Fueling Your Body for Better Workouts

My favorite post-run breakfast

Week #4

Food fuels your body for all its needs. If you are new to running and/or other exercise, you need to pay extra attention to the food you eat – and when you eat it.  Here’s why: If you are not getting enough calories to handle the extra energy required for running or any other strenuous exercise, you will tire quickly, feel lightheaded, and overtax your body. On the other hand, if you are consuming too many calories, you may feel sluggish, and the calorie-burning effects of exercising won’t have much of an impact.

The key to fueling your body correctly is good nutrition: eating lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, lean protein, low-fat dairy products and the “healthy” non-saturated oils, while avoiding or cutting down on saturated fats and refined sugars. Most of us know the basics of a healthy diet: the challenge is to put it into practice. This blog entry will focus more specifically on what to eat and drink before, during and after running:

Before Running

Most runners exercise early in the morning or late in the evening. The trick to proper fueling for exercise is to eat a light meal that can be digested before you go out to run. For early morning runners, it’s perfectly fine to go out and run without eating a whole breakfast. Typically, for shorter midweek runs, I have a cup of coffee, a few bites of banana and head out the door, saving my main breakfast for later, after my run. Why should you eat a a bit of carbohydrates and/or drink some Gatorade or juice before heading out? When you wake up (assuming you haven’t snacked at 2:00 am in the morning) your body is depleted of glycogen.  Once you have burned through whatever is left by exercising, your body begins to use muscle tissue to fuel your run. So if you are planning to exercise 1/2 hour or more, it’s better to eat a light, digestible snack like a ½ bagel or banana, with some sports drink or juice, preferably 1/2 hour before you go out the door.

However, on the flip side, if you eat too much before heading out, or eat hard-to-digest foods like protein (eggs), you’ll feel it in your stomach and won’t be able to run with the same efficiency. Your body ideally should not be focusing on digestion during exercise. Eating too much or too soon before running can also case side stitches and stomach upset (usually gas pains and diarrhea.)

During Running

Most fueling of carbohydrates during running pertains to distance runners, those who are out longer 1-2 hours in extensive exercise. If you are out exercising 30-45 minutes, you really only need to pay attention to fluids. If you tend to sweat a lot, replacing fluid lost through sweat ever 20 minutes is a good thing to do. On average, 2-3 ounces of water or sports drink every 2 miles is usually sufficient, and on most 2-3 mile runs, I do not even carry water. I just quench my thirst before going out the door, and drink what I need once I’m back home. You’ll have to experiment with this yourself, but it’s better to gauge your own thirst rather than follow a prescribed formula.

After Running

After running your first priority should be to replace the fluids you lost. You can drink water, a sports drink, or eat high-water-content foods like grapes.  To replace the glycogen in your muscles, choose some type of carbohydrate within the first hour after running, such as juice, a bagel, banana, or yogurt. Your body doesn’t care whether carbohydrates are in liquid or solid form; each will work to refuel your muscles. If you sweat quite a bit, you should eat something with salt in it to replace lost sodium; this could be cereal, saltines, pretzels, or even cheese. Most breads and soups have lots of sodium in them.

Every Day Energy

What, how and when you eat during the day can have a noticeable effect on how you feel during exercise. If you snack on high sugar, high fat food during the night, you will feel tired in the morning. If you skip dinner the night before, and then try to run on an empty stomach, you’ll be running on fumes, and quickly feel fatigued. The key with proper fueling is to modify what and when you eat around your exercise schedule so that your body is energized for exercise.

If you want to learn more about sports nutrition, I highly recommend sports nutritionist Nancy Clark’s book, “Nancy Clark’s Sport’s Nutrition Guidebook.” Nancy’s advice is solid, down-to-earth, and very helpful.  Her book pertains not only to fueling for exercise, but eating for energy, handling snacking cravings, losing weight successfully, and eating to overcome stress and fatigue – something all parents of young children need to know!

Nancy also has a brand new book called “Getting it Right From the Start: A Food Guide for New Runners.” I have not read this book, but it looks like an excellent resource for the runners in our group.

I recently heard Nancy speak and wrote a blog called “Five Sports Nutrition Nuggets” that you may find helpful as well. 

One final word on running and losing weight: you may or may not experience significant weight loss when you take up running, especially in the short-term. But as a long-term way of life, running can help you keep extra weight off, improve your overall mood and energy, significantly improve your cardiovascular health, and boost your resting metabolic rate.

I have found that running on a regular basis gives me more freedom to enjoy some ice cream or chocolate once in a while without feeling guilty or having to worry about gaining weight – and that’s a sweet thing!