How to Use a Triathlon Training Program to Lose Weight

How to Use a Triathlon Training Program to Lose Weight
By Bob Cotter

Many people who wish to lose weight don't realize that a triathlon training program is one of the best ways to help themselves with that.

If you enter a triathlon, you will need to compete in a back-to-back-to-back swim, bicycle, and run. As you might imagine, to get in shape for this amazing athletic event requires a very intense and extensive triathlon training program. It requires that you use all muscle groups, and thus train all muscle groups. The upper body, the tops of the legs, and the back of the legs all must be thoroughly worked out and made strong and efficient, and the cardiovascular system has to be made very strong.

All of these factors add up to a tremendous weight loss program. Clearly, making your muscles this strong and efficient means they are burning up more calories even at rest than the average person's muscles are. The only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you take in--if you don't do this, you cannot lose weight no matter what you do. So a workout regimen that causes your muscles to become super efficient caloric burners and causes your metabolism to rise with your increased cardiovascular power is a workout that is ideal for losing weight.

But the weight loss advantages of a triathlon training program go beyond those basic qualities.

A triathlon training program requires that you eat foods that will give you a great deal of energy. This energy has to last a long time, too. And, you'll need to eat foods that help you rebuild your sore, taxed muscles. It so happens that all such kinds of foods are the kind that don't put on a lot of extra weight. Although you might eat a lot of carbohydrates such as pasta, you'll be burning off those calories from those carbs--that's why you're eating that kind of food in the first place. But "empty calories" like white breads will not be eaten that much; they don't provide you with enough energy. You will also end up cutting out a great deal of refined sugars as part of your triathlon training.

Refined sugars fool the body into believing that it has more energy than it actually does; so, you really won't want them. As you cut them out to further your training, you will naturally start losing your taste for sugary foods. You'll find yourself wanting more substantial sweet foods like fruits. And, you'll find yourself wanting to eat more protein. The more you fill up on protein, the less room you'll have in your appetite for things like jelly doughnuts!

Of course, all of these dietary changes are exactly the kind that so many people try to "force themselves" into and can't sustain. For those people who desire to lose weight, there need to be stronger incentives to keep the dieting and exercising going. These things need to be more fun and more interesting than they usually are for people. A triathlon training program fits the bill perfectly.