What beer and not running can do to you
February 28th, 2007 by Sarin
True story.
At the end of October last year, just after my half marathon race, I weighed myself on my mother’s scale at 138 pounds. After running around 20 miles a week with no real diet (the vegetarian kick lasted about 2 months), I weighed less than I ever had in 7 years. The last time I was around 138 pounds would be the summer before junior year in high school in ‘99 (I know this because I wrestled at 145 my junior year that fall, as opposed to 125, my sophomore year, but also because it was the weight class that was open).
Once the weather got too cold in the fall, I hung up the shoes and drank the winter away. It was much too cold to go to the gym, and the winter blues caused me to nap at every chance I got. However I’ve been back at the gym since January (New Years resolution anyone?) and I believe my weight has hit a plateau. I’ve gotten back in the habit of running and I’m in a somewhat regular lifting schedule.
My weigh in last night, after almost 4 months of drinking heavily and not doing any long distance running : 162 pounds.
That’s 24 pounds gained in 4 months, or 17% of my former body weight.
To top it off, a friend of mine said I was looking a little chubby in my racing photos. I somewhat agree… I think it’s possible to have shedded 10 pounds and made a better time.
What does it take to lose 34 pounds?
But the more obvious question, and the point of this post is, did beer have any factor in this weight gain? Or was is the lack of activity?
I’ve left it up for you readers to decide.
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Beer puts on weight in no time. Think of how many calories of beer you consume in a week, plus the snacking you do when drinking the beer. Combine that with lack of activity, and yeah, you’ll put on the pounds.
Just moderate the drinking and up the activity and you’ll be fine.
I refuse to moderate the beer. This means I will have to go running when I’m still hungover in the morning.
Well, if you’re not going to moderate the beer, then the only thing the running will do is keep off more weight. You’re not necessarily going to lose the weight you put on, unless you’re going to do ridiculous amounts of running.
The beer didn’t help, but it’s definatley the inactivity that did it… just drink a ton of water, eat 6 small meals a day (good shit like chicken…tuna… protein stuff) with not too much complex sugars (breads and stuff) and workout as much as you can (obviously without hurting yourself) — i had a moment very similar to yours except i stopped in July of last year and woke back up in March, and i gained 44lbs (w no beer) haha oops…. good luck man… and if you think you plateaued just work through it twice as hard, that’s when it’s twice as rewarding.
44 lbs without beer? Ok I don’t feel so bad anymore. Looks like I’m headed back to becoming a vegetarian so my appetite kills. Maybe the beer will have to be on the back burner in favor of Jack Daniels. Obviously I’m worrying about this more than I should, but I appreciate the feedback.