In this episode I discuss a few important points if you are a hiker who is wanting to train hard for their adventure, but also considering a weight loss journey at the same time.
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Listen to the Training For Trekking Podcast on: Or any other of your favourite podcast platforms! Transcript Introduction to Episode 8: Losing Weight and Training Hard [0:00] All right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today, we have episode number eight of our 20-episode miniseries, 20 Lessons Through 20 Weeks of Training. And today, we are covering the topic of losing weight and training hard. [0:16] Now, in all honesty, when it comes down to things, and if you've followed my stuff for a while, you probably know this, I never really do talk about weight loss for hikers. Now, I personally, and one of my big beliefs is I don't think it's really necessary for most hikers out there. I don't advocate about it for hikers. I don't tell hikers they need to lose weight, need to lose kilos, need to lose pounds to get better at hiking or to do the trips they want to be doing. And I much, much, much prefer leading people towards focusing on supporting their fitness, their strength, and their energy rather than stressing about weight loss. Because too many people out there, they just equate losing weight with getting fit and for some people yeah if you want to lose weight that's fine but it's perfectly possible for you to get fit perfectly possible for you to get stronger perfectly possible to absolutely ramp up your capabilities as a hiker without losing an absolute gram or a single gram um and i think so many hikers in the past have just been through that never-ending cycle of losing weight um falling off the wagon putting the weight back on beating beating themselves up, feeling guilty, and then do it again and again and again. And some people have been doing this for 20, 30, 40, even 50 years. And in all honesty, it's just not something that I think, you know, I try to get hikers away from that personally. Just focus on getting strong, getting fit, and getting where you can be. Weight loss goals for hikers who want to lose weight [1:40] And that's a little rant on my beliefs around weight loss for hikers. [1:44] But, you know, when it comes down to it, obviously that's what I believe in. But the matter is, and the reality is, many hikers out there do have weight loss goals either way. Many hikers that start working with us, they have concurrently say they want to lose a little bit of weight. And it's not us saying, hey, you shouldn't be doing that. If someone wants to do something, we'll help them towards it. Or many hikers out there listening to this podcast, they may say, look, I just want to lose a few kilos, whether it's for my hiking, whether it's for day-to-day or whatever it may be. So in all honesty, so today's episode that we're getting into is really relevant for these people. If you are someone who is considering weight loss, you're like, oh, I'm not really sure about it. Look, in all honesty, personally, focus on your training, do the right things. You can do amazing, amazing, amazing things. But if you are one of those people who is a hiker and also is trying to lose weight or thinking about losing weight, this episode will be relevant for you. you. [2:33] So, with that being said and all of that said, let's talk about the story and where this particular lesson came from and this idea came from. Now, through the training process that I went through, the 20 weeks of martial arts training culminating in a fight at the end, I went through, personally, a bit of a weight loss journey. Not for any reason that I was unhealthy or that I was unhappy with my body or whatever it may be. Essentially, I was really unhappy with my fitness and my physical capabilities at the time and not so much like my body how it looked or whatever it is um but the reason why i went through a bit of a weight loss journey is what we were doing what was called what's called a weight class based sport meaning when i actually competed at the end i was going to be matched up with someone who weighed the same as me and i realized pretty quickly into the process that i was like oh you know what when i'm training with people who are the same weight at me at that stage everyone who was at the same weight as me was much stronger than me. And I was like, oh my gosh, I do not want to be in the ring with people like this who are this strong. So I was like, you know what, I am going to get strong. I am going to, you know, improve that, but also I'm going to lose a bit of weight. So effectively I can fight someone who's a little bit smaller and, you know, ultimately not have to fight a big, big, strong guy. So that's, so I went about it. And that's kind of, you know, one of the, one of the things I was aiming for. And for me, you know, for my weight loss journey, it's nothing too complicated. Really, I just cut out the big issues in my life or the big set of things that I knew, Thank you. Were, you know, maybe I was a little bit lax on with my life. [4:01] So, you know, I decided to stop drinking, you know, just purely like, you know, I was like, look, I'm going through a big training process. And, you know, I was in a habit of having a beer or two each night. And then, you know, on the weekends, social events, you know, having quite a few, I was like, you know what, I'm just going to cut that out of my life. I don't really need it. It doesn't really add too much for me right now. And for this process, I'm going to stop drinking. I was a little bit more intentional with the meals we created. So, you know, when we were cooking meals, just making sure I'm not not doing things that just have all of this extra stuff that I don't really need, like all these super creamy meals or super buttery meals or whatever it may be, which not to say there's anything particularly wrong with those types of things, but just I know some of the meals that were in our regular rotation, they were pretty decadent. I was like, you know what? I'm going to rein that in. I also stopped having second dinners. I had a tendency where we'd have dinner and then we'd leave the leftovers out to cool down. Then by the time I went to bed and put put everything away. I just snuck a second dinner in and that happened probably six out of seven nights. I decided to make sure cheese