No post-Ironman weight gain - Triathlon Week

10-23-2004, 10:47 AM

Did my first Ironman (IMC) this year. Not knowing what to expect, I was
figuring on post-event weight gain. I had to work hard the last 2 months
training to drop 6 pounds to 189, so have found it odd that I've only gained
back 2 pounds in 2 months, despite continuing to eat plenty and train less.

Overall I'm feeling very healthy with an excess of energy, but have been
experiencing "gastro irregularities" (frequency) which I've blamed on my
body's metabolism readjusting to the dramatic reduction in training volume.

Any thoughts on this?

mike p

10-23-2004, 05:51 PM

"mikep" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message news:<_Wved.32396$_u6.11415@edtnps89>...
> Did my first Ironman (IMC) this year. Not knowing what to expect, I was
> figuring on post-event weight gain. I had to work hard the last 2 months
> training to drop 6 pounds to 189, so have found it odd that I've only gained
> back 2 pounds in 2 months, despite continuing to eat plenty and train less.
>
>
>
> Overall I'm feeling very healthy with an excess of energy, but have been
> experiencing "gastro irregularities" (frequency) which I've blamed on my
> body's metabolism readjusting to the dramatic reduction in training volume.
>
>
>
> Any thoughts on this?

Only that I hope the same thing happens to me!

I would guess that your body stayed at a higher metabolic rate for at
least a couple weeks, so you kept burning more calories to maintain
all those muscles, and that subsequently a certain (hopefully small)
amount of muscle has been being converted to less-heavy fat. Just a
guess; I'm not an expert.

Susan in LA

11-10-2004, 05:01 PM

"mikep" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message news:_Wved.32396$_u6.11415@edtnps89...
>
>
> Did my first Ironman (IMC) this year. Not knowing what to expect, I was
> figuring on post-event weight gain. I had to work hard the last 2 months
> training to drop 6 pounds to 189, so have found it odd that I've only
> gained back 2 pounds in 2 months, despite continuing to eat plenty and
> train less.
>
>
>
> Overall I'm feeling very healthy with an excess of energy, but have been
> experiencing "gastro irregularities" (frequency) which I've blamed on my
> body's metabolism readjusting to the dramatic reduction in training
> volume.
>
>
>
> Any thoughts on this?
>
>
>
> mike p
>
>

If your experience tracks with mine, give it a little more time; you're due.

rsquared

11-15-2004, 08:15 AM

OK, so now I'm REALLY interested in this topic. How are you doing keeping
the weight off?

I would SO love to keep this IM leanness but I can't exercise 3 hours a day
anymore....maybe one if I'm lucky with a long session or two on the
weekends. I have a bad feeling that since this is not my natural body type I
would have to eat practically nothing to maintain it. :-(

Oh well. At least I can still leap tall buildings in a single bound....

Susan

"mikep" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message news:_Wved.32396$_u6.11415@edtnps89...
>
>
> Did my first Ironman (IMC) this year. Not knowing what to expect, I was
> figuring on post-event weight gain. I had to work hard the last 2 months
> training to drop 6 pounds to 189, so have found it odd that I've only
> gained back 2 pounds in 2 months, despite continuing to eat plenty and
> train less.
>
>
>
> Overall I'm feeling very healthy with an excess of energy, but have been
> experiencing "gastro irregularities" (frequency) which I've blamed on my
> body's metabolism readjusting to the dramatic reduction in training
> volume.
>
>
>
> Any thoughts on this?
>
>
>
> mike p
>
>

11-15-2004, 08:44 AM

In article <xK3md.3131$BX4.1543@trnddc08>,
Susan in LA <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:
> OK, so now I'm REALLY interested in this topic. How are you doing keeping
> the weight off?
>
> I would SO love to keep this IM leanness but I can't exercise 3 hours a day
> anymore....maybe one if I'm lucky with a long session or two on the
> weekends. I have a bad feeling that since this is not my natural body type I
> would have to eat practically nothing to maintain it. :-(

My suggestion is to stop thinking about weight since leanness doesn't
necessarily correlate with weight.

Here's my experience after IMC'01 (13h11).

I was about 165lbs for the race and dropped my workouts down to about
50% afterwards. Over the next 2 months or so I dropped down to 156lbs.
Given what I was eating and expending in workouts I realized pretty
quickly that I was very likely losing muscle mass and not fat. To keep
the leanness I needed to stay reasonable about fats and trim back the
carbos and general intake since I wasn't using as many calories. The
weight stabilized for a time at 160lbs and I'm now back to 170 (long
story. pinched nerve, no training/racing for 18 months although some
limited other sports, weight+fat gain to 185, rehab and back to some
racing and other sports) but I've been playing more fast-twitch sports
lately. I think the best measure for guys is waist size since our
un-leanness tends to accumulate there. I went from 34.5" 10 years ago to
30.5" for IMC and I'm now at about 32" which is good I think.

> Oh well. At least I can still leap tall buildings in a single bound....

Yeah. It comes in handy once in a while.

arthur