V-Diet, Marathon Training?

I’m starting the V-Diet on monday.

The only hitch to my plan is that I am also in the early stages of training for a half marathon. This is going to involve running six days per week in addition to lifting 3 days per week. My longest runs over the course of the V-Diet will be around 9 miles. I am hoping that creatine/bcaa/Surge will keep me from losing too much muscle, but what are your opinions? Thanks in advance.

I think you’re making a huge mistake by going with the V-Diet in conjunction with marathon training.

You’re very likely to burn out or get injured with this combination.

A modified T-Dawg Diet would be more appropriate.

Don’t do the V-Diet! Your glycogen levels will be very low and I agree, you will be very prone to injury and have horrible recovery from your runs not to mention losing a TON of muscle!

Well crap!

What would be a good suggestion for an easy/simple diet to follow while training to allow me to lose a lot of bodyfat while sparing my muscle?

Say goodbye to any muscle you may have and don’t even bother lifting if your gonna do all that. Maybe consider the AD or the T-dawg.

[quote]GetSwole wrote:
Say goodbye to any muscle you may have and don’t even bother lifting if your gonna do all that. Maybe consider the AD or the T-dawg.[/quote]

Why do you say that? Did you lose muscle while training for a half marathon?

No, I’m saying b/c of the extremely low calories required by the v-diet, and yes I’ve completed the v-diet, coupled with the huge expenditures of your training, you WILL lose muscle. You don’t have to believe me or you can hate me, but go ahead and try it and see if I’m right.

With your kind of activity level and some sort of smart eating plan, perhaps such as the anabolic diet, you could lose LOADS of fat without your training suffering.

How many times a week are you gonna do the 9 mile? My suggestion would be pick a high fat, low carb, mod/high protein diet, (such as T-dwag or AD) that includes a weekend carb-up.

Plan your longest runs for the day of the carb up and maybe 2 days after it, or the day before and the day after or something like that, then do your other runs during the week while you are low carbing.

The weekend carbs will refill you glycogen to help with your long runs. And the high fat during the week will spare your muscle because it won’t be converting all your protein to glucose via glucogenesis for energy.

Basically, your week day energy would come from high fat, and you insulin and blood sugar will be controlled from low carbs. The protein will be used for muscle repair.
On the weekends and the couple days following your carb ups, you will feel more energized and will have better endurance for your longest runs if you plan them around the carb ups.

If you followed something like that with you activity level I’d bet money that fat will melt off you right before your very eyes. The difference is your muscle will be saved because fat will be fueling you, not protein.

On a low fat and carb diet like the V-diet. Will all your energy expenditure, your protein will likely be converted to glucose for energy which means your muscles will be deprived of protein and will not be repairing and therefore will be dissapearing.

High fat/low carb diets are muscle and protein sparing.

Low fat/low carb (the v-diet), coupled with as much activity as you will be doing will be a recipe for muscular loss.

Does any of this make sense.
It’s coming from someone who has lost a shit-ton of weight, has completed the v-diet, and has lost muscle at times dieting while also has maintained muscle at times while dieting. I have a little experience in this area.

My fault. I thought that you were saying that by training for the half I’d lose all my muscle. I didn’t realize that you meant that half / v-diet combo.

The other runs during the week are in the are of 3 to 6 miles with some being interval and some being hill runs. I would be stoked to be able to do this while stripping fat and not losing too much muscle. There isn’t really that much info here about training for endurance events (most people here cringe at the thought)

Maybe Shugart will pop in with thoughts??

What you said does make sense though. I hadn’t thought about doing the t-dawg. That may work. Thanks for the help!

I ran a marathon in May. In the process I lost 13 pounds but also went from 12%bf to 8%. So I only lost 5 pounds of muscle over 6 months of training for the marathon.

If you keep your diet right you won’t lose much muscle doing a half. Plus I gained it all beack very quickly in the months following the marathon. Keep your carbs up though especially on those long run days.
Have fun running the half, marathon day is always a great time!!

What did you do as far as your diet was concerned? I ran a full marathon back in November, but didn’t lose much weight at all in training, which kind of surprised me. I was doing around 45 miles per week.

What did you do as far as lifting is concerned while training for the marathon, and did you use a specific running training program?

I kept my diet pretty steady with lots of oatmeal and potatoes, steak, tuna, eggs, yogurt, milk, and gatorade.

I lifted full-body twice a week to keep strength up. I also ran about an hour to an hour and a half a day during the week and then I worked up my long runs on Saturdays from 12 miles when I started to 22 miles two weeks before the marathon.

This worked great for me and I ended up with a 3:51:58 for my first marathon. Spike helped me train on those long days

Good time for your first!
Did you lift legs as well?
Any supplemental cardio (hiit style)?
Thanks for the info so far…

I did legs once a week. Nothing too intense though. I trained by running one fast run a week and I ran hills one day a week as well. Beyond that I just trained at my marathon pace.

Did you say you used Spike before your long runs?

Were you following any diet / in particular, or just trying to eat clean?

I was just trying to eat clean. And yes I used Spike before long runs and it worked great.