Triathlon and UNDER eating

I don't understand the concept of not getting enough calories in.

I eat 7 time a day. I try to aim for around 2,200 calories. Even then, I'm starving most of the time and would eat more if I could. But I'm trying to keep my weight down, so I don't.

I have to eat. If I don't, I get light headed and dizzy. I just don't understand how people go for hours without eating.

If you eat 7-8 times a day, and eat around 200-400 calories each meal... reaching caloric goals should not be an issue.

AND if you eat out, there really isn't ANY issue with taking in enough calories.

Everyone's metabolism is different.

For some that are overdoing it trying to manage their caloric intake and still exercising a lot (essentially not getting enough calories in), their metabolism will often slow way down to use what it is given more effectively.  So they don't lose weight, or do not have the rate of decrease that they think they would have doing their work.  Then they cut down more in the food department exascerbating the problem.

In professional endurance sports the bottom line is power to weight.  The lighter you are and the more effective power you generate over a long period of time, the faster you will go.  Think of a race car.  There are reasons they put minimum weight requirements for the car/driver package as well as restrictions on the engine parts - keep the power to weight in a fair range for everyone.  You don't have that in endurance sports.  So the athletes go for as light as they can (starving themselves for their caloric needs or exercising at a higher level to cut weight) and work on strengthening their overall power output.  This quite often leads to eating disorders.

And it is not just a problem that is associated with female athletes although it tends to get more notice with them.  There are plenty of male athletes that have issues.

That's the thing, everybody is different.  I'm not exactly doing a super intense training program right now, but I have to force myself to eat enough calories.  I just rarely feel hungry and get the other symptoms of hunger you described (light headed and dizzy).

For example, I just got back from a 2.5 hour bike ride.  I forced myself to eat a banana before I left this morning.  Now, I know in my head I need to eat so I'm going to, but I just don't feel all that hungry.

It's actually something I have to pay a lot of attention to because, for whatever reason, my body doesn't seem to urge me to eat when I need to.

I hear ya. When I was doing my IM training last year... there were times I was hungry and I was just SICK of eating. I didn't WANT to eat anymore that day. So I would just go to bed hungry.

I still gained like 6 pounds during my IM training... so obviously I was not starving.

Oh, I know, I get dizzy and light headed, but my stomach will not be growling. It's so odd. So I then feel guilty about eating, but I'm so out of it... I know I need to.

Still so, I don't have an issue with being too skinny or anything like that.

x2.  Hence the thread.  I think this is a bigger problem than we think.  And I think it is largely among the male ranks in the sport.

I think you are buying into the fallacy that just because you are training for an Ironman and working out an absurd amount of time that you should be losing weight.  I don't think this is the case for most people.  I know plenty of people who GAINED weight during Ironman training.  And it wasn't in the form of extra calories.  Not everyone's body is design for long endurance.  For true weight loss, you have to figure out what your body best responds to. 

Yup, and losing 5 lbs is WAY cheaper than buying a bike that weighs 5 lbs less!

In season, I'm ALWAYS hungry, eat like crazy, and still drop from 165 to around 156 every year. I can't imagine under eating.

Well I didn't think I would lose weight... but I thought I wouldn't GAIN weight.

Shoot, but the end of it barely any of my clothes were fitting anymore. Thank goodness I got all that weight off this year. But yes, it took work. It didn't just happen on it's own because I was training.

I totally went up about 1-2% body fat during HIM training.  My diet didn't change either, other than adding the appropriate extra amount of calories on days when my cardio sessions were much longer than usual, which should've balanced out to not lose or gain.  My body just responds WAY better to cardio sessions around 60-90 minutes, no longer, and to more weight training.

Fluid retention?  Otherwise, it has to be in the form of extra calories.

I usually lose weight in HIM, IM and marathon training.  And I eat like a frickin' pig (beer, Ben and Jerry's and Chipotle all the time .... yummy!!!).

By the end of an 18 week marathon cycle I am often down in the upper 160's for weight.  Usually I'm in the 175 - 180 range most of the year.  And I'm 6'-1".

I can't imagine what I would look like if I were "undereating."  My wife would be riding my azz all the time about my weight.  She already does somewhat!

And that's why being a man rocks and being a woman sucks.

Woman gain and men lose!

Except when you get married, then it is the other way round.

Hmmm....how about loss of muscle (which I know happened to me via body comp measurements) and thereby a body that requires less calories, but is still getting the same amount...??

But as you mentioned earlier, under eating doesn't necessarily correlate to losing weight.  Under eating can slow down your metabolism.   I for one, weigh about 8 pounds MORE than I did at IM FL in November.  It doesn't bother me in the least.  It does bother me to know that I am 8 pounds heavier when I look at how many calories I consume during a day.  I have started an n=1 experiment to eat MORE in order to LOSE weight. 

As Trigods said, eating healthy and getting enough calories is difficult.  I eat sometimes 7-8x a day.  I think most triathletes think because they are eating several times a day then they are getting 'enough' calories.  Unless you are eating bad, I would suspect that most aren't getting the calories needed to recovery properly and refuel themselves for the next workout.  

So what you are saying is ............. extra calories (more than what you needed).  Just like JK thought.

That would be an excess of calories.  Eat less.

?????????

The only way to recover properly and refuel is to "eat bad"?  Not buying this.

Then I would've been under 1800, which is not recommended for a 5' 9" 130 pound female who's training 10-12 hours/week.  I stuck to my usual 2000, but my body knew it had these long 2-3 hour workouts ahead.  So it stored more fat than it usually does when the cardio sessions are shorter and the extra time is replaced by weight training.

That isn't what I said at all.   I suspect that many triathletes aren't getting enough calories to recovery properly.  And the majority that are getting enough or too many calories have to make a sacrifice on what to eat, often making less than optimal food choices (such as eating out....though you can do that in a somewhat healthy manner)

I was hoping a vegetarian or vegan would chime in.