We’ve always known running to be one of the best ways to burn calories, but if you are training for a marathon with the secondary motive of losing weight, think again. Training for a marathon will require you to run (more) every single day to achieve the best results on race day. And when you are running every day, without any weight training, weight loss is near impossible. Here’s why.
Extra water intake
Because you are going to work out more, your water intake will also increase as you can’t dehydrate yourself. This helps with repairing damaged muscles and delivering glycogen to working muscles. Every litre of water you drink adds to your weight and shows up on the scale. These are just empty calories, but on the scale, they matter.
You eat extra to compensate
You might end up eating more than usual as the calorie burnout rate is high while training for marathon. Quite simply, your body will demand more food to convert into energy.
Intake of healthy nutrients
When you begin marathon training, you need to eat the right foods to provide your muscles and body the necessary carbohydrates and protein to recover. This can also be a cause for not losing weight. Plus, the harder you train the more you’ll feel hungry.
You are running too much
Running too much will not result in weight loss as your body becomes used to the pace. You need to up your fitness routine and challenge yourself to see results on the scale and that won’t be possible while you are training for a marathon. Too much cardio and no weight training may result in you not losing any weight … but you’ll tone up for sure!
