weight gain despite 4 IM's in a year

What type of training do you typically do in a week? What zones do you train? Mostly zone 2?

Many think IM training=eat what ever you want and stay thin...not true for many.

I think weight is more complicated than calories in and out for many folks.

I spoke with a tri coach that coached many couples who ate and trained together for IMs....men often lost weight and struggled to keep weight on and the women often gained weight.

I think the more training one does, the more efficient the body gets at storing- using nutrition. I lost weight my first season, but slowly put some on the next, even though I was training even more hours/miles.

The body just get's good at what it does. As someone else suggested, throwing in a few other exercises might help jump start your metabolism. 

Unless there is some medical condition, it is as simple as calories in calories burned. The mistake people make is WAY overestimating the number of calories they burn and underestimating the calories they take in. The more fit you become the more efficient the body becomes. Training for an IM is not a license to eat whatever you want.

He doesn't post here anymore, but Bryan Dunn who trains pretty high volume, would talk about how he had to watch what he ate in order to not gain weight. For those of us that train much less than that we really need to watch our diets. I have found this to be even more true the older I get.

i am currently trying to drop a few kg's, i am 9 weeks out from my big race, a 70.3. i put on about 5kg while training 10-12hrs/wk. which surprised me. i am now tracking everything i eat (using my fitness pal), at first i did not modify my diet and my intake was around 3000-4000, even with the amount of training i do that was an excess of 500-100 calories daily. now i am eating 2000-2500 daily, eating mainly before and after workouts. i supplement this with 20 minutes of HIIT on the indoor trainer 3 times a week.

i am only in week two, but so far i have dropped 1.5kg and can see the difference. it isnt easy, but it is working. if i can drop another 3.5kg i will be at a decent racing weight and return to eating at maintenance calories to keep at this weight.