Yesterday DrSugar answered the health related portion of this question.
Dear DrSugar,
I have a problem that might seem a little odd, but I am not dieting and I am losing too much weight. I am training for a marathon, and exercise daily about 2 hours Monday through Friday (running outside mixed with swimming, spin class, body pump, and running on Treadmill). My Saturday workout is always a long run, and my Sunday workout is a short run. I know I am not pregnant, but my last period was 5 months ago. Is this due to too much exercise? Other than the missing period, I feel strong and fine. And I eat healthy meals every 2 to 3 hours. Is this something that I need to worry about?
Running Rita
The sweet doctor and I decided to tackle this question in two parts, since there are so many aspects to this important question. To see what DrSugar had to say about the missing periods read his answer here. For my input on nutrition and rest days read more.
First let me say that I think it is great that you're cross training with swimming, spinning and strength training, but you need at least one rest day a week, if not two. Rest days are vital for your body to recuperate and repair itself. Here are two plans one from Runner's World and one from Marathon Training and each plan has two rest days. Without rest days, you run the risk (pun intended) of creating over use injuries, which can certainly derail you marathon plans.
Maintaining your weight is also important and you need to make sure you're replacing all the calories you're expending while training. It sounds like you're coming up short on calories, aka fuel. Coach Jenny, over at Runner's World offers some incredibly sane advice about maintaining weight while training. It might be a good idea to have your metabolic rate checked to ensure you have a solid baseline understanding of your caloric needs. Wearing a heart rate monitor that calculates calories burned will help you know how much you need to eat to replenish all the calories you burned while working out. Make sure you're eating a healthy and balanced diet that is a little heavy in whole grain carbs. Don't forget the healthy fats either. Avocado and salmon are two runner friendly fatty foods.
I think running a marathon is a wonderful goal, but do not put your health at risk to do so. You might also want to evaluate why you are driving yourself to train so intensely. Compulsive exercise falls under eating disorders as an alternative way to "purge." There are many online resources, like SomethingFishy.org should you feel you need some help.
Good luck on the marathon. Take some rest days and add some healthy calories to your day. Hopefully this equation will help you return to your previous weight and then help you maintain it.
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i wish i had that problem - but i can certainly understand how it would become an issue. it's kind of like what michael phelps needs to do - intake a TON more calories than usual in order to maintain weight and continue to tone and build muscle mass. since your body burns more when you have more muscle - it's normal i guess to lose weight faster than you expect. i think that it's really impressive that you're planning to run the marathon though - i've always wanted to but since i had a major knee injury - those hopes are long gone. now i'm resigned to biking and things like that.