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Nutrition for Runners

How to Lose Weight Effortlessly, Fuel Right, and

Energize Your Runs

Jason Fitzgerald and Anne Mauney, MPH, RD

Copyright © 2015 – All Rights Reserved

Table of Contents..................................................................................................Introduction 5

.......................................................................................................Welcome! 5

..............................................................................About Jason Fitzgerald 8

.............................................................About Anne Mauney, MPH, RD 10

...........................................................The Diet Philosophy That Works 11

...........................................The 5 Principles of Nutrition for Runners 15

........................................................................Chapter 1: Eat REAL Food 16.......................................................................................The Low-Fat Craze 16

.............................................................Our Obsession with Vegetable Oils 18

................................................Real Food Summary and Action Steps 21

..........................................Chapter 2: Meal Composition and Satiety 22......................................Learn from the Mistakes of Anne’s Private Clients 23

........................................................................Meal and Snack Suggestions 24

.........Meal Composition and Satiety Summary and Action Steps 26

..................................................................Chapter 3: Eat Like a Runner 28..........................................................................Carbohydrates and Fueling 30

.................................Eat Like a Runner Summary and Action Steps 32

.....................Chapter 4: Train Smart to Achieve Your Goal Weight 33...................................................................................How to “Train Smart” 34

...............................................The 3 Principles of Running for Weight Loss 35

Train Smart to Reach Your Goal Weight Summary and Action .............................................................................................................Steps 38

.........................................................Chapter 5: Perfection is for Losers 39

........................Perfection is for Losers Summary and Action Steps 42

....................................................How to Fuel for Workouts and Races 43

Nutrition For Runners

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......................................Get Energized: How to Plan Your Pre-Run Fueling 44

...........................................................................Our Favorite PED: Coffee! 46

....................................................................Timing and Dosage of Caffeine 47

.................................................................................Coffee Myths Exposed 48

...........................................Eating on the Run: How to Fuel While Running 49

................................................................Eat to Recover: Post-Run Fueling 51

..........................................................................................Fueling for Races 53

..............................................................................5k and 10k Race Fueling 55

.................................................................................Half Marathon Fueling 57

......................................................Marathon Fueling: Time to Get Serious! 57

...........................................................................................Fueling Q-and-A 59

...................................................Ask the Dietitian: Nutrition Q-and-A 62


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IntroductionWelcome!IMAGINE LOOKING IN THE MIRROR in the morning and smiling at what you see. You then lace up your shoes and run a challenging workout where you feel powerful, strong, and energized.

The next day, you feel fully recovered and ready to tackle your next run. And you’re excited to go running because you’ve fallen in love with the sport all over again.

That’s our goal with this program. We want you to be at your goal weight while being properly fueled for all of your runs so you feel great and perform at your best.

It’s a tall order - most runners are carrying extra weight and often feel sluggish. They’re not sure what foods to eat, when to eat them, and how to train to maximize weight loss and race goals.

Let’s not even get into meal planning - who has time to do that consistently? There’s just too much information out there and it has you going around in circles.

And if you’re like us, you would love to occasionally enjoy some cookies... Don’t worry, we understand!

As a running coach and Registered Dietitian, we get countless questions about the nutrition needs of runners. Have you ever asked...

✦ What should I eat before I run a fast workout?

✦ Do low-carb diets really work for endurance runners?

✦ Are fasted long runs a good idea while I train for a half?

✦ Will the carbs I know I need for the marathon hurt my weight loss goals?

✦ Can I lose weight and run a lot?

In this program, we answer all of these questions - and a lot more. Our goal is not just to give you the information to achieve all of your diet and nutrition goals, but the resources and actionable, step-by-step process for success.


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We know how hard it can be. Just look around at many of the mainstream nutrition books for runners and you’ll see a startling disconnect from what really works and what actually gives results. We look around at the books and programs today and ask:

Do we really need more technical jargon about the biochemistry of phytonutrients? We say no!

Do you want to count calories and calculate the exact percentage of carbs, fat, and protein you’re eating? It’s far too difficult and the dark truth is that most of us can’t do it accurately enough for it to mean anything. Counting calories can also get you away from actually listening to your body and what it needs (it knows - just pay attention to what it’s telling you!).

Why do we need another book explaining what carbohydrate is? Yawn...

See, many so-called nutrition experts focus on the wrong things, like calories, nutrient percentages, and biochemistry. Or when they give you something useful like a recipe, it has 39 ingredients and some of them are only sold in Portland’s crunchiest organic market.

Some nutrition experts aren’t even runners or only focus on weight loss (there’s a lot more to nutrition than just losing weight). Or they write for folks who are walkers, not runners.

We think nutrition for runners has been made too complex and has not focused enough on the day-to-day practical needs of everyday runners.

So we’ve created a specific plan that’s useful, easy to read, and simple to use every day.

This program will help you make better choices with your diet, show you what foods are good for running (and when to eat them), and provide the recipes and specific meal plans that will help you lose weight, run faster, and fuel your workouts.

But nutrition isn’t enough. Of course, what food you choose to eat is incredibly important to your overall health and any weight loss goals you might have. But we’re going beyond diet to give you the training that will help you feel your best while losing weight and running faster than ever before.

As a coach, Jason is adamant about this: run faster and you’ll lose weight and improve your body composition.


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Why? Simple: racing faster than ever before requires you to be in the best shape of your life. Sometimes, that means more mileage and harder workouts.

But often, you just need to train smarter to get the same benefits. And we’ll show you exactly how to do that in this program.

Good for you for taking the first step to improving your diet, weight, nutrition, and running. It won’t happen overnight - and it probably won’t be easy - but we’ll give you the tools to help you succeed.

As you start making changes to your nutrition, remember this quote:

Hard work is fun. There’s something unsatisfying with things that come too easily.

It’s a great quote, right?

Let’s move on and meet the authors of this program.


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About Jason FitzgeraldHEY, I’M JASON! I’m the co-creator of Nutrition for Runners and the founder & head coach of Strength Running. I help runners get stronger, prevent injuries, and race faster.

A big part of that bold mission is to optimize your nutrition, get to your ideal weight, and fuel properly so you can finally feel more energized and accomplish all of your running goals.

