Trying to keep weight on during training season

[Kallisti]

Help!
I'm training for my race / charity ride season, which means I'm stepping up the number of hours that I workout per week. I race a single speed mountain bike, and ride endurance charity (road) rides, so I burn an extraordinary amount of calories on the days that I ride (5x/wk). Quite often I have days where I'm suppose to eat DOUBLE to TRIPLE the calories that I would eat on a day off. I find eating so much to be almost impossible, and I'm losing weight because of it. I'm really good about having 3 squares a day,snacks, and eating while on the bike, but it's not enough. Even though I feel like I'm stuffing myself on workout days, I'm still dropping. If I eat more on days off, I go through a yo-yo syndrome, where I hold or gain for one day, then drop the weight as soon as I workout. In the next few weeks I'm suppose to add hours onto my workout, and I'm nervous that I just won't be able the eat any more than I already am.
Is anyone else going through this? What do you do to keep your weight on, so you'll be effective during race season?

[CR400]

I have about 60 pounds of fat you can burn for me. Just kidding!! That is tough because most people are actually trying to loose weight.
I actually gained that 60 back durning a cycling season because I would ride eat back those calories and then eat what it takes to keep me at that weight. So aside from chowing down what you burn on a ride and then some you don't have much choice. You might try eating things that are high in fat and calories, Peanut Butter for example. It is hard to keep a fast metabolism loaded down enough to keep weight on while cycling, without eating things you shouldn't like whole pizzas and fast food. But hang in there I'm sure some other ladies have better ideas.

[Eden]

Are you saying you are dropping weight during or directly after workouts? Generally if that happens you are dropping water - and it indicates that you need to drink more before, during and after your workous.

[Kallisti]

Are you saying you are dropping weight during or directly after workouts? Generally if that happens you are dropping water - and it indicates that you need to drink more before, during and after your workous.
It's not water weight. On long rides, I've weighed myself before and after to make sure I'm not dehydrating, and there's a temporary gain, so that means I'm probably not dehydrating
No, this is over the last few weeks, where I've stepped up my training program, and noticing a drop in weight over time. This happened to me last year too, and my performance suffered for it (I race better with more weight, because it gives me "reserves", ie, a little extra fat to burn during a race).


That is tough because most people are actually trying to loose weight.
I know. That's what makes this a hard topic. There's all kinds of literature on how to loose weight, or how to gain weight for non-endurance athletes (like for bodybuilders). I just can't find anything on how to maintain weight, while increasing the hours of endurance workouts.
For the record, my snacks do include a variety of nuts and raisons, fruits, and nutritional bars. I'm lactose intolerant, so I eat soy yogurt (w/granola) instead.

[CR400]

It sounds like you are simply not taking in enough calories everyday to maintain your weight not just on training days. You may have to eat as much as a 1000 to 1500 more everyday to counter act all the cycling you do. Play around a little with your calorie intakes to see what will work for you to keep weight on or even gain 2 pounds over the time. If you have to add up to 2000 or more extra a day remember you will not get overweight with it because you can always cut back if you start to gain to much weight. You are blessed with a high metabolism even though right now it feels like a curse.

Also I would try drinking an endurance drink while riding like Hammer Nutrition's Perpenetum or my favorite Sustained energy. You can with just three scoops up the caloric value of that bottle of water by 300 calories. And you can make it into a pasty substance that can hold around 900 or slightly more for really long rides. Then add on all you other snacks and see what happens.

[GLC1968]

I don't know if I'm reading your post correctly, but are you figuring your calories by day only? Your body will hold reserves over multiple days as necessary, so it might benefit you to figure your calorie intake over a week and use that. In other words, don't try to eat an extra 2000 calories on the cycling days and a regular level on the non-ride days. Split that amount into 1000 calories extra over the two days and it'll be a lot easier to get in the right calorie needs.

Last summer, when I was training for centuries, I'd ride for 6 hours on a Saturday and burn 2500 calories. That meant that I had 6 hours less in the day to make up those calories (besides the on-bike food which would never total 2500 calories). I just couldn't do it....especially when I was eating only healthy foods (it was too much volume of food). The only way I could hit the right totals was with crap food and that left me feeling like crap and then craving more crap on non-bike days. It was a viscious cycle. :p Anyway, my point is that if I had just eaten what was on my plan for the day accepting that I'd have a deficit for that day, and then make it up in the day following (or some on the day before), I would have been better off. Basically, I had to plan a week at a time. Of course, my goal was weight loss, but the concept is the same (just the amounts are different).