wasn't in the house. Cheese is my bane, my absolute Achilles heel. And if I have cheese and crackers in the house, it's all trouble. So all of these things are coming to cut out. And slowly but surely, cutting these things out, plus all the training I was doing, things started to drop. But as we went through the training process and as we begin to ramp things up after weeks, after weeks, after weeks, as the intensity and the difficulty of the training went up, I realized something. [5:24] I was struggling. I was struggling with energy. I was struggling with fatigue because we were working really, really, really hard. And on top of that, you know, if you are trying to lose weight and if you are losing weight, you are intentionally giving the body less food than it technically wants. And I kind of came to the realization, I was like, oh, you know what? Training's getting hard. [5:46] And to fuel this training, I really do need to be eating. And right now, I don't think it's going to be sustainable to keep on losing weight while we're training really, really, really hard. Like I was like, look, I just don't have much in me. I'm on the edge of this. I need to make sure I'm looking after myself, looking after my recovery so I don't get run down. I don't get sick so I can actually turn up to the sessions and concentrate. tray. [6:07] So ultimately, it got up to the point where I was like, ah, you know what? [6:10] I've had a good crack at this weight loss, but we're in the meat of it now. It's going to be tough. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to stop worrying about the weight loss. I'm purely going to eat to fuel my training and my recovery and make sure I'm kind of at a good level where I'm not putting on weight because that'll go backwards from where I wanted to be, but I'm not losing weight anymore. I'm just going to be in this neutral balance where I'm eating just the right amount to fuel my recovery, very fuel my training um but not deplete the body and ultimately you know very very quickly as i sort of up things up i felt much much better i could put more into the sessions i was sleeping better i was recovering better not quite as sore i was in better moods i could concentrate a bit more and all of these things purely from going from that point where we were intentionally restricting the body um as you do in a weight loss journey but to the point where i was like ah you know what i'm not restricting things i'm just not going overboard and essentially this is is a really, really, really important lesson for hikers and particularly for hikers who are looking at a bit of weight loss. Now, many hikers go into their training with a bit of a concurrent goal of getting fit and getting ready for their trip, but also losing weight. A lot of people like maybe book on a big trip and they're like, you know what, actually, you know, through this process, I want to drop a few kilos. Or maybe they're like, you know what, I'm going to use this as a focus to kind of, you know, reduce down. Or maybe I know this is going to be a really challenging thing and you know what in the back of my head i feel like if i was three or four kilos lighter it'd be way easier for me or whatever maybe and as much as i said my thoughts on that um before um. Balancing weight loss and training can be tricky. [7:40] A lot of people have that. And this is all good in theory. Absolutely. You know, going through a training process, getting fit, getting strong, training for a big thing. If you want to lose weight, it might be a good time for it. It's all good in theory, but in practice, it can often be a bit tricky. Purely for the fact that our energy and our recovery is fueled by food. Pretty common sense. And if we are not eating enough to support this, we may lose weight, but it can affect our energy, it can affect our recovery, it can affect our performance during our training, it can affect our mood and all of these different things. It's just a typical thing. If you're not fueling the body with enough food and forcing it to lose weight, these other things are going to be affected. So realistically, when you're going through this type of thing, you're probably not going to be able to train as hard. You're probably going to be a little bit grumpy at times and a ton of other things. Now, this really isn't a big deal if weight loss is your pure goal. If you're like, like, you know what, I don't care about hiking. I don't care about getting fit. Really, all I'm doing this and training for is to try and lose weight. It doesn't matter because you can turn up in the gym. You can absolutely perform absolutely terribly. But as long as you're doing the right things in nutrition, that'll be leading towards your goal. But if you're training for a performance goal, and when we're talking about hiking, a performance goal is literally getting out on the trail, feeling fitter, faster, stronger, getting through your trip in a good spot or whatever it may be, this can be an issue. [9:02] Because we want to be making sure our training is helping us towards that. We want to be making sure we're in a position where we can push in our training, we can improve our fitness, we can improve our strength, we can improve our resilience and keep you moving forward towards that. So it can be a bit of an issue. So ultimately, long story short with all of this, weight loss and training hard at the same time is just not much fun at all. It can be done, but it sucks. It really does suck. And it's not something I would really particularly recommend. Weight loss and training together can be challenging but possible. [9:31] But, you know, if you are wanting to lose weight, and again, I gave my thoughts on that before, but if you personally, for your personal reasons, want to lose weight, you're also training towards a big adventure and you're like, oh, I've got a date I need to be ready for. What should you be doing? How can you balance this out so it just doesn't suck and it's terrible or whatever it may be? Well, first of all, I'll reiterate again. I know I said it twice or three times already, but as a hiker, if you're trying to prepare for a trip, you do not have to lose weight if you don't want to, if you don't enjoy it, if that's not something that you're particularly worried about. A lot of people equate losing weight to becoming a better hiker. It's just not 100% necessary. You can do it