Maybe you’re here because you just want to lose those final 5-10 pounds. Maybe you want to run a new Personal Best and better nutrition is the answer. Or maybe you just want to feel your best when you go running without being lethargic or sluggish.

Whatever your reason, you’re in the right place!

But I am not a registered dietitian nor do I have advanced degrees in public health or nutrition (that’s why I partnered with Anne). My specialty is helping you optimize your nutrition from a running, training, and coaching perspective.

After 16+ years of competitive running experience, learning about optimal performance from USA Track & Field and having over 10 coaches myself, plus coaching thousands of runners to train smarter so they can race faster, I know I’m the right person to help you reach these goals.

For years, I’ve been reading the latest articles and books trying to learn how to create the perfect human diet. It’s been said that the next great performance improvements will come from advances in how athletes eat. I don’t doubt it – and I’m obsessed with finding out what that diet is all about.

If I didn’t have a running website I’d probably have a food blog. You could call me a “foodie” but I think that sounds a little too fancy. Instead, I like trying new things and have learned a lot about what’s good for you and why.

And it all started in 2006 after I had blood work done during a routine doctor’s visit. The lab work came back with a startling result: I had high cholesterol! Even worse, my LDL and HDL levels were all out of whack.


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http://strengthrunning.com

http://strengthrunning.com

After over 22 years of pristine health, I came to the unfortunate conclusion that I was not immune to the side effects of a horrendous diet (I can’t quit you, pepperoni pizza and ranch dressing!). Despite a healthy weight and running more than 10 miles per day, I wasn’t as healthy as I could have been.

For years I abided by the popular saying, “If the furnace is hot enough, it will burn anything.” But this lab work clearly showed that I needed to improve my diet if I wanted to optimize both my health and my running performances.

After making just a few strategic changes, I dropped 2% of my body weight without even trying to lose weight (I never went on a traditional “diet”). Two months later, I set personal bests in the 5,000m and became a top ten finisher in New England in the 3,000m Steeplechase.

Soon after experiencing these results, I realized just how powerful a healthy diet can be when used properly: weight loss, an improved self-image, and faster race times. Sign me up!

Over the following years, I continued to refine and tweak my diet to better improve my performances. From weight management to marathon fueling, I’ve learned the best techniques to shed unwanted fat and race faster. Many of these strategies have been featured in USA Today, Runner’s World, Lifehacker, and other major media.

In fact, just a few key changes to my fueling strategy helped me avoid the dreaded “wall” during my second marathon - and I ran a personal best by over 5 minutes to finish in 2:39:32.

Needless to say, I’m excited to share my story with you and the lessons I’ve learned to help you reach your nutrition and weight loss goals.

But since my expertise is on the coaching side of nutrition, I partnered with someone a lot smarter than me when it comes to the science behind nutrition, meal planning, and recipe creation.

And I’m thrilled to introduce Anne Mauney, my partner on this exciting program.


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About Anne Mauney, MPH, RDHI, I’M ANNE! I’m a Registered Dietitian, a healthy living blogger over at fANNEtasticfood, and I’m also a runner.

As of now, I’ve completed two full marathons and 13 half marathons, so I think it’s safe to say I’m fully addicted to running. I’m not nearly as fast as Jason, but I have learned quite a lot over the years, both through personal experience and my studies, about how big a part nutrition plays in running and exercise in general.

Nutrition was actually my second career - I started out after college working in public relations, writing, and editing, but I felt like I was missing something. It took me a few years to figure out exactly what that thing was, but in the end it was working one-on-one with people and helping them to improve their lives through nutrition and exercise.

After deciding to take the plunge and follow my dreams, I began taking science prerequisites and one year later started my Masters of Public Health in Nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Since graduating in 2012 and becoming a Registered Dietitian, I started my own private practice, and have been working with clients ever since, helping them on their journeys to healthier and happier lives and improved relationships with food.

I started to become more of a serious runner while I was in graduate school, which was convenient since that’s also when I began to learn more about properly fueling for performance. Whether you’re looking to optimize your speed or simply finish a race without a detour to the porta-potty or a medical tent visit, nutrition matters, and can singlehandedly make the difference between a bad and a good run.

Eating for exercise can sometimes seem complicated, but it doesn’t need to be. I’m excited to share this program to have you feeling good and running fast!


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http://www.fannetasticfood.com/

http://www.fannetasticfood.com/

http://www.annetherd.com/




The Diet Philosophy That Works WHEN DID EATING GET SO COMPLICATED?

Everywhere you look someone is touting a new nutrition approach that is the “be-all end-all” diet. This, and only this, they say, is what will make us all lose weight and keep it off, or fuel most efficiently for exercise.

One day you might read that avoiding dietary fat is the road to weight loss; the next that limiting carbs is the only way to slim down. Or maybe it’s the acidity in your food that’s causing your weight gain. Or snacking. Or not snacking. Or wheat. Or dairy. Or beans. Or meat. Or not enough meat. Or… is your head about to explode, too?

Maybe you’ve tried these diets before. Most likely, you found that while following rigid diets and food rules can lead to brief weight loss in the short term, in the long term it isn’t sustainable, and will backfire in a big way.

In fact, research suggests rapid weight loss and dieting can slow your metabolism, deprive your body of essential nutrients, and weaken your immune system. And that weight you lost? It will come right back, and likely even more than before.

On the running front, dieting can be especially dangerous. Underfueling can lead to electrolyte imbalances and low blood sugar during runs, which at best will cause you to feel dizzy and exhausted, and at worst can cause fainting or even death. And if you aren’t adequately refueling after runs, your muscles won’t be able to repair properly. Down the line, this can lead to weak bones and stress fractures - every runner’s nightmare.

So - how should you eat, then? Which philosophy is correct? Which one can help you reach your running and weight goals?

Before we dive deeper into our nutrition recommendations in the next couple of sections, let’s talk a little more about what it means to eat healthy without having to subscribe to a traditional “diet.”

Above all: stop counting calories.

Until recently, humans never counted calories - so why are we all of a sudden being told it’s the only way to maintain our weight? There is no need to count calories (well,


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unless you’re trying to initially calculate how much fuel to take during a long run - more on that in our Fueling for Performance section).

