Post Ironman weight
Just completed IMLP (my first one 
). Checked into race at 153.5lbs. I stayed pretty well hydrated during the race but imagine I was below 150lbs after the race. I didn't go to medical so I don't know my after race weight. 7 days post race I'm sitting at 150.5lbs 
. I've been eating pretty well all week, nothing crazy, (although I have been eating ice cream
). I pretty much eat whatever I want. Even during the peak of my ironman prep I ate when I was hungry.
I was totally expecting to be at least slightly above my race day check in weight by now. I haven't done a minute of working out all week. Total mental and physical rest week 
.
Question: what is going on with my body post Ironman? Why am I still 3lbs lower than my race check in weight? I'm not worried (unless someone tells me I should be), I just want to understand.
Comments
Considering that you probably burned in the vicinity of 12,000 calories over your ironman day and a pound of fat is 3500 calories, you probably are enjoying the fruits of your labor. 12,000 calories burned = 3.5 lbs. If you didn't go hog wild after the race with beer and ice cream and you ate sensibly over the past week then it is what it is.
I brought a scale with me to LP. Weighed myself at 4AM - pre PB&J on race day @ 153.7 Post race at 10PM I was 152.2 (only had a slice of pizza and 10 oz of water). So I figure my total weight delta during the race was under 3 lbs. Astonishing to me for 12:40 effort.
Pre-race calories in was 400 (PBJ), 200 (Infinite), 100 (banana)
T1 - 150 (infinit)
Bike 2000 (infinit)
T2 - 100 (infinit)
Run - 500 (Gu), 100 (coke)
Total calorie intake of 3550
I peed twice during the bike and once more in T2 so I figure I was doing well on hydration coming into the run. On the run I was getting 2 cups water at each aid station (except the last which I skipped). My take away was that I was well hydrated the entire race and only had about 1.5% dehydration at the end. Not bad.
No surprise to me I plumped up during the next 2 days as I often do after a marathon. This time was quite a bit more than normal - plus 7.2 over post-race weight. It gradually went down each day since Tuesday and today is in my normal range relative to recent race weight @ 154.2
If I lost 3 lbs of anything other than water, I'd be hurting and look skeletal......... Not sure why I can have such a different result as others ..... any WSM's got any thought?
My THEORY is that I arrive at my A race at the lightest I am all year and a weight I can only hold for a few weeks at most. Therefore I'm at least 2 or 3 pounds less than I probably should be. I then go beat the crap out of my body for a long day, and my body now really wants to be re-hydraded and eat to make up for both the day of racing and the last 2-3 weeks of being really really light and watching every ouch of food that goes in my mouth. So I eat and drink a ton for a few days, put on 10 lbs of mostly water weight I assume, and then as soon as I start working out and eating normal, I drop back down to about 5 lbs over race weight, which is actually a healthy weight for me for 11 months of the year.
As Chris G said it probably isn't the best to have a big swing in weight like that, but it is just what my body does. I also have seen the same thing when I did a marathon for an A race.
8 days post IM and I'm still 2 lbs lighter than sign in weight...
just an observation, I traveled the day after the race..9 hours in the car. I would say that I ate a normal amount of food that day, drank slightly less than I should have. I wonder if that had an impact with my body recovering and gaining some weight back. My wife and I both agreed that traveling the day after an ironman was to hard for both the Athlete and the Spectator.
Thanks for any insight!
---Ann.
I'm not complaining. This is what I think is my 'happy weight'.
I think we may have to chalk this one up to individual bodies behave differently. See the happy picture of me after Ironman? Lowest weight I've ever been. I lost my cheeks while racing. Weirded me out. I did run a lot after Ironman, but I also ate lots of cheeseurgers. (Isn't it amazing how people want to buy you congratulatory cheeseburgers after Ironman?) It took me until December to get back to race weigh-in weight. And then I added four more pounds durin the rest of Chicago winter. I blame Restaurant Week.
---Ann.
Took me several weeks with good eating to put the weight slowly back on. I'm also not training very hard so I'm not burning the calories. Not sure how long it takes to put back muscle on but I have also started lifting weights a few times a week to gain some strength and muscle back that I lost. Not sure it has impacted my weight though. Its mainly just a nice change of pace.
But I do wonder if our metabolism stays high as our bodies repair themselves in the few weeks after the race. I also wonder if we are just losing muscle mass and slowly increasing our % of body fat.
Glad I can help!
P, thats been my experience exactly, on all 5 IM's. Eat like crazy for 4-6 weeks after IM with little or no weight gain, then bam, 10 lbs...
Bill, we are about 6 weeks out from IMC so what does that mean your weight is...??? LOL
I gain weight like Steve West, I puff up from day after race then pee off the fluid in the next week followed by the slow, inexorable rise in weight and body fat % as I eat my way to oblivion!
um this thread has been cathartic....about 6 weeks out from my first full IM and as coach P eloquently put it ...feel like i've Popped...the reduction in training volume (and a new work schedule) takes some getting used to.......6 weeks out from Philly Marathon and have been run focused...I actually can't wait to start OS in December!