Do you eat enough?

Try ensuring each meal has some carb, protein and fat.  Full fat milk with your porridge, or add a tablespoon of ground flax / linseed.

If you struggle with whole nuts, try adding almond butter or sliced avocado to your lunchtime sandwich.  It will add some healthy fats and raise the calories, without the trans fats that come with butter, crisps or biscuits!

Try adding some spinach or other leafy greens in your sandwich to add some extra iron (..and calcium and other micro-nutrients.)

As for snacks for in the car, try some wholefood bars.. l like Raw Revolution.  It can be difficult to navigate between the bars that use whole and healthy foods, and those that do not.  Unfortunately, they can be quite dense which may be a problem with your low appetite, but def worth a try!

Some good ideas here, thanks, especially from MacRun.  Never heard of Raw Revolution so I may sniff them out.

Full-fat milk is out of the question though.  I was brought up on skimmed milk (Mum's fault) and even semi-skimmed makes me want to throw up!  That's half my trouble, i'm used to eating very healthily as a default setting and that means a low calorie intake more often than not.  Low calories + 50 miles a week = problems.

Think the thing i'm realising is that I need to be purposeful about when and how I eat and realise that if I have burnt 1000 calories then i'm going to need to find a way to have at least 3000 calories just to get the right balanc.

I think you're over-analysing this. Calorie-counting in and out is one of those signs of a potentially unhealthy fixation or worse on weight and body image.

Low calorie intake does not necessarily mean eating healthily.

Go for a run. Burn up lots of energy. Eat. Getting thinner? Eat more pies. Getting fatter? Eat fewer pies.

Joolska wrote (see)

Adding extra calories is pretty straightforward.  In times of dire need I am prepared to adopt the 2 dessert strategy: 1 with lunch and 1 with dinner.  It's a sacrifice I'm prepared to make to fuel my running.

You're taking the piss!? I thought you were going to say two desserts as snacks or with each meal?

Muttley - Two reasons that prompted the post.  One, I have been a skinny fecker since I was a kid and have got even more skinny since upping my mileage recently.  My 28" jeans are now baggy around the waist.  I've tried eating more to remedy this but just get too full before I can make a dent in the weight loss.  I am getting stick from my lovely lady about looking too thin (I also suffer from Chron's disease so it's not a great idea for me to be too thin as you can lose weight during flare-ups).

Second reason is that i've started experiencing big energy luls that I didn't get during the lower mileage and these go away when i've eaten a meal.  So want to nip this in the bud sharpish.

It's not that i'm unable to sort this stuff out on my own but just thought it worth seeing a variety of perspectives and also the interest in seeing if it is a common issue. 

cough*anorexic*cough

Unfair, Lardarse. Crohn's is no fun and I now understand a little of where the OP is coming from.

I haven't had 28 waist jeans since I was a teenager

Not much else I can say other to wish you luck managing the Crohn's.

Muttley - Thanks mate.  I am really, really lucky with the Chron's.  I was diagnosed 13 years ago now and have had just one mild flare-up since the early episode.  It barely affects my life at all but i'm also aware that it's a condition which can rear it's (pretty ugly) head at any time at the drop of a hat so having some extra weight on me for those occurances is advisable.

Lardarse - Good job i'm a thick skinned man!  Strangley, you actually couldn't be further from the truth.  I'm a massive foodie and huge chunks of life are dedicated to eating out, going to food festivals and cooking and preparing food from scratch.  I just never put weight on, never have put weight on and am now watching as it tumbles off, even though I didn't think I had any more to lose.  I have, what I believe to be, the healthiest of relationships with food.  All I wish is that I could comfortably eat more of the stuff.

lardarse - that comment is totally uncalled for.. 

Hope you find a solution strangelybrown.  My weight tends to drop into the 'unhealthy' bracket when I up the workouts too, and I find it difficult to put the weight back on while keeping a clean diet.  I know others that are the same too. 

Another thing I've found to help with the energy dips is a green smoothie with protein powder after a long run.  Because of your crohns, I dont know whether this is an option without checking it out with your gp , but I find its made a big difference for me in recovery time and not being wiped out for the rest of the day after a long run.  A glass of milk, couple portions fruit, a handful spinach, a scoop of protein powder, tbsp honey, blend it up, works a charm. 

