Weightloss and sickness

[erub]

Okay this is a fairly weird question, but I figured the experts at Anandtech might be able to come up with something At the end of May, my senior year, after eating many more burgers and being lazier than I should have been, my weight balloned up to about 187 lbs. (I'm 6'0" male - BUT I have very little muscle mass - as in, doing more than 5 pushups is impossible, I could maybe bench 90 lbs...) So this was a lot, and I had a waist size that was pushing 36"+. So fastforward a few months, I start running again (I did cross country in high school) and watching what I eat..starting to lose some weight. Then I go to college, take a break from running for about 2-3 weeks..then I see a flyer advertising a program that will help you train for the Houston Marathon (Janurary 19th).

Me and my roomate decide to do it...I watch carefully what I eat (cause mommy isn't dishin up the plates anymore) - I lose some more weight and get in the best long-distance shape of my life..I am now about 157 lbs, and about a 33" waist..I'm tryin to get that six-pack. Here's where it gets interesting though..my mother tells me that my father, who basically is the same body type as me, skinny and about the same height..he got real sick when he lost some weight due to his parent's death, and he was about the same weight as I am now. I had a flu shot, and try to take care of myself, but despite the advice of many (and I know that I should!) I just can't fit some weight training in..so I worry I'm losing too much lean muscle mass - although I still have a small bit of the gut.

Now I am getting sick, just after coming back to school from Thanksgiving, and I have a horrible week ahead school wise - 3 tests over 4 days..and ironically, I read today that getting sick is your body's way of saying slow down - quit excersicing! But I have this race to train for..and I'm supposed to run 3 of the 4 days between Monday and Thursday...I guess what my question is would losing weight (or more specifacally, the little lean body mass that I had) - cause my body just to go nuts? I've getting the chills, a sore throat, slight ear infection over the last 24 hours or so...or is it just concidence? Should I take a break from the training?

 

[Nutdotnet]

Yeah, if you are sick you really shouldn't be exercising. You should be resting and drinking lots of fluids. BUT, really up to you if you are going to or not. When I get sick I just lower the intensity of my workouts, works fine for me.

 

[tweakmm]

you shouldn't be training for a race while you are sick

 

[rayma2]

I would not quit exersizing but maby add an easy workout day in every so often.. and also make sure you are eating enough and the right stuff.

 

[Koing]

well you don't have to worry about your weight as your a long distance runner. You don't need much muscle mass to run. It just slows and make you heavier.

The thing I don't get is your 6" and 157lbs AND have a 33' waist but you run long distance.

If your are ill then I'd advise you to not run at all. Don't do anything that will break you in to a sweat except for sex. Hell you can do sex when your half dead!

Your just going to punish yourself and your immune system. So don't do anything strenous until you are much better.

 

[zephyrprime]

I read today that getting sick is your body's way of saying slow down

That's interesting. I've never heard of that. Can you tell us more about this? I've been getting minor ailments a lot recently but I've been thinking it's been because I haven't got as much sleep as I should.