Ask JB: Nutrition Timing & Running
Dear JB,
I’ve just taken up running which leaves me exhausted and very spaced out for a couple of hours after the event. It’s hard going but if I know I am feeding my body correctly to replace the nutrients and energy expended to help muscles recover, then it will help me enormously. I’m trying to get portion sizes right and the correct balance of carbs, proteins etc.
On previous runs I think I have over eaten afterwards. But I did make sure that I ate a good hour before running too. But have I done the right thing???
Jo
Firstly, thanks for your question Jo!
You are absolutely right that your nutrition will have a big impact on how you recover. What is most important here is the content and composition of your diet as a whole, throughout the day. What is not so important (apart from elite athletes who train multiple times per day) is the timing of your nutrition.
Allow me to explain a little further.
What I mean by the content and composition of your diet is that you have a certain need for calories, carbohydrates, protein and fats depending on your goals on a day to day basis.
I suggest that you look at my “Progress Tracker” tool here as it will suggest the calories, carbs, protein and fat that you need depending on your activity level.
At a more basic level, I recommend having one fist sized portion of carbohydrate containing food, 1 palm sized portion of protein containing food and 1 thumb sized portion of fat containing foods at 3 meals per day plus one light snack, preferably also containing a little protein and carbohydrate.
What you do not need to be concerned with, in most cases, is when these nutrients are eaten, or in what combination at certain times.
To give you an example, is the age old advice for athletes who’ve had a training session to immediately consume a high carbohydrate & protein and low fat meal. This is based on the fact that glycogen stores in the muscles have been depleted post exercise. It needs replacing and also that as muscle damage has occurred, this needs repairing too to ensure recovery occurs ASAP.
Now this would be beneficial if you were training twice per day, e.g. a hard interval session in the morning followed by a longer slower run in the evening, because speed of refuelling would be important in order to ensure adequate fuel and recovery for the second session.
For the recreational athlete however, who trains with a frequency 3-4 times per week, with these sessions occurring on different days, would likely not see much benefit of having perfectly timed pre and post training nutrition compared to eating in a more care free timing pattern.
What I do see as important when working with clients is focussing on preference and lifestyle.
Preference relates to how you feel when you eat pre exercise. It is important to consider making sure you allow enough time for you to digest your food and feel like you are performing well to have some fuel in you but not so close to exercise that you feel sick.
Preference is also important to consider for post endurance exercise nutrition. I know some people who couldn’t be less interested in eating after exercise because they have no appetite. For these people, there is absolutely no harm in waiting a few hours until eating a meal. On the other hand I know people who are absolutely ravenous post exercise and therefore would like to eat straight away.
Lifestyle relates to how the approach you choose fits in with your lifestyle. Let’s say for example, you only have time to run first thing in the morning at 6am. You are very unlikely to want to wake up at 4-5am to eat and allow for digestion time. In this case you would want to ensure you’ve had a good meal the night before and maybe have a coffee and a banana or something similar that’s easy to digest 15 minutes before you set off in the morning.
I hope the above helps! In a nutshell, don’t worry about getting timings of meals or combinations of nutrients perfect. Instead focus on getting the basics principles of nutrition right (adequate calories, protein, carbs and fats) and getting these to fit with what suits your preference and lifestyle.
James