if you want, but it's not necessary. [10:13] As long as you're improving your fitness, improving your strength, moving things forward from that, any hiker can absolutely get in a fantastic position without losing the ground. But saying that, if you are adamant, here are two options for you in regards to weight loss and training. Two options for weight loss and training for a hiking goal. [10:27] Now, option number one is one approach you can do. If you've got a big trip coming up and you've got a date you're trying to get ready for, and with your training, the way things usually work is we usually start off slow and over time slowly make things harder and more intense and more difficult, ultimately with the hardest as training in the last period before you go on your trip. So if you've got a bit of a weight loss goal, an option here, if you've got a particular date, is in the early part of your training journey, when things aren't quite as difficult, when things aren't quite as intense, when things are a little bit easier, you can focus on your weight loss during this part because it doesn't matter too much. You're not working that hard. It's not that difficult. And then when things do start to ramp up, when you begin to incorporate harder training sessions, get a little bit more intense, put a bit more effort in, then you can adjust things and say, you know what? I've done done my weight loss, now I'm going to aim for that maintenance where I'm not gaining, I'm not losing, but I'm just kind of staying the same. [11:16] So for example, if you had, let's say a 16 week, 16 weeks up to your trip, and you might say, okay, you know what, six weeks before my trip, I'm going to be training really, really, really, really, really hard. I know I'm going to put my head down, go help the leather six weeks before the trip. The other 10 weeks, they're going to be a little bit more of a gradual buildup. So you could sort of say for those 10 weeks, you can look at a little bit of weight loss in concurrent time with your training. And then for the six weeks after, just Just make sure you're eating enough to maintain and then really push your training. It can work. [11:44] Now, option number two, that can work for some people. [11:48] But some people may be, you know, maybe it's not super doable for one reason or another. Maybe you're like, oh, you know what? I've got a massive weight loss journey and I kind of like 10 weeks is not enough time or you're on a shorter timing frame or whatever. There could be a dozen other reasons. If option number one is not possible and you are still adamant that you really do, you you don't want to lose weight. The other option I'd strongly recommend is go in and see a professional and specifically go and see a dietitian. They are the kind of specialists in regards to nutrition. Dietitian is very different to just a nutrition coach, a nutritionist. Dietitian are kind of like, they've gone through a lot of university, a lot of education. They are kind of the pinnacle of what you want to see. And even better, if you can see a dietitian who specializes in hikers, because they will know your context. A couple of great options there are Kyle from Valley to Peak Nutrition, or Aaron from Backcountry Foodie, two great dieticians that I've worked with in the past. And essentially, you can go have a chat with them. You can explain your situation, say, you know what, I'm training for this big hike. I also want to lose a certain amount of weight. And they can give you some clear guidelines and targets. And essentially, the idea around what you want to be doing here is you want to be eating as much as you can through this training process while still losing weight. As opposed to going the other side of things, which a lot of people fall into is they eat as little as they can. [13:08] Which they can get away with. So if we're going that other route, where we're eating as much as we can while still losing weight, that means we're getting as close, as much fuel as we can to fuel our training, fuel our recovery, while still sort of seeing that outcome of weight loss. On the other side of things, when people just stop eating, or they severely restrict their calories, and they go really on the extreme side of things, that just makes things feel gross. And trying to figure this out for yourself, it can be tough. It can be tricky. And if you just don't know what you're doing, you don't have much experience in regards to weight loss, or nutrition or whatever, seeing a professional really does do wonders. You can get clear guidelines, clear targets, and it'll take a lot of the guesswork out. And it'll very much severely reduce the risk of you way under eating, way under fueling, and just feeling gross. [13:53] So basically when it comes down to it, if you are looking to lose weight and also train for a hiking goal, be smart about it. These top two options can work. They're decent options, and I I would recommend, you know, lean towards one of them. Again, you know, I'll reiterate again for the fourth or fifth time, you do not have to lose weight for hiking. If it's not on your radar, if you don't like it, if you've been on that roller coaster or that recurring cycle or whatever it may be, you don't have to do it. And as long as you're improving your fitness and improving your strength in the right ways, you can accomplish anything you want without dropping a kilo. But if you are determined to lose weight and also train for hiking at the same time, make sure you do it the right way and make sure you don't fall into that position where where things are really just going to feel nasty and terrible. So with that being said, I really do hope this helps a few people. I hope that it makes sense. I hope it gives a bit of clarity, and I hope it kind of helps a few people, you know, avoid that little pitfall of just trying to train hard and lose weight at the same time and ultimately end up feeling gross. So with that being said, I really do hope you've enjoyed today's episode. I hope you got a bit out of it, and we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.
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AuthorRowan is an online personal trainer who specialises in training for hiking and mountaineering. He helps get them fit, strong and resilient so they can conquer every adventure. Archives
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