Weight Gain after IM

It's all in how you live your life after IM.  Generally, the training volume completely dies off for a while, but the eating doesn't.  I did IMC in August of 2008.  By Christmas, I was up almost 20lbs.  A year later, I'm still struggling to get back on track.

Stressing about it won't help.  All you can do is try to be aware of how much you're over-fueling yourself vs how much you're burning while working out.

Good luck!

After IM Couzmel I stayed a week on the island so I indulged and ate and drank whatever I wanted becuase I figured I deserevd it.  But  when I got back home I was craving so many sweets and junk food I ate whatever I craved. I think since I had given a lot of that stuff up during my training for some reason my body wanted it.  That was during week #2 post IM.

Going into week #3 post IM my appetite drastically decreased.   And the same goes for week #4.  I'm at the point where I need to remind myself to eat.  I'm not really training much so I don't worry too much about it since I don't need as many cals as before. I might be in the minority, but I typically drop a few lbs after the IM and gain some lbs during the training.  Not sure why, but I think it's because all the IM training makes me hungry all the time and I'm not so careful about how much I eat during training- maybe even taking it more cals than I really need. 

Anyhoo, listen to your body since you're still *recovering* per say.  Treat yourself to the holidays and then start fresh at the first of the year.  Once you start back training the extra lbs should come right off. 

Congrats on Cozumel- that was a killer bike course!

After IM Canada I did hardly any training until January and gained 7 lbs (168 to 175). It has been very, very difficult to get below 172 this past year. I did IM Cozumel 2009 at 172 lbs, and today I weight 175 lbs.

I certainly do not plan to just "enjoy myself" over Christmas. If I do that I know I'll be at 178 to 180 lbs, and it will be that much harder to get back down to 168 which for various reasons I think is my ideal weight.

Since I have this week and next on vacation, I plan to train every day. Today was a 60 minute spin class. Tomorrow I swim. Thursday I'll probably hit a spin class again. Friday I'll run.

That way I can eat the pies and cookies my wife and kids make and truly enjoy Christmas and not feel that I'm just digging a hole.


Edited by brucemorgan 2009-12-22 9:26 PM

Ok- I must tbe the weird one here.  Because I LOSE weight when I'm not tri training and just "enjoying" my downtime.  The only thing I can think of is that I gain a lot of muscle mass with tri training  and that's the weight I'm losing now (I put muscle on very easily!)??  That has to be it since it seems like nobody else is in the same boat as me.  Or it's just that I eat a lot more when I'm tri training because I am more hungry but not burning as many cals as I would if I was just marathon training??

I raced IM FL 2006 at 120 lbs.  After the IM I was around 117 lbs and actually got down to 113 lbs when I was just marathon training and using biking/swimming as cross training.

I started IM training again this year and my weight went up to around 119 lbs and that was my race weight for IM Cozumel.  Now almost 4 weeks after IM Cozumel I'm at 116 lbs and the weight keeps falling off.  But I'm also careful now about how much I eat so that could be it as well. 

Edited by runnergirl 2009-12-23 7:56 AM

I gained 7 pounds after IMWI. At times I've been up 9 but tend to drop right back to 7 and hover there. I went through the eat and drink whatever i want phase as well and like others have said, have been craving things I never ate during my training. I had gone on a very clean no sugar, no refined grains diet and ate massive amounts of bread, pasta and sweets post race. I was also injured so my training volume dropped to nothing. I actually lost a few pounds right after the race and then gradually packed it on over October and November. I'm finding losing it to be incredibly hard even though I barely eat some days. I figure it will come off with the training, which starts now!

147 to 160 for me. Time to get rid of the winter fluff!!!!

Did IMCDA in June at 166lbs.  I'm at 178lbs right now.  Have a little too much jiggle for my liking and will get it off in the next couple of months.