Anne works with her nutrition counseling clients using an approach called Intuitive Eating, which is a philosophy based on the premise that listening to the body’s natural hunger signals is a more effective way to attain a healthy weight than tracking calories. It essentially brings you back to what you used to do when you were a kid, before dieting got involved: eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. It sounds remarkably simple, but it can actually be quite hard to get used to, especially if you have done your share of restrictive dieting and find yourself thinking of food as “good” or “bad”.

Our bodies are equipped with a complicated system of hormones that will send signals to you when fuel is needed. Those cravings you have? They aren’t the enemy. They are your body telling you that it needs nourishment. Don’t ignore it! It’s when we suppress those signals that we get into trouble.

One of the big first steps to intuitive eating is to allow yourself to have whatever you want, whenever you want it. This makes clients extremely nervous. “But won’t I just eat cake all day?” they ask. The short answer is no, although you might have more cake at first. Basically, if you allow yourself to have whatever you truly want without any guilt or shame, then that food will lose its power over you; you will no longer crave that specific food only because you know you can’t have it. Over time, as you get used to listening to your body, you’ll start craving healthier food because it’s what makes you feel your best.

Sure, sometimes you’ll still want the cake. And if you really want it, you should allow yourself to have some. The key is to stay present and mindful while you’re eating it and really savor the experience. It’s a lot harder to overeat if you’re really paying attention to what you’re doing, and without that guilt, there’s not the tendency to eat everything that’s there because you feel like you’ll never allow yourself to have it again.

Change like this doesn’t happen overnight, and it will take some time for this approach to work as you get used to listening to your body and its needs without judgment. But when the time comes that you can really separate guilt from treats and focus on being mindful and present, you will be able to eat a cookie or two, not the entire box, because emotions are no longer tied up in the eating experience.

To encourage you to break free of calorie counting constraints, we aren’t including the calorie/nutrient breakdowns for the recipes in this book, with the exception of those that are recommended specifically for use during exercise (again, more on that in a bit).


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Instead, we’ll share more about how you can make sure your meals are balanced without focusing on calories.

If you are someone who has spent years dieting and overriding your hunger cues, it can take some time to get used to listening to your hunger and fullness cues again. We recommend reading the book Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, a wonderful resource and guide as you work towards becoming an intuitive eater.

That said, for intuitive eating to really work, you have to let go of unrealistic weight goals.

Have you ever heard of the phrase “happy weight”?

It basically means the weight that you naturally settle at when you are staying active and eating well, but also allowing for indulgence on occasion. Essentially - it’s your healthiest weight, the weight that your body wants you to be.

If you’re eating well most of the time, eating when you are hungry and not just because you are bored or trying to cover another emotion, but still allowing yourself some treats a few times a week, too - then you should be at your happy weight. It’s where your body feels its best, and getting any lower will be a struggle.

If your goal is a weight that is unrealistically low for your height or bone structure, you will be miserable trying to maintain it, and under-fueling will negatively impact your running, too. As we’ve already discussed, under-fueling in a runner is not a light matter - it can lead to stress fractures and muscle tears, along with more serious consequences.

At the end of the day, you need to decide whether being able to live your life is worth a couple of extra pounds. This doesn’t mean feeling uncomfortable in your own skin, or being at an unhealthy weight for your body. Just that maybe the weight your body is best at - again, when you’re eating healthy most of the time but also living your life - is a little higher than it would be in your ideal world.

Instead of focusing on a number on the scale, focus on how you feel and what your body can do. Are you energized? Do your legs feel strong? Do you feel good? Doesn’t that matter more than a number on a scale?

We’ll end this section with a reminder: do what works for you, not anyone else.

Everyone is different, and there is no single nutrition approach that works for everyone. Some people might thrive on Paleo, others on a vegan diet. It’s important to


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http://amzn.to/1KqD3Ny

http://amzn.to/1KqD3Ny

experiment with different foods and see which ones leave you feeling your best and strongest throughout the day and during your workouts.

As long as you’re eating real food, and including a variety of foods, then do what works for you. Forget what everyone else is doing and listen to YOUR body.

And now, let’s get into the mechanics of eating healthy as a runner -- without making yourself crazy counting calories.


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The 5 Principles of Nutrition for Runners THIS PROGRAM IS CENTERED on 5 Principles of Nutrition for Runners. These form the foundation of our nutrition philosophy and have been successful for hundreds of runners just like you.

Rather than counting calories, restricting food choices, limiting carbohydrates, and following a strict “diet” we’ve made this process much simpler. Instead, we believe in intuitive eating that we discussed before. Its premise maintains that listening to the body’s natural hunger signals is a more effective way to attain a healthy weight than tracking calories.

The guidelines in the next five sections build on intuitive eating so you understand this way of eating in more detail. Plus, we cover running-specific nutrition and why the needs of runners make the food you eat that much more important.

Before we get into the mechanics of sports nutrition, let’s talk regular, everyday nutrition. First and foremost: what happened to just eating real food? And eating it when you were hungry, and stopping when you were full?

There are countless approaches out there and an overwhelming amount of weight loss and nutrition advice telling everyone to measure every morsel they eat and count this and count that. It’s daunting at best, and promotes the idea that there’s no way to eat right without knowing exactly what you’re taking in.

But you know what? It doesn’t have to be that complicated.

Here are our 5 main principles of nutrition for runners - no complicated calculations or food scales necessary!


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Chapter 1: Eat REAL FoodTHE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR HEALTH is to stop thinking about grams of this and calories in that, and instead, focus on the quality of your food.

If there is one single thing that will most drastically improve your health, it is to eat more real food and less processed food.

What exactly is “real” or whole food? It’s just how it sounds - food that is in its most natural state and has not been processed or refined. Things like whole fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and unprocessed grains. Animal products should be grass-fed and organic, if possible - the way nature originally intended.

We know that eating entirely unprocessed food isn’t practical, so when you are eating packaged foods, instead of flipping it over and looking at the calories or fat, look at the ingredients list. Is it 3 miles long? Does it include words you don’t understand? Is it full of chemical additives and preservatives? That’s your tip to look elsewhere - this isn’t real food.

