Discussion: Expedition Races and Weight Gain

Every time I race in a week long adventure race I lose some weight. Not always a lot, but some. My food intake is relatively good during the racing even if the food isn’t always the most nutritious. The problem is that after each expedition I gain a lot of weight. Even when I keep eating my normal portions and keep the same training output as always. It seems to be all fat that I am gaining. Does anyone have this same problem? Does anyone have any tips or advice as to how to get my body back to normal after a weight gain like this, or how to avoid the weight gain altogether? I haven’t heard many people talk about this so perhaps this phenomenon is unique to how my body reacts to expedition racing.

How much weight have you gained? You aren't still retaining fluid?

If it is fat I would guess that your body is responding to a recent period where it was calorie deficient (because of decreased intake and increased activity) by changing your basal metabolic rate and storing calories as fat in preparation for the next time this happens. At least that is my theory.

Not sure if I have any great ideas how to avoid this. Personally I don't feel like I gained much weight after the race but truthfully I haven't weighed myself in months.

I am huge and generally gain tons of weight post XPD ARs, but I have trouble stopping the gluttonous eating! But I would agree with Revy that the body is storing some fat for the next time you find your self out in a Tassie sand dune with nothing but a shitty sat image map with a cloud over your intended route!! You may find tons of info on this topic by researching road cycling. I have heard of roadies riding hundreds of miles a week and putting on fat because of the way their body utilizes the food.

I find when I race, I get more calorie efficient as I move along in days. You know - the ability to race all day on 1/2 a chocolate bar type thing.

Likely that is carried over afterwards in to normal life.

But, I am still weighing less than when I went to Tazzy, so all is good:-).

Probably go to hell in the next two days though.

I have the same issue as Carbon, but I tend to overeat after a race and train less... and I eat a lot of crap food. The speed with which I put on weight after a long race is astounding and I have always attributed that to the metabolism factors mentioned above.

I am about 10 lbs heavier than when arrived in Taz.. all fat.... but now things are stabilized (as much as they can be at x-mas)

Like FB mentioned, it's the speed of the weight gain that is interesting. I actually didn't eat like crazy after XPD, but stuck to my normal habits and the weight still came on. It seems to be all fat. I lost about 1.5kg during XPD and then I went up 4kg in just a few short weeks. I'm now coming down again, but really slowly. After RTNX I didn't loose much weight but I gained about 1.5-2kg which took me to just before XPD to loose. Maybe Cookie Monster is right, perhaps it was the Tassie course that caused all this. Personally I would blame the cold water swim and the leech in my mouth!

Craig made me fat too. First Expedition length AR for me one of my main drawcards was the wt. loss alas! Only down 1 kilo post race, I was relatively conservative post race (compared to fellow team mates on our week long recovery session at Coles Bay - beautiful) although wt. is stable fat% has increased. Sucks balls, if anyone has any links to info about this it'd be much appreciated.