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Metabolic Syndrome: Gaining Weight During Training...

Saturday, 03 November 2018 23:10

By Gale Bernhardt (trainingleaks.com)

In the fall of 2014 an athlete, Mike Berland, came to me frustrated because whenever he began training for events longer than an hour, he gained weight. He trained for the New York Marathon twice and each time he put on about 12 pounds or so, in spite of doing several weekday and long weekend runs building up to approximately three hours. Sound familiar?

On Mike’s bucket list was a goal to complete the Hawaiian Ironman. He was concerned that training for an Ironman would make him gain even more weight. He sought the advice of doctors and other experts, who told him that he should never do workouts over an hour long because he had a condition called Metabolic Syndrome.

Not willing to settle for an answer of “No Ironman,” he contacted me....

Metabolic Syndrome

Nearly 25 percent of American adults suffer from Metabolic Syndrome1, a condition that causes their bodies to store the food they eat as fat rather than burn it ‎for energy. At such a high percentage of the population, it is surprising that most people have never heard of the condition.

Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) is a group of risk factors that raises your risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other health problems. Medical professionals generally consider someone to have MetS if they have three of the five key risk factors including a large waistline, high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure and high fasting glucose levels. If you are on medication to treat any one of these factors, count that risk factor. There are some medical professionals that believe if someone has even one or two of these risk factors, they may be at risk for MetS.  READ MORE