[spokewench]

Help!
I'm training for my race / charity ride season, which means I'm stepping up the number of hours that I workout per week. I race a single speed mountain bike, and ride endurance charity (road) rides, so I burn an extraordinary amount of calories on the days that I ride (5x/wk). Quite often I have days where I'm suppose to eat DOUBLE to TRIPLE the calories that I would eat on a day off. I find eating so much to be almost impossible, and I'm losing weight because of it. I'm really good about having 3 squares a day,snacks, and eating while on the bike, but it's not enough. Even though I feel like I'm stuffing myself on workout days, I'm still dropping. If I eat more on days off, I go through a yo-yo syndrome, where I hold or gain for one day, then drop the weight as soon as I workout. In the next few weeks I'm suppose to add hours onto my workout, and I'm nervous that I just won't be able the eat any more than I already am.
Is anyone else going through this? What do you do to keep your weight on, so you'll be effective during race season?

Sounds like you have a high metabolism like my husband. When he was training a lot, he ate a bunch, but he found that if he supplemented with an after exercise drink right after exercise, (they have tons of calories in them); that this really helped him maintain his weight.

[Bluetree]

An MD friend told me of elderly patients who had trouble keeping their weight on. He recommended drinking a can of Ensure with a snack between meals; and the addition of calorie-dense foods like lentil soup.

[kelownagirl]

Turn 40.

[Eden]

Turn 40.
lol - try 30....
I don't really know if I can be of much help. My weight dropped to a point at which my body really seems to like to be at and stopped. If I'm lucky it will only vary a pound or two up and down even during the race season, though I did not really gain anything during the winter this year, so I will see what happens now that racing season is starting. I do make sure to get a recovery drink in after all of my races and then to eat as soon as is possible - often we will take some food with us since a lot of the races are a bit out of the way. My husband and I like proscuitto sandwiches, one because they are tasty, two because proscuitto is a great really, really dense sorce of protein, and three because it keeps well.

[Kallisti]

Yes, I have been thinking in terms of just daily caloric intake, instead of weekly. You gals are brilliant and I need to rethink the way I plan out my food. I can definitely fit in extra food on my days off, but hadn't because I thought yoyo-ing was bad, but I suppose if I'm just going up and down by a few pounds during the course of a week, that's OK, right?
I do use Endurox (drink supplement), both during and after the ride, which has been a lifesaver for me.

As for turning 40, tried that 4 years ago; didn't work ;) .

Thanks for giving me a lot to think about.

[tygab]

Hi,

Here's a reference for you:
http://www.amazon.com/David-Reubens-Quick-Weight-Gain-Program/dp/0517702053/ref=sr_1_1/104-2105054-1427150?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173245141&sr=8-1

don't be too thrown off by the "quick" in the title of it, it's more like several months to get improvement. I was very thin thru my 20s and this helped me get to what I felt was better for me. It'd probably be a good opportunity for me to look through it again.

I'd also recommend perusing Body for Life from a local library, which while it does have the bent of losing weight, conveys some interesting eating habits and suggestions (small, high value, and often) which I found useful as well. In any case, it's a challenge for most of us to get the right mix of food that works for us so getting as much info as you can will help.

Finally, I will agree with the eating/drinking right after workout. One of my tri books says this too, as there's a specific window (30 or so minutes) in which you can replenish your reserves optimally.

I have to take lots of food to work so that I always have something good to eat. While keeping my preferred weight is no longer difficult when I am not being active, when I am exercising with regularity I need to compensate with a lot of extra caloric intake that is high-value (not junk food and processed bad stuff). I feel I'm at a good balance point for me and strive to keep it steady.

Hope this helps and good luck in your journey,
-T

[spokewench]

Yes, I have been thinking in terms of just daily caloric intake, instead of weekly. You gals are brilliant and I need to rethink the way I plan out my food. I can definitely fit in extra food on my days off, but hadn't because I thought yoyo-ing was bad, but I suppose if I'm just going up and down by a few pounds during the course of a week, that's OK, right?
I do use Endurox (drink supplement), both during and after the ride, which has been a lifesaver for me.