The reason for eating real food is twofold: first, real food (and grass-fed vs. grain-fed animals - more on that in a second) generally has more nutrients than processed food. In order to make foods shelf-stable, whole foods are often stripped of many of their nutrients during processing.

White rice, for example is made from brown rice. It’s processed to remove its fiber-rich bran and germ, which contain about two-thirds of the nutrients in rice.

And second, this lack of nutrients also means that processed food is not nearly as satisfying as real food. Have you ever eaten a processed food (for example, refined/”enriched” flour pretzels) and found you’re hungry again minutes later? That’s because you’re essentially eating air - you’re taking in calories, but not a whole lot of nutrition. The food you’re eating isn’t really even “food” at all.

The Low-Fat CrazeDuring the 1980s, there were a couple of major reports that came out that would alter the way Americans ate and kick off the low-fat and anti-cholesterol craze that I’m sure many of us remember well (and might still be abiding by today).


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In these reports, decreasing saturated fat and limiting dietary cholesterol were labeled as the most important changes that people could make to improve their health, which created a national food production frenzy to create low-fat diet products.

Everyone started eating eggs without the yolks, low-fat crackers, low-fat cookies, low-fat dairy products, low-fat everything. But something strange happened – Americans continued to get heavier than ever, and their overall health wasn’t improving, either.

One explanation for this phenomenon was that while the calorie content of the products often remained the same, their satiety, or ability to make you feel full, went down. This is due to the absence of fat, which keeps you full and satisfied longer. Again - ever eaten a low-fat processed food and been hungry again in less than an hour? Even though you’re taking in the calories, your body is not being particularly nourished by those calories. This often leads to overeating because you never feel satisfied.

A second explanation is that extra sugar (and salt, in some cases) was added to make low-fat products still taste good. The addition of sugar made these food products lower in fat, but higher in carbohydrate.

Ironically, excess carbohydrates, especially those that are processed/refined, actually increase your cholesterol levels (and your triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood that are an important measure of heart health) more than dietary cholesterol intake does!

Research has shown that when people with high LDL cholesterol (the “bad” kind) purge their diet of saturated fats, they lower one kind of LDL, but not the small, dense particles that are linked to high carbohydrate intake and are implicated in heart disease.

Furthermore, additional studies are showing that high total cholesterol might not be a problem at all anyway, especially if the two types of cholesterol (LDL and HDL) are in balance and there is not an abundance of small, dense LDL. After all, cholesterol is vital for a number of body processes, including production of hormones and healthy cell formation.

Some studies even show that higher cholesterol can correlate with a lower risk of heart disease, and a recent study from UCLA found that the majority of heart attack patients (75%) admitted to their hospital did not have high total cholesterol – but they did have metabolic syndrome, which is the name for a group of risk factors that increases your likelihood of heart disease.

One of these risk factors is high triglycerides; the others include hypertension, high fasting blood sugar, abdominal obesity, and low HDL (“good” cholesterol). Unlike high


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http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/272/17/1335.abstract




http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/majority-of-hospitalized-heart-75668.aspx

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/majority-of-hospitalized-heart-75668.aspx

triglycerides, though, there is a lack of concrete evidence showing that saturated fat intake (from real, unaltered sources) leads to heart disease or increased mortality.

And what causes high triglycerides? You guessed it – diets high in sugar and refined carbohydrates, which is what manufacturers were replacing the fat in their products with.

Heart disease, which is also called cardiovascular disease, or CVD, is, as we know, a BIG problem in the U.S. right now. Recent studies have looked at the relationship between heart disease and lifestyle, suggesting that 90% of CVD is caused by modifiable diet and lifestyle factors.

Our Obsession with Vegetable OilsBut what (in addition to high sugar intake) are those diet factors, if cholesterol and saturated fat were not necessarily to blame?

Well, in addition to the increase in carbohydrate and sugar consumption due to the low-fat diet craze, the third point here is that processed vegetable fats/oils were also being pushed to replace animal fat, with the assumption that they would be better for health because they were lower in saturated fat. This led to the development and promotion of margarine and other baking fats that were made from vegetable oil, and these products were used in a lot of processed foods, too.

These products were created using a process called hydrogenation, which converts a liquid oil (like soybean or corn oil) to margarine or vegetable shortening that is solid at room temperature, and creates something called trans-fat in the process. At the time, we didn’t realize it, but we now know that trans-fat has been found to increase LDL, or “bad” cholesterol levels, to decrease HDL, or “good” cholesterol levels, and to increase risk for heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Oops! By trying to solve a problem that didn’t exist, we created an even bigger problem. Trans-fat can be spotted on food ingredient labels as “partially hydrogenated oil” and should be avoided whenever possible. It’s definitely not a “real” food! Pay special attention to your nut butter ingredient lists - the ingredients should be just nuts or nuts and a little salt - no hydrogenated oils.

Another problem that stemmed from the increased consumption of vegetable oils is that the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 polyunsaturated fats in the American diet changed. Vegetable oils (like soybean, sunflower, corn, cottonseed, sesame oil, etc.), are high in omega-6 fatty acids, which, while they do have their function, are now being


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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15364185




over-consumed, particularly in comparison to health promoting omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in foods like fatty fish, flaxseed, and walnuts.

Between 1935 and 1939, the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids was reported to be 8.4:1; today, estimates of the ratio range from an average of 10:1 to 20:1, with a ratio as high as 25:1 in some. According to a report from the USDA, Americans now get almost 20% of their calories from soybean oil, with nearly 9% of all calories coming from omega-6 alone.

So, what’s the problem with that?

Well, omega-6 is pro-inflammatory, and inflammation in the body can be a factor in increased heart disease risk; in fact, elevated omega-6 intakes have been associated with an increase in all inflammatory diseases.

On the flipside, studies are showing that a lower ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 (so, more omega-3 intake and/or less omega-6) can reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Higher levels of long chain omega-3s in the blood have been shown to potentially protect against degenerative diseases, and research also shows strong evidence that the omega-3s EPA and DHA can help lower triglycerides and blood pressure.

