Marathon By 40

I’ve written before about my need to loose weight to increase my endurance and reduce risk of injury during training. As my runs got longer, I could start to feel more wear and tear on my body, and I wanted to get past it. I was running over 60 miles a month, but maintaining my (over)weight.

I wasn’t motivated to eat any differently, because I felt like I deserved to indulge considering how much exercise I was getting that I hadn’t before. Now, an article on active.com confirmed my growing suspicion that I can’t rest on exercise as the only means for weight loss:

Running 15 miles a week burns roughly 1,500 calories—but to lose a pound, you need to cut 3,500 calories a week. Bottom line? Running alone won’t cut it; if you want to lose weight more quickly, you need to adjust your calorie intake. In a study in the 2007 American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology and Metabolism,, researchers followed participants for a year and found that lean and overweight adults who restrict their calorie intake by an average of 300 calories a day lose nearly 25 percent of their body fat. People who just exercise but don’t eat fewer calories lose just over 22 percent. Both regimens worked, but your best bet is to combine the effort.

So, its back to calorie counting this weekend, and yet another attempt to kick my cigarette Dr. Pepper and Pepsi habit. Other common sense weight-loss advise is available in this article on Runners World.

It would be great to be 5 pounds less than I am now by the race. Maybe following some of these tips I can get there.