general sense by recording what you eat each day and by not overindulging in high-calorie treats or huge portions. If you prefer a more precise method, use the formula in this chapter to determine your daily caloric requirement. By eating this number of calories each day, you should roughly maintain your weight. In order to lose weight healthfully while running, restrict calories by no more than 10 to 20 percent of this number.

Once you’ve reached your target weight, the calories you burn while running can negate many sins of overindulgence. In fact, plenty of runners who have been at the sport for years say that one of the great bonuses is that they’re able to eat more.

Make wise food choices. Sports nutritionists usually frown upon categorically restricting or relying on certain foods—the basis of most formalized diets. But that doesn’t give you the freedom to eat willy-nilly, grabbing anything you want. Healthful food choices are of the utmost importance for anyone trying to lose weight.

Follow the guidelines for healthful eating outlined in chapter 13. Make your choices wise ones, optimizing the use of the calories you do take in. That means minimizing junk foods, fast foods, and empty calories from soda and the like. It also means relying on unprocessed foods such as whole grains and fresh vegetables and fruits as the foundation of your meals. If you make good choices a habit, an indulgence now and then needn’t be cause for concern.

Eat out less often. You probably know that fast food is filled with hidden fat and calories. You probably don’t realize just how much extra butter, oil, and sugar is tucked into a typical restaurant meal. Chefs tend to add far more fats and sweets than we ever would at home: It makes almost anything taste better!

By eating at home, you maintain control over what you eat and what goes into every dish. You’ll also be less tempted to indulge in fattening appetizers and desserts, and more likely to eat a reasonably sized portion. When you do eat out, don’t be afraid to make special requests, such as ordering salad dressing on the side or vegetables without butter.

Treat yourself. If you make wise food choices, you can still indulge occasionally. When you give yourself permission to indulge a craving now and then, you’ll be less likely to feel deprived and eventually binge. Remember, you aren’t supposed to be dieting, but rather making changes that you can maintain as a long-term lifestyle choice. How likely is it that you’ll be able to give up cheesecake for the rest of your life? Go ahead and have a small piece—just don’t make it an everyday occurrence.

Follow the 90/10 rule: Make healthful choices 90 percent of the time, and allow yourself a splurge during the remaining 10 percent. The simple idea that you don’t have to be perfect will help you make better choices more consistently and not get depressed or fall back into old patterns after you’ve grabbed a cookie or two with your afternoon latte.

Fuel yourself throughout the day. Distribute your calories evenly, as if you were parceling out medicine and attempting to keep a constant dosage in your body. This steady course of fuel will keep your energy levels strong and hunger pangs at bay, so you’ll consume fewer calories in the end. Peaks and valleys of fuel can do the opposite: Skipping breakfast and forgoing lunch are notorious for leading to bingeing later in the day.

Take this notion a step further and you’ll be even better off: Be sure to have some extra protein with every one of your meals, even the smaller ones. It’s protein that results in a full, satisfied feeling that lasts. So instead of having just oatmeal for breakfast, top it with some yogurt or nuts; add some almonds, cheese, or chickpeas to your lunch salad; and have a peanut butter sandwich, not a croissant, when those afternoon hunger cravings hit.

Eliminate the concept of snacking. Close your eyes—I’m going to ask you a questions. What types of food come to mind when you hear the word “snack”? Nutritionist Clark has a hunch that you were thinking of something sweet, possibly salty, probably highly processed.

Clark is all for the idea of spreading calories throughout the day, but, she says, “We should take the word snack out of the vocabulary.” That’s because it results in poor choices.

Clark prefers to refer to a small afternoon meal as a “second lunch.” When you refer to it that way, you’re more likely to grab balanced and healthful items—a slice of pizza, yogurt and granola, a peanut butter and honey sandwich—as opposed to cookies, pastries, or chips. By the way, the same goes for your children if you have them: Think in terms of a “second lunch” for after school and you’re bound to make better choices for them, too.

Supplement running with strength training. File this in the “rich get richer” department: The more muscle you have, the more calories you’ll use even during rest. Conversely, if you have a high percentage of body fat, you’ll burn fewer calories. That means that by building muscle, you can boost your metabolism and burn more calories, facilitating weight loss.

Strength training is the most straightforward route toward building muscle, and it’s a good complement to any running program. As an added boost, it will visibly tone your body—a nice visual motivation to maintain both your healthy eating and running.

TRAINING LOG

Okay, I’m thin. Running for decades will do that to you. It’s funny, though, how many women, after seeing how much and how freely I eat, will say, “It must be your genetics. You must be naturally thin.” I don’t know about that. My mother was always quite skinny, but I also know she denied herself food to the point where she was probably borderline anorexic. Meanwhile, my father and his entire family tended to be overweight. So what would my “natural” weight be if I didn’t run? Who’s to say?

I do know that by now, I have become naturally thin. By that I mean that I feel in balance at this weight, neither denying myself nor controlling my food intake to stay at my current weight. I attribute that largely to my outlook on food as opposed to any diet specifics.

I prefer to think of eating well as health management rather than weight control. That way the focus is not on deprivation or a loss of something, but on benefits and gaining something. Maintaining an appropriate weight feels good, increases energy, and allows me to be my healthiest self. When I eat lots of vegetables, I do it because I know they’re nutritious, not because I’m focusing on their low calorie count.

And while I definitely am conscious of what I eat and make healthful choices much of the time, I’m hard-pressed to think of a time I’ve really denied myself anything. Part of that is because when you truly start to eat healthfully, you rarely desire truly unhealthy food. Oh, I love a cheese-burger and fries as much as anybody, but I don’t really crave one more than once a month or so. Certainly not every day. And I love sweets as much as any woman. But years of healthy eating has “trained” my body to appreciate home baked, quality items—made with healthy milk, nuts, and wholesome ingredients—over some processed, packaged treat.

When you look at eating this way, denial isn’t really an issue. In fact, fresh, nutritious foods become positive indulgences. Like summer’s blueberries over oatmeal. Or an autumn curry of sweet potatoes and carrots. Treats like these are every bit as sinfully delicious as a gooey dessert. But instead of feeling guilty after eating them, you can relax knowing that you’ve indulged in a different kind of luxury: caring for yourself.