Hello  I am about 9-10 months RNY Post op-   In the first 7 months I lost 155lbs, from 337 down to 172. I have started training for a half marathon in mid October and a possible Marathon the first week of November.  (I am 50 years old) Since I have started running and especially running long distances I am hungry all of the time. I have worked up from walking 12 miles to jogging 17.25 this past weekend. I am really not a runner, I can only jog. I cannot do an 8 or 10 minute mile, I am very slow at 13-14 minute miles. Most of you guys probably walk faster then I jog :) . I am trying to build up endurance for 26 miles and it will take me about 6 1/2 hours to complete the marathon about 3.5 hours to complete the half marathon. When I jog the long distances once a week on Saturday I take the energy gels one per hour and it is 100 calories and 22 carbs. This past Saturday I took 4 gels and it took about 4 hours to jog 17 miles. When I jog like this I am hungry all of the time. I am very worried about stretching my patch out. I continue to eat protein supplements, Isopure, Pure Protein Bars, and Quest bars.  I have added a lot fruit grapes, bananas, and strawberries. Unfortunately I eat a lot of food at night. I am jogging 40-45 miles per week.  In the past month I have gone from 172 up to 180. I have a lot of feelings about the weight gain, frustration with myself, panic, guilt, and saddened thinking I am going to gain so much weight back. In other forums and my close family have told me maybe I should just quit jogging and not train for a marathon so that I do not gain weight. I guess I have made a commitment to myself and want to continue on. When I was 30 I ran the half marathon twice, but have never made it for 26 miles. I would like to go to a support group at my program, but they are only on Monday nights at 5:30 and it is a 3 hour round trip and I work full time. There is another program close to me but they only meet twice per month and I am having trouble getting to the meetings because they are during the day and I am at work.  When I started jogging longer distances and just had probably less then 100 carbs per day with no fruit I actually felt week and had to sit down many times. I feel like I need the carbs to keep up my energy.  This morning I jogged 7.5 miles, I have had 1800 calories, 130 grams of protein and 118 grams of carbs , 32 grams of fiber, and 38 grams of Fat, I have not had any regular food, just protein bars and isopure.  Anyway I have gained 2lbs a week for the past month and I am up to 180.  When I had my last office visit about a month ago they told me I should keep my weight range between 172 and 178 and not go above and here I am at 180.00 . I struggle with hunger and craving food all of the time. I am looking for suggestions? constructive criticism and good advice about what to do.  I hope it is okay if I cross post this in the RNY forum. I am really worried about regaining all of my weight. I do not understand how I can gain 8lbs while jogging 40-45 miles per week. Any advice or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. So thankful for everyone here .- thank you! 

I'm not sure how long you have been training, but as you break down muscle you will retain water to help the repair process.  This is generally most noticeable in the beginning of training.

I'd check sodium on your protein stuff as well, make sure you aren't taking in too much.

As far as the diet is concerned, I haven't yet had the surgery, so I don't know that I'd have any worthwhile advice.

Hope your training continues to go well so you can tackle that marathon in October.

If you are gaining weight, it is likely that you are eating more calories than you are burning off running.  Are you keeping track of everything you eat so that you know exactly how much you are consuming?  Not estimating the calories, because we are terrible estimators.   It is also natural to over estimate the amount of calories we burn while exercising, so many run into trouble when they up their calorie intake when they exercise.  The energy pills alone you are taking amounted to 400 calories.  You also said that you are not eating real food, but protein bars and isopure.  Those will not keep you full, and neither will fruit.  You need to be eating dense protein instead of the protein bars to help with the hunger.  Good luck. 

I completely agree.  I've run 4 1/2 marathons since my surgery 2.2 years ago and eat whole food when I train.  Dense protein, dairy (full fat, not low fat), nut butters, etc. and on days when I do long runs, I add carbs in the form of oats (I usually eat overnight oats made with oatmeal, nut butter, greek yogurt and milk before a run).  I use shot bloks mid run to keep my energy up.  I may not be a good example because I very rarely get hungry during a run and the shot bloks help (3 bloks 100 cal.  I eat 1 blok every 2 miles).  I really think not focusing on dense proteins and whole foods may be the culprit.  1800 cal on protein supplements alone seems very high to me.  Good luck with the races!

Must say I agree with the other posters that you need real food especially dense proteins like meat and fish to keep you feeling full. Protein bars and especially protein drinks will not stay with you. You are obviously taking in too many calories for what you are burning off. Try switching to dense protein real food and see if that helps. Best of luck on your training.

Is it possible you are building mussel mass that is putting more weight on ?  Great job on the training though, your a real motivation after I get my surgery done.  

I walk around 10 miles a day and 60-70 miles per week at a pace of 17 minutes per mile, so not far from your pace. I do not increase my eating because of it. Also, I think you need to learn that hunger is not an emergency. Cut back on your calories. Increase dense protein. Cut back on the carbs. At 9-10 months out and already gaining, you are in danger of gaining a big chunk back. Do not do that to yourself. Track your food. Every bite.

My diet is mostly low carbs.  My glycogen levels are low. When I do cardio - like run or very fast walk - my body burns all the available sugar and...so very soon my BS drops very low causing me to be really hungry (beside the effects of severe  hypoglycemia). When that happens - I need to eat carbs and sugars to bring my BS up - that causes insulin release and eventually would cause fat gain... And too much insulin cause hunger way past exercise time (too much insulin) 

Beacusa of that - I chose not to do long intensive cardio.  I walk, and I do yoga. Weight lifting - is much slower and allow my body to burn fat - not carbs and sugar ... I can hike - and I can eat nuts or nut butters along the way.  That gives me some mix fuel - more fat But enough sugars to allow maintain of BS. 

If you need to run - you may get fat in a meantime... If that is ok with you - then go ahead. If not - then maybe you need to reevaluate what is more important - marraton or weigh loss.  Some of us are not design to have it all. 

Long term - you could condition your body to burn more fat than carbs - Google "Keto adapted" but in a meantime -looks like your body likes to burn and store sugar/carbs...it is up to you ...

"Some of us are not design to have it all. "

I am having to wrap my head around this one. Just life stuff...   But this statement is really mindful right now.

for me the reality is: 

I can do- have ANYTHING I want as long as I am willing to do what I need to do and deal with whatever comes after...

sometimes "the price" to pay is not worth the outcome... but the sky is the limit...really...

when I think of some "physical item" - I ask myself - how much I really want it and what I am willing to do - give up, to get that? a lot of time - I realized that item is not worth the extra effort... 

same when comes to my activities, people in my life, money etc...

long time ago I stop using  "i can't afford".. instead I ask " what do I need to do -give up to get / do that? " "is that worth the trouble?" and "will I be better /happier when I have /do that? "