One of my motives for doing c25k was to help me lose weight. I started off with a BMI of twenty-five, which is overweight. I don't think I've eaten more since I began, now being at the end of the fifth week, but I really hoped I'd lose weight. However, my BMI has now gone up to 25.6, which is really disappointing. I suppose it might be muscle, but all the way through my twenties it was around eighteen, though it went up after the children were born. A couple of years ago I got it down to twenty-one, but I've really piled on the pounds since then. I suppose I'm just going to have to eat a lot less, but it's really disappointing.
Has anyone else had this problem?
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crystaltips42
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Did you measure yourself before starting? I’m also aiming to shift some weight (but very slowly) with running as one part of the plan. You may well have gained as muscle weighs more than fat, but you may well have lost inches. When you have completed C25k you will have run for a bit over 8 hours, which is great but not much in the grand scheme of things. However, when you’re running 3x30 a week - that’s 18 hours of running every three months. So the running will help in time but it’s not quick. I’ve lost about 1/2 stone (started this is Nov) but 4” from my waist, and 2” from bust and hips. Body feels stronger and is more toned. So I feel and look better but the scales haven’t told the same story!
Dieting without exercise is not a good idea, as your body will gladly shift muscle rather than fat, and your muscle is key to a higher resting metabolism - you’ll be using more calories by simply having more muscle.
Other tips: cut out or down all unnecessary sugar, and processed carbs (this can be hard with children around), fill up on veggies and have healthy snacks around. The more homemade food the better but again this can be hard when catering for children.
I’m looking at what I’ll feel like (and weigh & measure) but at the end of the first year. And the second! As you note the weight came on slowly over time, dieting alone after weight gain, seems to just make us all fatter, as the food regime is never sustainable - there’s a reason they call it the diet industry! So getting fit through exercise, with dietary adjustments, is the most sustainable way of keeping the weight off.
Yes... some muscle will be gained and fat burned... 25 is only slightly overweight I believe, so you started in the area where gain in more likely. Also, hopefully, you’re better hydrated now... and having one litre of extra water in you is 2.2 pounds on the scales.
BMI isn’t the be all and end all... I started this at healthy weight... I was far from healthy. The tape measure as DiscoRunner has said, shows a lot more about your progress to healthy.
Running can be a weight loss thing once the muscle build is done... but it takes 35 miles of running to burn a pound of fat... that’s not allowing for eating anything.
Running is all about health... it’s better to be BMI 25 and active than BMI 20 sat on the couch.
My understanding is that bmi of 25 is just st the top of acceptable. That’s where mine is now. It was 41 this time last year. I’d follow a proper diet like SlimmingWorld or weightwatchers . One that will give you the nutritional values you need. That’s what I did and I’ve lost over 30kg.
As UNM says, you're not doing enough running to lose weight. However, exercise increases appetite so you need to watch what you eat as well. I'm a firm believer in making small, sustainable changes to diet that you can live with permanently.
I try so hard not to weigh myself or look at my bmi.. I’m a horse rider so have a lot of muscle in my legs and I’m short so it’s never worked in my favour 😂 I tend to focus on how the exercise makes me feel, which is hard considering I also would like to be leaner. I would just try and trust the process, if your bmi is increasing then maybe this is because your body needs to be at this weight to allow you to run and do all of the things you love, including your children 😊
Each run in C25K is about 30 minutes and you are going to burn 100-200 calories each time out. So C25K on its own is not going to help you lose much weight, particularly if you have a snack as a reward after the run.
Long, slow runs of an hour are what's needed to burn fat, and this type of running is something that you can aspire to whilst working your way through C25K. As others have said, get out your tape measure and look for progress in your body shape.
We all naturally have swings up and down in our weight and don't be disheartened by 25.6 compared with 25.0. You'll get there... keep running.
I don't want to go too far into a somewhat unrelated topic, but in terms of weight loss I managed to reduce my weight by something like sixteen kilos over about six months. I did this by eliminating all added sugar, cutting down to two meals a day, drinking a lot of fizzy water to fill my stomach, having no fried food, not eating between meals, dressing slightly too coldly, having one serving spoonful less per meal, chewing each mouthful fifty times and walking around seven miles twice a week. I think that was all. It worked but the problem now is that there's a lot of that I can't practically do because I eat other people's leftovers so as not to waste food and being a carer I tend to be stuck in the house a lot. But I could certainly re-adopt a fair bit of that. I'm just used to being in the low sixty-something kg and it crept up to eighty-five over the years.
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Anyone else running as a mood-booster rather than weight loss?
What weight loss or toning has anyone achieved?
struggling and weight gain!!?!
Weight loss and pace gain 
Does anyone else feel a numpty doing this?
