I finished week 3 today and enjoyed it! Thank you everyone for your support, it means the world to me. 🤗
First and foremost, I am not actually running to lose weight, I am running for mental and physical health.
However, I do need to lose some weight for the above health reasons. I don’t believe in restricting foods etc, just more nourishing foods where possible, but I also know that in order to lose weight, calories in must be fewer than calories out! As a short female, my basal metabolic rate is quite low and I don’t feel quite ready to lower caloric intake to the necessary level at the moment as I am worried it will make running miserable.
Running and trying to lose weight at the same time is not something I have dealt with before and I wondered if anyone had any tips/experience with how it impacts running.
Thank you!
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dreamrun
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The first time I did C25k I combined this with much more controlled eating and successfully lost nearly 5 stones. I must admit to being rather strict with my food, but also not really wanting to eat as much as the increased fitness made me feel better about life so I was less likely to comfort eat. Later in the journey, there was a definite correlation between my weight and my speed - I guess that's logical.
But this time, I'm focusing solely on getting back in the running habit to start with - a more controlled diet can come later once the darker months are over I think.
I was originally a skinny bloke but had started to fill out as I entered middle age, developing facial jowls and a spare tyre.
When I started C25K I was 82kg. After 6 months I'd got down to about 76kg and I was very happy about that. As I continued to run, and especially when I was up to running for an hour or more in one session, the weight started to come off again, and I'm now a further year in it's bumbling around the 69kg mark. I haven't been that weight since I was in my twenties!
Only minimal changes to diet: fewer sweeties and biscuits.
I've lost the weight equivalent of 21 pints of water!
Nowadays I'm actually eating more as I'm burning about 750 Calories a day in running. The weight is nice and stable.
What you are most likely to notice first is not your weight dropping, but your clothes getting looser. Fat is converted to muscle. Muscle is more dense than fat of the same weight.
I found running led to weight loss only little and slowly but a loss. I watched what I ate during the week, lots of vegetables fruit drank lots of water no red meat cakes biscuits etc, but I did have a treat night when I would have a glass or two of wine and chocolate. I found that not getting obsessed by food and loosing weight but enjoying running helped. It a psychological thing for me, if I say I’m on a diet I am always hungry and crave all the wrong things.
I didn’t start running to lose weight, but have. I’m a 6 foot bloke and was around 100kg when I started. I’ve dropped to 87kg (still classed as overweight) and been there for around 6 months.
I made no deliberate dietary changes, but did notice that as I got fitter I just wanted less fatty food by and large.
I'm convinced that C25K can act as a gateway to a healthier lifestyle by virtue of what Reggit has said above. You become and identify as a 'runner' and thereby start to view what you eat and drink differently and it become a virtuous circle.
I've been running since March, not to lose weight. I've maybe dropped less than half a stone, now hovering around 11 stone at 5'4" BUT my body shape is changing! For the first time in my life I have a waist. The muffin tops have almost disappeared and my legs have lost the puffiness that had been bothering me for years.From past experience, when I've cut out refined carbs and sugar the first few days are awful then the cravings disappear.
Be aware of what you're eating. Take one biscuit at a time, not the packet. Enjoy it. If you want another, wait a minute. If you still want one, have it. Have a drink of water as well, you may be confusing hunger and thirst. Try not to buy too many junk snacks, remove the temptations.
61 year old 152cm female here! I've been running for almost 20 months, and have gone from what BMI considers "overweight" to comfortably "healthy," around 53kg, and much more toned too.
Weight loss came from three things: running longer distances, feeling less inclined to comfort eat, and having less time to bake - if I'm out running up a hill I can't simultaneously be baking! Drinking plenty of water probably also helped.
While I've regained a bit over Christmas and New Year, I'm not going to stress about it because that'd be counter-productive.
What a fab change! I will keep persevering- it’s so nice to know others have been in my place and championed through!
As nowster said I started to notice my body changing shape as I progressed through C25K. My jeans started to fit and my spare tyre gradually disappeared as my body toned up.
For me, it was a combination of exercise and cutting out the take aways. If I fancy a curry I just make it myself. It is much less fatty and dare I say it - tastes lovely.
I lost about one and a half stone which is great. I still snack and have a drink so don't punish myself to lose weight. I am just a bit more mindful of what I shove in my mouth 😀
When we first started C25k I knew exactly my measurements and by the end of the programme I’d gone down 3 inches on my waist without losing any weight, then almost 2 years ago I stopped smoking and piled on a stone and a half in the first year, I went through a stage of large cheap bars of white chocolate being so delicious I would eat almost a whole bar of an evening. In 2021 I continued to run and watched what I ate in the sweets and biscuits area and have shed just over half a stone, my running is definitely a little slower in general but due to fitness i can run faster for longer. It just proves you can’t outrun a bad diet but even without weight loss some serious toning is going on and shape is more important than a number on the scales. Keep running and feel proud of yourself
Our works choir musical director Amy has always struggled with her weight (yo-yo) since her teens. Amy is short, maybe 5 foot. In May 2020, during the 1st lockdown, she'd put on more weight and was feeling fed-up and resolved to really do something about it. She had tinkered with C25K before, but this time restarted it and also changed how she ate, based on lots of research and finding something she felt she could stick with.
The result is that she succeeded in reaching her target weight and discovered a love of running - so much so that she's just completed 365 days of consecutive running, throughout 2021. While reaching her target weight, she committed to photographing everything she ate and did this all on Instagram.
I don't know the specifics of her change on diet but it looked like a big reduction in carbs (potatoes, bread etc) and something along the lines of paleo.
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