Part of the problem with the ratio of the two is that omega-3 fatty acids, which are not inflammatory, compete for the same enzymes as omega-6. This means that having too much omega-6 in the diet will interfere with omega-3 activity; several studies have shown that the biological availability and activity of omega-6 fatty acids are inversely related to the concentration of omega-3 fatty acids in tissue.

There are two kinds of long-chain omega-3s associated with heart health benefits, which were just mentioned: EPA and DHA. These come from fish. The short-chain fatty acid is called ALA and comes from plant sources, such as flaxseed, canola oil, walnuts, etc., but is not converted as easily to EPA and DHA in the body, in particular when omega-6 intake is high.

One way to improve your omega-3 to omega-6 intake ratio is to choose grass-fed and organic animal products. Several studies have shown that the nutrient content of pasture-raised animal products is superior to that of grain-fed animal products - not only do they have higher levels of vitamins and other micronutrients, but they also have a more favorable fatty acid profile, with higher amounts of omega-3. Grain feeding animals has been shown to deplete their omega-3 levels.


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http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/71/1/179S?ijkey=5c7af875f3dc71a303f7df78c52145e8b7c31643




http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/publications/foodsupply/foodsupply1909-2004report.pdf

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/publications/foodsupply/foodsupply1909-2004report.pdf

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/83/6/S1483












So, to fully understand the importance of eating real, unprocessed, and as-natural-as-possible food we had to give a short history lesson on our culture’s obsession with saturated fat and cholesterol.

The irrational avoidance of these nutrients led to sweeping changes in food production, resulting in so-called “healthy” foods that are higher in simple carbohydrates, trans-fats, and unhealthy vegetable oils.

The ultimate lesson is to revert your eating habits back to your great-great-grandmother’s. One of our favorite adages about food is:

“If your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize it as food, then it’s not food.”

Would she look at a bowl of Fruity Pebbles and consider that food? No, that fat-free bowl of sugar is why two-thirds of Americans are overweight!

We don’t want you to be scared of fat. Eating healthy fat at each meal in the form of nuts, seeds, avocado, or fish will go a long way with satiety, and will also help to improve the absorption of fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, too.

And when you’re eating animal products, go for grass-fed and organic, and don’t be scared to choose full-fat dairy.

You’ll see this principle at work in the meal guides and recipes in this program. While we can recommend the specific types of foods that form the foundation of a healthy diet, it’s your decision to buy organic, grass-fed, and less processed versions of the ingredients.

Need an example you can use today? Switch to whole instead of skim milk in your morning latte. Now you don’t need to add sugar because of the extra

creaminess the milk provides. Try it!


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Real Food Summary and Action StepsREMEMBER THESE KEY POINTS FROM THIS SECTION:

✦ Your diet should mainly consist of real food: unprocessed and as close as possible to its natural state. Think: vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts and seeds, high-quality meat, full-fat dairy, and unprocessed, whole-grain sources of carbohydrate

✦ Stop focusing on calories, cholesterol, and fat. Instead, focus your attention on the ingredient list - make sure it’s short and all things you recognize/can pronounce

✦ Artificially low-fat foods typically have more simple sugars and vegetable oils - the real contributors to weight gain/poor health

✦ If your great-great -grandmother wouldn’t recognize it as food, it doesn’t deserve a place on your plate

This program is not built for education - it’s built for action! We want you to modify your eating habits so you can be healthier, lose weight, and yes, run faster!

After reading this section, implement these changes:

✦ Go through your kitchen and donate or throw out any highly processed or artificially fat-free foods, especially those that contain trans fats (partially hydrogenated oils) and mile-long ingredient lists full of artificial additives.

✦ Replace your typical grocery items with healthier alternatives (see our Grocery Shopping List for ideas).

✦ Always opt for real, unprocessed, and whole foods over diet, fat-free, low-cholesterol, and other highly processed “food products.”

What are you waiting for? Get to it!


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Chapter 2: Meal Composition and SatietyMAKE SURE YOU EAT WELL-ROUNDED MEALS!

Sounds like something your mom might say, right? But there’s a grain (we can’t help ourselves with these food puns) of truth to it. In fact, it’s ALL truth!

To ensure your diet is as healthy as possible - and to avoid calorie counting - you should have each of the three macro-nutrients present at each meal (unless you’re about to run and need to consider GI issues - more on that in the Fueling section):

1. High-quality carbohydrate. “High quality” means the least refined option. Examples include whole grains that haven’t been refined, like brown rice instead of white, 100% whole grain/wheat bread (that doesn’t have 1,000 ingredients - or even 20), fruit, and starchy vegetables.

Carbohydrates are especially important for runners, as they’re what’s used as your primary fuel during exercise - particularly short and speedy exercise when fat can’t provide the high energy “rocket fuel” for these hard efforts.

2. Healthy fat. Healthy fats include omega-3 fatty acids (fish!), nuts and seeds, avocados, oils like olive oil, coconut oil, flax oil, and walnut oil, and the full-fat dairy and whole eggs from grass-fed animals (grain-fed animals have an altered nutrient profile with less healthy fat, as we discussed in the last section).

In addition to being necessary to make protective hormones and cell walls in your body, including the brain (which is half fat), healthy fat is also great for satiety. If you don’t already include healthy fat at meals, try it - and see if it keeps you full longer. You’ll likely be surprised that it will!

3. Protein. You knew this was coming, right? Protein (from beans, fish, and grass-fed, organic meat, eggs, and dairy) is important for a number of reasons.


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First, your body needs protein to repair and build muscle tissue after a challenging workout. It is an important building block of bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, and even blood, and you need it to make enzymes and hormones, too.

In addition, protein is extremely helpful at meal times for signaling the body that it is getting full, so it helps make meals more satisfying and balanced.

Learn from the Mistakes of Anne’s Private ClientsOne of the most common mistakes Anne sees her clients making is to include only carbohydrates and no fat or protein at breakfast. Trying to be “good,” they grab a packet of instant oatmeal made with water, or have skim milk with a low calorie, low fat cereal.

An hour later, they feel like they’re starving! They try to hold off for lunch as long as they can, and by the time the clock hits noon, they are so ravenous that they eat much more than they intended, leaving lunch uncomfortably stuffed. Maybe this is starting to sound familiar?

