Hello  I am about 9-10 months RNY Post op-   In the first 7 months I lost 155lbs, from 337 down to 172. I have started training for a half marathon in mid October and a possible Marathon the first week of November.  (I am 50 years old) Since I have started running and especially running long distances I am hungry all of the time. I have worked up from walking 12 miles to jogging 17.25 this past weekend. I am really not a runner, I can only jog. I cannot do an 8 or 10 minute mile, I am very slow at 13-14 minute miles. Most of you guys probably walk faster then I jog :) . I am trying to build up endurance for 26 miles and it will take me about 6 1/2 hours to complete the marathon about 3.5 hours to complete the half marathon. When I jog the long distances once a week on Saturday I take the energy gels one per hour and it is 100 calories and 22 carbs. This past Saturday I took 4 gels and it took about 4 hours to jog 17 miles. When I jog like this I am hungry all of the time. I am very worried about stretching my patch out. I continue to eat protein supplements, Isopure, Pure Protein Bars, and Quest bars.  I have added a lot fruit grapes, bananas, and strawberries. Unfortunately I eat a lot of food at night. I am jogging 40-45 miles per week.  In the past month I have gone from 172 up to 180. I have a lot of feelings about the weight gain, frustration with myself, panic, guilt, and saddened thinking I am going to gain so much weight back. In other forums and my close family have told me maybe I should just quit jogging and not train for a marathon so that I do not gain weight. I guess I have made a commitment to myself and want to continue on. When I was 30 I ran the half marathon twice, but have never made it for 26 miles. I would like to go to a support group at my program, but they are only on Monday nights at 5:30 and it is a 3 hour round trip and I work full time. There is another program close to me but they only meet twice per month and I am having trouble getting to the meetings because they are during the day and I am at work.  When I started jogging longer distances and just had probably less then 100 carbs per day with no fruit I actually felt week and had to sit down many times. I feel like I need the carbs to keep up my energy.  This morning I jogged 7.5 miles, I have had 1800 calories, 130 grams of protein and 118 grams of carbs , 32 grams of fiber, and 38 grams of Fat, I have not had any regular food, just protein bars and isopure.  Anyway I have gained 2lbs a week for the past month and I am up to 180.  When I had my last office visit about a month ago they told me I should keep my weight range between 172 and 178 and not go above and here I am at 180.00 . I struggle with hunger and craving food all of the time. I am looking for suggestions? constructive criticism and good advice about what to do.  I hope it is okay if I cross post this in the RNY forum. I am really worried about regaining all of my weight. I do not understand how I can gain 8lbs while jogging 40-45 miles per week. Any advice or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. So thankful for everyone here .- thank you! 

Kudos to you and your weight loss and goals!  While this is on my bucket list I have never trained for one. Are you sure it's fat you are gaining and not muscle    Try posting this on the following forums and they may be able to help you.

Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery Forum (RNY)

Men

Exercise and Fitness Forum

Doubtful that someone could put on 2lb of muscle per week.

Thanks Julie, I didn't think so?  When I was body building the muscle came on pretty fast but I never weighed or measured as I was not measuring my success that way, just by increased weight and reps.

I mean this in the nicest way. He is consuming a lot of carbs and probably taking salt (for electorlytes) so chances are it is fat AND bloat. Marathoners often GAIN weight when trianing...which is some sort of weird evil paradox.

Bottom line: You're gaining because you're taking in more calories than you're burning.

Most WLSers maintain at 1100 - 1200 calories per day and lose at about 600 - 800. Calorie-burn estimates are often VERY inaccurate, so it's doubtful that you're burning 1000 calories per day after jogging 7.5 miles.

Protein bars and shakes won't do a darn thing to keep you satisfied. You need dense, lean protein for that. If all you're taking in are protein bars and energy gels (pure sugar)? No wonder you're hungry. Stick to dense protein during the day, maybe ONE carb-y thing during a run, but otherwise things like meat and dairy.

Having done a fair bit of long-distance cycling myself, I absolutely understand how much it sucks to "bonk." (Dunno if that's what runners call it!) But there's a world of difference between a normal (for us) amount of carbs and four packets of simple sugars that you're taking in. I'd suggest trying something other than the gels to get carbs in, if that's what you're set on. Cyclists tend to stick with bananas or fig newtons; I usually go for sugar-free oatmeal. Packets of peanut butter can be a good option as well.

