Marathon training advice please!

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nonconformist88

New member
I know most of you ladies are strength training, but I’m hoping someone here has some advice for getting the right balance of nutrition whilst marathon training.

I’m 156cm and 63kg (that’s about 5’2” and 140lb in freedom units, I think). Currently losing about 1kg a week, eating about 1200-1400 calories a day. I have used CICO to lose weight successfully before and am happy with my system - I love food and struggle to maintain as soon as I stop counting.

Ideally, I want to continue to lose because a) I’m overweight and b) it’ll make the running easier.

But I also know I need to fuel properly for the amount of running I’m doing. I don’t want to damage performance or increase injury risk.

My current plan is to kind of play it by ear - see what calories feels good for running whilst ideally being in a deficit. I usually eat more the day before a long run (to make sure my glycogen stores are full) and the day of a long run (because I am SO hungry). I’m looking at macros and trying to get the right balance, too.

I’ve never trained this much whilst needing to lose weight before, so I’m not sure how it’s going to go. I would love any advice, experiences etc! Thank you so much!
 
@nonconformist88 Whenever Ive trained for a marathon, I put on like 5lbs. Its a common phenomenon. Its just such intense training, and endurance training necessitates that you resupply your body with carbs/glycogen. Eating in a deficit while training pulls you in different directions, you won't be able to succeed at either and you'll just drive yourself crazy. My maintainence calories are like 1500-1700, but during marathon training, I regularly eat over 2000 on days I run 10+ miles.

If anything, eat at a deficit during the offseason, but don't bother during training. You need at least maintenance calories, if not more. And if you lift, get enough protein to make sure you maintain that muscle, it goes a long way towards injury prevention.
 
@nonconformist88 Currently training for a half myself and I don’t think 12-1400 is enough to train that much. In fact, I burned that many calories just in my last long run. A much smaller deficit might be feasible, but I think your runs would improve dramatically if you increased your calories.
 
@nonconformist88 I was heavily into running ~2 years ago and was committed to a PR in my half marathon and a 10k my town holds every year. With that, I had to abandon my aesthetic goals and go all in on nutrition/strength training to become a better/faster runner. I actually gained around 10lbs and lost some muscle mass, so I definitely looked heavier. About a month after my half, our dog became ill and died from cancer. I went from being in the gym 3-5x a week and running 40+ miles a week to maybe hitting 5k steps/day, and I lost around 15lbs.
My advice would be to hire a coach if you can afford it. Having someone who can tell you exactly what and how much you need to be eating is so helpful and takes a lot of the guessing out of it.
 
@nonconformist88 You're not overweight(i dont think) I'm just about the same body weight as you except I'm 5'3. Calculators will tell us its overweight but we're not... lots of research says that BMI are outdated because it take muscle mass, density and overall body composition in the same category.

But to answer your question, you have to ask yourself whats your main goal, marathon or weight loss? Because I really would not recommend doing both at the same time. Its just recipe for injury/illness and the sacrifice of full potential of performance. You can do both i guess but its just not sustainable specially if youre already struggling with food intake.

I strength train and run 5k 3-5 days a week, like you I wanted to do do both and also eat at only 1600 calories but I was just miserable and not at my full potential and it sucked so I just went to body recomposition. Look into that if you havent! With body recomp im eating at 1900-2000 calories a day. Also training to run a 20k but taking it really slow

For macros, I use the app macrofactor. I highly recommend it, they can do your macros for you as long as you put your weight goal. You can also edit your macros to your liking. With my activity right now, my protein is set at 1.11g of body weight so eating about 130g to 140g everyday. You should focus on protein, and have carbs on heavy run days.
 
@dawn16 I second this. I ran the nyc marathon and I don’t recommend calorie deficit while training for the marathon. You can probably get away with it in the beginning of the training but as you start to increase mileage, I do not recommend. You need to fuel your body because marathon training is taxing.
 
@eriugena Thanks. Congratulations on NYC!

I think, as you suggest, I’ll try for a deficit until the 10+ miles kick in, and then go to maintenance or more on long run days from there.
 
@nonconformist88 A lot of others have given specific advise on macros and calculators. It’s great advice. I will say, from my experience,you will hit a wall if you aren’t getting enough calories while doing cardio. Listen to your body and eat more when you need to. The easiest thing to do is make healthy food choices. Lean meats, lots of veggies and fruits, carbs that are high in fibre.

You got this.
 
@nonconformist88 Marathon training places a ton of stress on ur body (I’m also training for one at the moment, and I’m also the same height!). Even when I was training for a half earlier this year, I couldn’t manage eating 1200-1400 cals; I was constantly exhausted and ended up reactive eating. Because of how stressful marathon training is, I’ve seen sports dieticians recommending that u don’t try to lose weight at the same time. It limits ur ability to recover / build aerobic capacity because ur already putting urself on the back foot.

That all being said - good luck for ur training and ur race! Take care and make sure ur fuelling properly, if it’s any consolation I’ve found that even while eating at maintenance, running has changed my body composition a ton (for the better)
 
@jcsr Thank you so much. I do feel my body changing for sure and I’m not too stressed about it. I just don’t really want to carry extra pounds around for 26 miles!

Loads of luck for your training and your marathon!
 
@nonconformist88 Hi. Just ran my 3rd a couple weeks ago. First sub-4 finish.

Honestly, training for a marathon and a caloric deficit work tangentially against each other. That was my mistake during my first 2. First one I did not finish, second one I ran super shitty (4:40).

As far as playing the training by ear, I would suggest against this... especially if this is your first. I'd recommend looking up a plan - ig is a surprisingly good resource - and sticking to it. The discipline you need to power through 26.2 will develop over the discipline you apply towards your training.
 
@btot Sorry I didn’t mean the marathon training by ear, I meant my calorie intake. I have a training plan.

If I finish my first in 4.40 I will be thrilled!

Well done on your marathon achievements.
 
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