Running On Empty

For someone who tries to run long distances, I am somewhat overweight. I'm not huge, but I could definitely do with losing ten kilos or so. This extra weight is especially noticeable when I go up hills, my already slow pace becomes positively glacial. I also notice it on photographs from running events, whereas most people look like racing snakes, I tend to look like a wannabe Pooh Bear.

Anyway, Sue is away for a couple of weeks, so I decided that I would take the radical step of adopting an 800 calorie diet for two weeks as recommended on this website. I won't go into the science of the thing, you can read up about that yourself. The main thing is that being on my own, I could more easily control what I eat in a way that is difficult when we are both at home eating the same meals.

Looking down at Crosshills from above Cowling; it is raining somewhere around Embsay.

Eating 800 calories a day takes a bit of organisation and discipline. Basically, I would have an omelette or scrambled eggs in the morning, a bowl of homemade veggie soup for lunch and then a stir-fry or something similar in the evening. Lots of vegetables and protein and very little meat or dairy and almost no carbs. After three or four days, I was accustomed to the regime and didn't feel particularly hungry, which was great. But what about running.

I started the diet on a Wednesday in the middle of a low mileage week, so that was good. The first day, I set off with the dog up and over the moor and round Steeton waterfalls. Three miles with a bit of climbing and a lot of fun. I was able to make good pace and fairly sprinted up the hill after the waterfalls, I felt great. The second day involved a six-mile run along the canal and that went fairly well, too. 

Then came the long run on Saturday; ten easy flat miles. It was really hard going, I was just tired, no energy. Around four miles in I got a niggle in my ankle and thought better of carrying on, normally this would have frustrated me, but this time it was a relief. On Sunday, I cancelled my planned ten miler and did some decorating instead.

However, by Monday, I started to feel better and was looking forward to a harder running week. On Tuesday, I planned eight miles up and over the Cowling Pinnacles. For the most part, the running was good, but I found myself really struggling on the climb, I just couldn't get my breath. Normally, I can run/speed walk all the way up without a break, but I found myself having to stop every now and then. It turns out that you need more oxygen to burn fat than you do to burn carbs, no wonder I struggled.

Tired man and a Pinnacle.

My Wednesday run was a repeat of the previous week's, though this time I really struggled to run up from the waterfall, I was breathing hard and felt that I had no strength in my legs. It wasn't good. Then on Thursday, I repeated Tuesday's hard run and it was dreadful. Running downhill was fine, but everything else was a real struggle. Even the last flat(ish) mile home along the beck was hard going. When I got home, I was a mess and couldn't even muster the energy for a shower. With sixteen hilly miles in the diary for Saturday, I decided to call it a day on the diet and allowed myself some carbs with my veggie curry.

Thoughts

The first thing to note is that I lost 4kg in just over a week, that's about ten pounds in old money. Undoubtedly some of that was water loss and I'll put it on again as I ramp up the carbs. But there is a real and significant weight loss.

Apart from the deep fatigue when running, I felt better than usual on the diet. In particular, I was free from some of the GI issues that normally trouble me. I'll watch to see when and if they recover as I reintroduce other foods.

The bottom line is that if I wasn't trying to train for an ultra, I would have stayed on the diet for the two weeks and quite enjoyed it.

You just can't do extreme calorie restricted diets and run long distances - well, I can't, it might work for others.
I still need to find a reliable way to lose weight slowly.

Will there be any long-lasting effects? I'm not sure, we'll see when I run the Lakeland Trails at Hawkshead next week; there are enough hills there to test me out.

A Doodle, untroubled by low calorie intake.