You typically burn 100 cals per mile, so a 7.5 mile run would burn an extra 750 cal.

Packets of nut butters work great on a run and their easy to eat.  I also use teddy grahams.  Although they have sugar in them, the amount is not horrible and they have protein so you're not ingesting pure sugar.  They're also easy to eat on the run as they basically melt in your mouth.  PB and teddy grahams are my go to snacks on long runs (along with shot bloks)

Well, being hungry a lot and eating extra is a guaranteed recipe for weight gain. But if it helps, new(er) runners training for a marathon are really, really prone to gaining weight. It's a well established phenomenon. Here's an article about it:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2015/0 4/03/the-novice-marathoner-lament-why-gaining-weight/FzqsYc2 oMv2w1A7VpC1jHM/story.html

 

I would quit the Isopure and protein bars and start filling up on dense protein.  Ribeye steaks, roast chicken, roast turkey, grilled pork, ham, sausage, eggs, and baked or grilled fish will keep you full and should get your weight loss started again.   Do drink plenty of water, but not until 30 minutes after eating.

Give up the grapes, bananas and strawberries and snack on Cheesesticks, beef jerky or hard-boiled eggs.

I can't really comment on the energy gels.  Maltodextrin and fructose act like sugar in the body.  They may be contributing to your weight gain.  You would think running all that distance would have you dropping weight.

HI!

I am 40 ish, training for a marathon (on 10/30/2016) and have had RNY. I plan to run walk the marathon at a 14:00 pace.  My fastest mile on flat land is 10:45.  My fastest ever was 8:40 running down A MOUNTAIN.

I have to stay low carb except WHEN I run.  To get an idea of what I do

1) Get up at 4.30 am

2) drink a protein shake for breakfast. It goes down fast and I am not going to puke it up while running

3) Drive an hour to teh meetup point (6 am)

4) Start running with my group.

5) At every mile I eat ONE date...maybe two if I am dragging. ONE DATE every mile.

6) I drink Hammer Nutritions Heed for additional carb and electrolytes

7) Every mile I take 2 licks of base salts. It is 102 here and I am kicking out salty sweat like crazy. NOt enough salt leads to cramps. 

8) Every 3 miles I break the dates and eat baby food. I eat teh sweet potatoes...or sweet potato and orange and mango .  You need a slow complex carb.  So I would be eating about 100 calories of baby food at 3, 6, 9, 12 miles. 

9) At the aid station (usually around mile 15 or 20) I take ONE hand ful salty potato chips. ONE handful. You are doing it for the carbs and salt. You arent eating them cuz you like potato chips.

10) when the run is done I drink ANOTHER protien shake.  THis is to stop muscle wasting

A celebratory beer or cider would be nice. But by the time I have ate along the run, I have "eaten" whatever I have burned.  To give you an idea, 6 dates are 100 calories.  The average runner (and we arent average our metabolisms are slower) would burn about 2600 calories for a marathon (i.e. 100 calories per mile). So in dates, I have consumeed 500 calories. The eletroylet drink is about 175 calories,  the potato chips are 150 calories, and 900 calories went to baby food.  I have consumed about 400 calories in protein drink before and after my run. I take protein tabs every 3 miles for workouts over 5 hours. 3 tablets are 100 calories and I go  through about 700 calories there. So preworkout, during workout, and post workout I have eaten 2,725 calories but AT BEST burned 2600 (probably less). I am 100 calories OVER budget. This should be burned in your mind. These numbers are important. Very important.

Do you see how if you are fueling while you run, and you need to fuel because you will bonk, you are going to NOT be at a great deficit.  You might even eaten too many calories!

So because we are consuming while we are running, you will not have anythign in your calorie budget for a post workout beer, freezee pops, bagel (**** bagels are like a billion calories!!!).

Dinner should be somethign dense like white dove said.

On stretching your pouch. Dates chew down well. You are eating them 1 every mile so no pouch stretching there. THe protein tabs dissolve in your mouth so no stretching there. Potato chips chew down and dissolve down well..so no stretchign there.  And the baby food you drink it from those squeezy pouches. I take a swallow at a time. I do not chug. It is pureed and kind of running (like a thin pudding) so no stretching there.

But you have got to fight "the hunger" later in teh day or even the NEXT day. I wish I could tell you something wonderful and super secret but YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO WHITE KNUCKLE THROUGH IT.

And that is what Skinny does.

But damn, she would really like a post-workout beer FOR ONCE.