This pattern continues into the afternoon. Finding themselves starved at 3 p.m., they try to wait it out until dinner - but get so hungry by 4 that they end up diving headfirst into the office candy bowl. They arrive home that night, exhausted and still ravenous, and again eat much more than they wanted. They often describe feeling out of control around food but never truly satisfied, and reference their “massive sweet tooth.”

Another common mistake Anne sees with her private clients is avoiding carbohydrate and healthy fat at lunchtime - for example, having a salad with “light” dressing and chicken. Again, an hour later, they find themselves overly hungry because their meal was so unsatisfying, and the same pattern with the office candy jar quickly appears.

They’re surprised when Anne tells them that eating healthy does not mean trying to eat as little as possible. Life shouldn’t be about constantly suppressing cravings, eating unsatisfying meals, and trying to curb your afternoon hunger with sugar-free gum.

When our bodies are hungry, it’s not some evil thing we should fight - that’s a signal that our body needs something, and we should listen to it. Especially as runners, listening to your body is so important to make sure you are properly fueled for your runs and refueling afterward.


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Meal and Snack SuggestionsThe first step to correcting these poor eating habits is what we just shared with you: balancing your meals with a combination of carbs, healthy fat, and protein, plus lots of veggies for volume at lunch and dinner.

It’s also helpful to front-load your food intake, eating more volume earlier in the day. This will help to keep your energy levels more stable and will help you avoid the low-blood-sugar-induced mood swings.

Let’s start with breakfast. Think about what you normally eat. Does it include all three macronutrients? And if not, how can you optimize it so it does? For example, instead of instant oatmeal made with water, switch to old fashioned whole rolled oats (they can be microwaved just like the instant oats, and are less processed) made with whole milk (for protein), mashed banana (for sweetness/volume!), and topped with nuts (for healthy fat).

The next step is to make sure you eat something the next time you are hungry - not once you are starved, but just as soon as you are getting hungry. If you wait to eat until you are starved, it will be extremely hard not only to savor your food but also to stop eating when you’ve had enough, because you’ll be eating so quickly your body won’t have time to catch up.

It can be hard to get used to listening to your hunger and fullness cues again after years of ignoring them, so start by simply checking in with yourself throughout the day. Are you starting to have symptoms of hunger (like being anxious/irritable/overtired) that don’t necessarily manifest as what you think of as hunger (e.g. a growling stomach)? Or are you actually just bored or tired and in need of a break, not food?

On the fullness front, when you’re eating a meal, take pauses and note how the food feels in your stomach. Give your body time to catch up. Do you need more? Or are you satisfied? The more you check in with yourself and start to pay attention, the easier it will be to determine what hunger and fullness feel like for you.

Let’s get back to the food. For snacks, we recommend choosing two out of those three categories, again to make sure you’re having a balanced and satisfying snack. So for example you might choose an apple (carb) and peanut butter (healthy fat - plus a little bonus of protein). Or you might reach for crackers and veggies (carbs) with guacamole (healthy fat). Or a container of flavored full-fat or 2% (if you can’t find full-fat) Greek yogurt – or plain Greek yogurt with added fresh fruit (carbs + protein!).

The other thing to aim for, like we mentioned before, is to include as many vegetables as possible at lunch and dinner (and breakfast, if you really want a gold sticky star).


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Adding veggies to meals will not only increase the nutrient quality of the meal, but, more importantly, it will also add a lot of volume to your meal without a ton of extra calories. More volume will mean you’ll feel more satisfied, which is what will help reduce food cravings.

Here are some simple recommendations for how to add veggies to your meals to make them more satisfying:

✦ When having a pasta dish, serve yourself half the pasta you normally would, and fill the rest of the volume with veggies - think peppers, peas, zucchini, spinach, etc! Your plate will still be the same size but the veggies will be increasing the satisfaction you’ll experience after the meal much more than the extra pasta would.

✦ Serve meals on top of spinach! Put a huge handful of baby spinach on a plate, then pop it in the microwave for 1 minute. It will wilt down nicely, and you can serve your meal (pasta, a casserole, even a protein - you won’t taste the spinach) on top of it.

✦ Add veggies onto your sandwiches. Adding shredded carrots, baby spinach, and broccoli slaw (shredded broccoli stalks) onto sandwiches is one way to make them more interesting and satisfying. The veggies add a nice crunch and extra volume without changing the flavor.

✦ If you’re making scrambled eggs or an omelette, pile in the veggies.

✦ Instead of having a rice bowl with a few veggies on top, have a veggie/salad bowl with a little rice on top!

Changing your eating habits is tough. We know how difficult it is to abandon long-held beliefs about what’s healthy and how to plan meals. But that’s what learning new things is all about!

By making these changes to your diet, you’ll reap the rewards: more satisfaction from your meals, higher nutrient density of your diet, faster recovery from your running, and simpler weight management.

Jason has personally seen these results first-hand and Anne has helped scores of athletes in her nutrition practice. You can do this too!


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Meal Composition and Satiety Summary and Action StepsREMEMBER THESE KEY POINTS FROM THIS SECTION:

✦ Include high-quality, minimally processed sources of each of the three macronutrients in every meal and most snacks: carbohydrate, protein, and healthy fat (nuts, seeds, avocado, etc.)

✦ Under-eating or not eating enough of a particular macronutrient will decrease your energy, increase your appetite, and compromise your recovery

✦ “Front-load” your food intake during the day so you eat more during the first half of the day. This helps curb late-afternoon and evening cravings

✦ Pay attention to your hunger signals: eat when you’re beginning to get hungry and stop when you’re full (this isn’t rocket science, but how many of us actually do this?)

✦ Include as many vegetables as possible at lunch and dinner (and breakfast if you’re an overachiever!)



✦ Record your food intake for 2-3 days - not specific measurements or anything involving calories, just notes like “two pieces toast with almond butter and banana.” Are any of your meals or snacks missing macro-nutrients? Think how you can change them to include more satisfying food.

✦ In your food-intake diary, add a column for hunger level (scale of 1-5) before you eat, satisfaction level after, and any emotions involved. This will help you to get more in tune with your hunger and fullness cues - and whether you are eating for hunger or emotional reasons.

