A question about weight

[Wahine]

I have in more than one instance noticed that some of the hardest training people here have made comments about their weight. How come when doing this much training, the pounds don't just melt away?

I know calories in, calories out. I teach Bio, I get it. But with the number of calories that we are burning, why is it even an issue?

How come I am not desperately fighting to keep weight on? Are we not really burining that much? I am freakin' hungry all the time, and I am not even doing IM distance.

What is the physiology behind this?

Confused and hungry in New Jersey...
( and hoping not to offend)

Ruth

Gotta keep this short. So ask questions if it doesn't click.

Physiologically speaking, new activity will burn calories at a higher rate - simple biology there. As we exercise longer, our efficiency changes and we may not burn as many calories for the same amount and intensity of exercise. This has to do with efficiency of metabolism as well as efficiency of movement/biomechanics.

Also, while many of us are burning fat, we are also storing glycogen in our muscles. For every 1 gram of glycogen stored, you have to store 3 grams of water. That's a lot of extra weight in the muscle. This would be particularly true for you because you're doing a lot of work at LT so you're body will be tending toward storing glycogen in the muscle.

I actually gained weight when I trained for my first IM, I think mostly due to glycogen storage.

Metabolic hormone levels drop drastically in trained athletes if they restrict their caloric intake below 80% of required calories for normal daily function + caloric expenditure during exercise. This is in effect a physiologic starvation response and will pre-dispose storage of fat when the athlete does eat more. So a lot of athletes may be shooting themselves in the foot by not eating enough for 3 to 4 days, (changing their metabolic hormone profile), then binging because they think it's OK once in awhile.

Finally, a lot of people eat on rest weeks and rest days the same as they do on training days and I think that tends to cause some fat storage. Your body is trying to make rain while the sun shines. I don't have anything to back this up, it's just my opinion from experience with my own body and from discussions with other athletes.

Personally. I seem to have hit my set point at 140 lbs. To lose more I will have to change something. As you know, I'm training a lot. You'd think I'd be as skinny as a rail. Nope. I don't know that I will try to drop another 5 lbs. That was my goal as it would seriously improve my climbing. But I also don't want to get into that nasty situation of messing with my metabolism.