As for turning 40, tried that 4 years ago; didn't work ;) .

Thanks for giving me a lot to think about.

I just had a question for you. I could not tell from the above. If you know this, just ignore me. I don't know all the different drink supplement names cause I use one that you can only get on the internet that works for me (I have digestive issues with products like endurox) There is a real difference between sports drinks that you use during exercise and ones for after exercise. Make sure you are using an after exercise drink. This will help you hold weight better than just drinking more of the during exercise drink. jan

[Kallisti]

I just had a question for you. I could not tell from the above. If you know this, just ignore me. I don't know all the different drink supplement names cause I use one that you can only get on the internet that works for me (I have digestive issues with products like endurox) There is a real difference between sports drinks that you use during exercise and ones for after exercise. Make sure you are using an after exercise drink. This will help you hold weight better than just drinking more of the during exercise drink. jan
I did a lot of experimentation last year with a bunch of different drink products. The brands I tried were:
GU2O
Cliff Shot
Cytomax
Power bar
Accelerade
I gave each brand a try, using both the performance drink and recovery drinks. I found that the Accelerade/Endurox combo (Endurox is the recovery drink) to be most effective for feeling better (i.e., not as wiped out, more aware) immediately afterwards. But even more impressive to me was the fact that the next day my muscles (particularly legs) would feel less fatigued, less sore. I also found that for some reason, Accelerade (the during the ride drink) upset my stomach, but that if I used Endurox for both during and after drinks, my stomach was fine, so that's what I do now.
I also use Carbboom (a nutritional gel), Lunabars, and nuts and raisons as my on bike snacks. I find that Carboom doesn't give me a suger spike the way that Gu or Power gels used to.

In case you're wondering, I'm trained as a research analyst, so this type of methodical experimentation is just the way I do things (yeah, I'm a bit of a geek :o )

[ehirsch83]

I had this same problem not to long ago! I found one thing that helped me a lot was adding in more EFAs(essential fatty acids). One of my favorite things now is to add olive oil to my oatmeal. Tastes a little funny at first, but then you get used to it and it tastes weird when you don't add it!And definitaly follow the others advice on spreading your calories out throughout your week. Just because you take a day off doesn't mean your body stops. It doesn't work on the same cycle that you do- it doesn't know that one day ended the next starts, it is just in a continuous cycle.
But anyways, also make sure you are getting enough protein. I found out that even though I was eating a ton of calories a day, they were all carbs, and my body was in such an endurance state that it was just burning them all. Once I added in more protein and more EFAs I started to put some weight on, without altering my caloric intake to much. (oh and protein drinks worked really good for me as a snack when I wasn't hungry- even add in a banana if you are somewhere that you can blend it)

[SouthernBelle]

Glad I found this thread as I've already dropped 2 lbs. Don't mind dropping a little, but by mid-summer last year, I had trouble maintaining.

Q: Where is Endurox carried?

ETA: Never mind. Google just told me. GNC & Vitamin World.

[hellosunshine]

for maintenance i have 3,500 calories A DAY and that means on my rest day.eat even when you dont feel like it,i write down what im going to eat to get the calories in every morning and stick to it,often when you are training hard you lose your appetite........as for turning 40,rubbish!since i tirned 40 3 weeks ago ive lost 3 kg!!!

and yes to all their suggestions,little things like THICK sliced bread,im a believer in full fat milk,even some veg hold more nutritional content than others.......


and theres always beer:D

[Kallisti]

Taking what was said here in consideration, I started eating more on my off days. I've put about 3 lbs back on, which doesn't sound like much, but it's big for me. I'm happy to say, it looks like muscle weight.
Here's some of the in between meal snacks I've added:
Soy Yogurt Smoothies (Silk, and Whole Soy make yummy ones)
Almonds, cashews, and pistachios
more fruit (so even more bananas, strawberries, oranges, avocados etc)
more Orange Juice

I also got myself a "bento box" for my bike, so now the food is always right in front of me. I'm remembering to eat on the bike more often, and that has been terrific for stamina. After a ride I have a full drink of Endurox, followed by a soy yogurt smoothie if I can "fit it in". (BTW, the soy yogurt smoothies have the same 4:1 ratio of carbs: protein, so it makes the perfect after ride snack.)

Thanks for all the good advice, ladies. This thread has been extremely helpful for me!