Glad it's not just me Mac, I had assumed this was a fairly routine issue for long distance runners but it seems not.

I've not established any firm link between food groups and Chron's but I do suspect that staying away from junk/processed foods has kept it nicely in remission all these years.  Don't think protein drinks should prove too much a problem and something I hadn't thought about.  Maybe one of these boys after a long run could be the answer.

I'll look into it - cheers!

Crohns does complicate the issue nicely; it has got to be one of the most awful conditions to suffer from. Is this not something you need to discuss with your GP?

No worries, best of luck tipping the scales

SideBurn - As stated, it honestly doesn't affect my life.

It's horrible when you have a flare-up but when it's in remission, it has no affect on my life (I get some mild IBS because of it but nothing serious).  The condition waxes and wanes so:

Flare-up - Totally debilitating awfulness

Remission - Just like any other blokes life

I have had almost total remission in my life so far so I count myself fortunate and just get on enjoying life.  I'll involve my GP when there is something actually wrong with me, the NHS is swamped enough with time wasters.

You are correct; the NHS is swamped with time wasters and I understand what you are saying. But many GP's also say, "I wish you had come to me with this sooner!"

True but I don't think there much to report right now.  I'd rather get busy implmenting some of ideas from here.

In fairness, Lardarse, I'm 5'2" and 7.5 stone, so for someone my size 2 desserts (assuming they're proper sized desserts) amounts to a fair proportion of my calorie requirements, training or not.

When seeing someone say that they can't manage to eat 3000 kcals a day, which in my eyes, when you look at the actual volume of food required for this is very little (it's only one and half loaves of bread I often eat a whole loaf of bread in one day and at the moment i'm losing weight), then I can only imagine they're starving themselves. Obviously it's all about personal perception, I know given free reign I will eat until i'm stuffed, feel ill and then carry on eating a bit more. Sorry you have a medical condition, but then "As stated, it honestly doesn't affect my life." so therefore it doesn't affect your appetite?

Joolska, didn't mean to be rude (although i am! lol) and you're right about the kcals, it's just as an individual whose been overweight their whole life but am finally making some in roads to getting down to a normal weight my body is now consuming the right amount to lose 1-2 lb a week (~2000kcals) but my head tells me i'm starving because i'm eating so little volume, and have been obsessed with food cravings for 3 months, much harder than giving up smoking which I did 14 years ago.

I just find it really hard to get my head around different peoples appetites, just like some 40 stone bloke who has to be winched out of his bedroom window to change his sheets must think I eat next to nothing when i'm "lardarse"

Unfortunately Lardarse, I fear you have a slightly warped perception of what's normal.

I have always been thin but my weight has never dropped into the danger zone.  I'm 6ft 1" and 10.5 stone which gives me a BMI of around 19.  It's on the low side of the normal range but in the normal range it is.  My concern is more driven by the fact that I have only upped my mileage significantly in the last two months and this has inevitably resulted in further weigh loss - I don't want to fall into the danger zone.

Running does not make me any more hungry, though.  I have been eating the way I ate when I was doing 10/12 miles a week but I did 45 miles last week yet i'm still only hungry for the same amount of food.  That's the problem.

The fact that I have spent all my life in the "ideal" BMI zone and you seem to be outside of it suggests to me that it is you who has had a more unhealthy relationship with food/diet than me.  That isn't intended to be a dig, it's just to perhaps make you think a little differently about your perspective here. 

For people in a normal weight bracket, eating a whole loaf of bread in a day is an absolutely preposterous notion.  I don't know anyone who eats this way.

"I know given free reign I will eat until i'm stuffed, feel ill and then carry on eating a bit more."

That doesn't strike you as peculiar?  You'll eat so much that you don't feel well, then ignore what your body is trying to tell you and then eat some more?  Sorry mate but that just isn't sensible and it's little wonder you've struggled with your weight.

It's good that you're doing something about it though and it's to be applauded that you're losing weight.  I hope you get where you need to be.  You should try and be more understanding of people with different constitutions to you though.  I'm happy being thin and absolutely love my food (you should see my book shelves.  6 shelves, 3 of them crammed with cook books.  I love food) I just don't want to get too thin, just like you didn't want to get too fat.