✦ Have a bigger breakfast and lunch.


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✦ Prepare foods in advance to make these changes easier: chop vegetables/fruit, cook and slice meat (if applicable), cook a batch of whole grains, bake snack bars, etc.

This section challenges you to change your behavior. It’s critical to eat well-balanced meals and not “back-load” your day with too much food after lunch. For many, this is a big change from their current routine.

Yes, eating more vegetables and stopping eating when we’re full are no-brainer suggestions, but they’re ones that Anne sees the effectiveness of over and over again in her private practice.

Carefully evaluate what you eat, why you’re eating it, and when you eat it - then make improvements according to the principles in this section.


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Chapter 3: Eat Like a RunnerRUNNERS NEED TO EAT LIKE RUNNERS. Sounds like a not-so-novel concept, right?

But far too many runners eat like the general public and attempt to cut calories and carbohydrates in an effort to “be healthy” or lose weight.

And the result is almost always disastrous, resulting in low energy, sub-par training, and poor race results. Ultimately, reducing calories and carbohydrates diminishes your training capacity - or the amount you’re able to exercise.

But by eating like a runner and focusing on a diet rich in nutrient-dense foods that provide the fuel you need to boost your training capacity, you’ll be able to run more, train harder, and race faster. These in turn improve your body composition (and make you a better runner).

To illustrate this point, let’s look at a quick case study of the world’s best runners. They’re great examples of what works at the highest levels so we can learn from them and apply those lessons to our own nutrition and training.

Haile Gebrselassie is widely considered the best distance runner of all-time. With 27 world records, two Olympic gold medals, and eight world championship gold medals, his career has been prolific.

Nicknamed “The Emperor” because he was undefeated in the 5k and 10k for ten years, Gebrselassie has also been a world-class athlete for over 20 years.

A big part of his success was his diet, which has been reported to be almost exclusively carbohydrate with the exception of some meat.

And he’s not alone. A 2011 study of the diets of ten of Ethiopia’s best runners show that they eat about 2.5 times the amount of carbohydrate that the typical American eats.


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Before anyone complains that “I can’t do that, I’m not an elite runner” let’s remember that we are learning from their example, not imitating exactly what they do. The principle of eating adequate carbohydrate, despite currently popular low carb diets, rings true if you want to achieve your best in running.

To quote author Matt Fitzgerald:

“The dietary habits and training methods of the world’s best endurance athletes define what works. These athletes hold most of the records, they win most of the big races,

and they eat a lot of carbohydrates. We need no other proof that a high-carbohydrate diet is good for hard-

training endurance athletes.”

To not consume adequate carbohydrate is to compromise your training, under-fuel your vital workouts, and not reach your potential as a runner.

But let’s take a step back and look at why a runner’s diet is so important.

Fuel is a critical part of successful training. If you’re a runner (and we think you are, since you’re reading this), you need to eat like one - and that means fueling adequately, not only before and during runs, but during the rest of the day, too. Skimping on fuel will not only negatively impact your running performance, it can also lead to injury!

For example, did you know that stress fractures can often be linked to poor nutrition and lack of adequate refueling? While they are not 100% nutrition-related, they often are the result of a combination of very poor training habits and inadequate nutrition (especially for women, who unfortunately experience additional pressure to “control” their diet).

Also, women who don’t have normal menses may not be adequately refueling or could be potentially underweight. This is particularly dangerous for runners because amenorrheic (absence of menstruation) runners have a reduced amount of the hormones that play an important role in bone remodeling and density. Female runners lacking menstruation have a lower bone mass and increased risk of fracture than those with normal menstrual function.

This section isn’t just for women, though. The bottom line is that regardless of gender, if you’re underfueling, your body will have a harder time repairing damage to the bone


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(which can occur normally in daily training sessions). Over time, this damage can be one of the causes of a stress fracture.

Carbohydrates and FuelingThe body’s preferred fuel source is carbohydrate. It’s used easily and fuels high-intensity efforts like speed workouts and any running faster than an easy, comfortable jog.

If you don’t eat enough carbs, it’s like trying to drive your car without enough fuel. You simply won’t be able to reach your destination. And trying to drive without any fuel sure isn’t good for the engine!

So runners understandably need to make sure they are taking in adequate amounts of carbohydrate. The easiest way to do this without counting grams or calculating percentages is to make sure (as discussed in the previous section) to include a carbohydrate source at each meal.

Having eggs for breakfast? Add some toast or a piece of fruit. (And some avocado, while you’re at it, to get in healthy fat!)

Salad for lunch? Toss some grains on it! Anne loves adding 90-second microwave plain brown rice to salad, or leftover quinoa or other whole grains.

Looking for an easy carb choice at dinnertime? Poke a few holes in a sweet potato with a fork and pop it in the microwave for 5 to 10 minutes on high, or until tender and cooked through.

You’ve probably heard the term glycogen before - this is the storage form of carbohydrates in the body that is utilized during exercise as an energy source. Once glycogen is depleted, you will start to feel fatigued and your performance will suffer - this can also be called “hitting the wall” or “bonking” (most marathoners will understand this unpleasant situation!).

Maintaining adequate glycogen stores is therefore critical to endurance performance. Ensuring they’re well-stocked by including carbohydrates in your diet is therefore just as important as those track workouts.

It’s also important to note that faster workouts - like those track workouts we just mentioned - rely almost solely on carbs for fuel. The more intense and speedy your workout (or anaerobic, meaning “without oxygen”), the more you’ll rely on carbohydrate for fuel.


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Since there isn’t enough oxygen available during tough, fast workouts to use the oxidative pathway necessary to use fat as fuel, anaerobic exercise makes proper fueling with carbs even more important.

The Fueling section covers the nuances of eating before, during, and immediately after running. But it’s important to emphasize that your muscles are most responsive to nutrient intake during the first 30 minutes post exercise, which is why it’s important to refuel immediately after a workout.

Not only will refueling immediately re-stock your body’s energy stores and help your body get to work repairing and rebuilding, but it will also mean you’re less likely to overdo it later, because you aren’t putting your body into a nutrition deficit.

Let’s drive this point home one last time. The amount of glycogen (carbohydrate or fuel) you have on hand drops significantly after exercise, especially if you don’t refuel immediately.

