Running and Weight Loss

For the past 3 years I have been running on and off, and during this time I find myself monitoring my weight more so than I ever have.  A great deal of women come to this sport with hopes of slimming down and losing weight.   Running can shed weight faster than any other activity (well sort of ), because it is simply put.. running takes more energy.  A few things happen when you begin a running program:  One may start to find themselves shifting to a healthier lifestyle when running, avoiding alcohol more so (sort of ), and heavy meals which may cause abdominal distress.   A year ago I was training for my second half-marathon and decided to research a program that would guide me in eating while training.  I have found two books to be of valuable resource to my never ending nutrition library. 
They are:  Nancy Clark's "Sports Nutrition Guidebook"

The next book I have found to be of great resource is:  Runner's World Complete Book of Women's Running.

Nancy Clark, MS, RD shares a great formula in her book that I found to be successful in my training and keeping the weight off.   This might not work with everyone.. but this will give you a start to finding out how many calories your body uses in a day.

1.  Multiply your body weight by 10.  This will give your resting metabolic rate.
2.  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, 40-60 percent if you are active, or 60 to 80 percent if your are very active.  
3.  Determine how many calories you will expend running (Nancy suggests adding 100 calories per mile).
4.  Add together the numbers you arrived at in steps 1, 2, and 3.  This figure is your total daily calorie expenditure. 

I found this formula to be successful while I was training for the Nike Women's Half-Marathon last October... I was also documenting my food intake, and found if I was going to lose 1 pound per week, I was going to have to eliminate 500kcals per day ... and guess what item in my diet was killing me everyday... it was the juice I was drinking in the morning!!  So I removed that.. and my 5pm snack while I was preparing dinner... and started to see results. 

In my next blog.. I am going to discuss "Relearning How to Eat".... stay tuned...it has been a busy week.. but I am still blogging....don't worry :)