Training, hunger, and weight loss

I train a lot. I actually train more then I really need to for an olympic triathlon that is still 15 weeks away. I didn't want to drop my run volume too much after the half marathon and I swim more then most plans call for, since I feel I still need so much technique work. I do 9 workouts a week, the majority of which are in the hour time range. One of those is a long run and one is a long bike, both of which are nearly 2 hours.

With that much cardio, you would think I'd have no trouble at all dropping weight. Except for one thing:

I am hungry all the time.

We're talking about a legitimate hunger too. It's not a mild nagging that I know I can ignore, wait for my next snack and it will help my weight loss goals. It's more like a wild beast inside of me that starts tearing apart my insides when it's not fed enough.

Sunday I did a 15 km (9.3mi) run, with some serious hills involved. It took me about 1 hour, 45 minutes. Afterwards, I had a glass of chocolate milk (my normal recovery drink) and a giant salad. Then I headed out shopping for a few hours. I didn't bring any food along.

By the time I came home, about 3.5 hours had passed. I had a massive headache and my body felt like it was shutting down. I was feeling nauseous and weak. I needed food. Pure and simple and I hadn't given my body enough.

Now, this isn't always the case. More common is the similar hunger and poor planning (of not bringing along food) and I grab something on the go. The something on the go doesn't tend to be the best choices. While I do try to avoid cookies or pastries, it's commonly a cheese bun or a muffin. Still not the best choice.

So, my weight has not been budging.

Having said all that, I would feel pretty good about my eating habits if I didn't want to lose weight. I eat pretty well and basically balanced overall. I have a high level of activity, and I need to fuel it. Yes, my weight hasn't budged, but it also hasn't budged in the upwards direction. I've spent most of my life on a weight gain/loss yoyo, so the fact that it remains stable and I am actually eating to my needs is kind of cool.

But, I feel like I have some free speed inside of me that wants to get out. Some people spend thousands of dollars on their bike to get more carbon and shave a couple grams. I have the ability to drop a couple dozen pounds and automatically improve my bike and run.

The plan for this week? Simply to track everything I eat. I want to get a better sense of where I am in terms of my intake so that I can look at where to tweak it. I also need to find the balance of how much I can cut without negatively impacting my training. The intention is not to actually cut calories this week; just to observe.

I believe that I can continue to lose weight while training for an olympic. That may not hold true when I start training for longer events, so I better get on it now. I plan to get to a healthy weight over the next few months, and when off season hits, I'd like to figure out what my optimal weight is.

Do you need to be hungry to lose weight?

A lot of the diets out there will tell you that you should never let yourself be hungry. You should always eat before you reach that point. Fill up on low calorie foods, vegetables and the like...

Does this really work?

After losing my first 15-20 pounds, I went through quite a few months where the scale just didn't move. I was eating healthy, mostly unprocessed foods. I might even be able to say that I was eating intuitively. It worked fabulously for maintaining my weight, but I wasn't losing anything. So, why is that?

Perhaps because I never let myself be hungry?

The thing is, our bodies survive by sending us signals as to what they think they need. One thing our bodies try to do is maintain their current weight. There's a lot of buzz in the blogger world about intuitive eating and to be honest, I just don't get it. If I eat intuitively, I am going to be feeding my body whenever it's hungry. My body is going to send me signals that it needs food (and then I'll be hungry) whenever it enters a calorie deficit.

You need a calorie deficit to lose weight.

There's tricks out there. Weight watchers has their list of filling foods. You might hear advice to drink tea or munch on celery...

I'm not fooled by that.

Seriously. I am enough in touch with my body that, if I'm physically hungry, tea or celery doesn't change that. Until I throw some calories in there, I still feel hungry. Those things may help when I'm feeling emotional hunger, or I'm just feeling munchy, but not when I'm truly physically hungry.

In order to stay in my calorie range, I will be hungry, and I'm coming to accept that. In fact, I think being this in touch is a good thing. When the time does come to maintain my weight and I'm training hard for triathlons, it should help me to know when I genuinely need more fuel for my workouts.

Until then, in order to lose a modest amount of weight each week (1-2 pounds), I have to feel a modest amount of hunger.