In fact, glycogen synthesis will be reduced by 50% if carbohydrate consumption is delayed by two hours or more after a workout.

Similarly, protein is extremely important post-workout - without it, your body will start to break down (instead of rebuild) muscle tissue, leading to further muscle soreness and less than stellar future workouts, too.

Bottom line: listen to your hunger and fill up that plate with the sort of nutrient-packed whole, real food we discussed in the first chapter. Your body will thank you for the fuel... er... carbohydrate!


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Eat Like a Runner Summary and Action StepsREMEMBER THESE KEY POINTS FROM THIS SECTION:

✦ Not eating enough will result in poor running performances and recovery, and can potentially lead to more serious issues like amenorrhea or stress fractures.

✦ It’s critical to eat high-quality sources of carbohydrate at every meal and most snacks; it’s the “jet fuel” that propels your running



✦ Eat carbohydrates at every meal and most snacks

✦ Refuel (with carbs AND protein) as soon as possible after finishing your run - your energy levels later in the day, recovery, and how you feel on your next run depend on it

Refer to the meal plan and recipe guide for suggestions on specific foods, meals, and snacks to help you consume enough carbohydrate to fuel your running.


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Chapter 4: Train Smart to Achieve Your Goal WeightIT’S AN UNFORTUNATE REALITY that the more you run, the more you have to eat. Difficult news for runners who want to reach their goal weight!

Even if you don’t want to lose weight, most runners want to maintain their ideal weight to make running easier, race faster, and look good naked (let’s admit that this is never a bad thing!).

But after a long run or hard workout, you may feel like you could literally eat everything in the fridge. The ravenous hunger that accompanies strenuous running makes weight loss seem impossible when you’re training – even though it seems counter-intuitive.

Don’t worry though, it’s not: this phenomenon is referred to as the “compensation effect:” as mileage and intensity increase, your appetite triggers will become more sensitive because of hormonal changes in the body. In other words, exercise makes you feel hungrier and want to eat more.

So if that’s what happens when you run a lot, how can you accomplish both your weight loss and running goals?

Admittedly, it can be difficult for some runners. Especially because the compensation effect is stronger for some, actually causing weight gain during periods of heavy training.

But there are ways to control your cravings, get all the nutrition and fuel you need to run well, and lose weight. This section will discuss how running itself can promote a healthy weight.

First, we have to stop our fascination with “diets” and cutting calories - those strategies simply do not work for runners.


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If you cut calories or carbs while training heavily (like during marathon training), you’ll feel sluggish, have poor post-workout recovery, and may not be able to finish your most challenging workouts. Your ability to tolerate high training levels will be dramatically reduced. We covered this in the last section so it should be familiar to you.

This is the surest path to running slow races, decreasing your metabolism, and making the sport that we love a burden. Our goal is to help you avoid that!

Now you know that you can’t “diet” by cutting calories (or restricting carbohydrates) if you’re running, because you’ll run poorly. To lose weight (and keep it off), you have to train smart - which Jason says is a very rare thing for most runners!

Before we dive into this topic, an important disclaimer: we encourage runners to reach and maintain their “ideal” or “goal” weight. But we never want to encourage you to be underweight.

While less body weight will make you a faster runner (you’re not carrying extra pounds, after all), being under your ideal weight will compromise your recovery, reduce your capacity for mileage and workouts, and increase your fatigue levels and susceptibility for injuries.

Get to a healthy weight that’s right for your body - and no less.

How to “Train Smart”There’s comforting news for runners with weight loss goals: smart training can help you lose more weight than “just” running. When your training is designed properly with a race goal in mind, you’ll shed pounds faster than if you were just running for fun. (Not that it shouldn’t still be fun, but you know what we mean!)

But instead of this approach, most runners do the opposite: they exercise instead of train.

What’s the difference, you might ask?

Training differs in multiple ways. It has the following characteristics:

✦ Progressive (it builds on itself)

✦ Varied (it includes different paces, distances, and strength exercises)

✦ Goal-oriented (it culminates with a target race)


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Exercise is random: a collection of unrelated forms of exercise that promote general health, but aren’t geared toward a specific goal. Have you ever met a runner who:

✦ Attends a few different classes at the gym every week

✦ Does a long run… sometimes

✦ Rarely runs any speed workouts

✦ Usually sticks to the same pace for all runs

✦ Takes time off sporadically and doesn’t stick to a regular routine

Sound familiar? This hypothetical person is exercising - not training. Their schedule is completely ad hoc and unstructured.

With most runners simply exercising and not training, it’s not a surprise that many runners have difficulty losing weight. Their training isn’t structured to promote weight loss.

The combination of faster workouts, their progression, “extras” like strides and strength workouts, long runs, and even frequency of running all work together to help you lose weight. The training plans in this program (even those not geared specifically for weight loss) will massively contribute to any weight loss goals you have.

Ongoing exercise is also critical for weight management. People who have successfully lost weight and kept it off almost always exercise regularly. That’s why smart training is an integral piece to permanent weight loss, rather than “crash exercising” that typically results in gaining weight after the initial loss.

Our goal is to provide you with training that makes you a better runner, helps you run injury-free, and of course, maintains your optimal and healthy goal weight.

The 3 Principles of Running for Weight LossProgressive, goal-oriented training that progresses from week to week adheres to several principles that make weight loss easier. As you remove these elements from any training plan, losing weight becomes more difficult.

They are:

Duration: the length of your runs. We use long runs strategically to burn fat and stoke the metabolism.


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Most runners don’t do a regular long run - or simply aren’t running long enough. But interesting things happen inside the body after 1.5 - 2 hours of running, including:

✦ Fatiguing the slow-twitch muscles enough so the body then recruits fast-twitch muscles to handle the work (which is why long runs help you get faster)

✦ Increasing the “after-burn” nature of the workout (metabolic rate), meaning you burn more calories at rest after the run is complete

✦ More reliance on fat as a fuel source, improving overall fuel management (especially beneficial for marathon and ultramarathon runners)

Long runs are taxing so it’s recommended to only do one per week. Like any training tool, they should be used strategically and not be relied upon as the only method for becoming a better runner.

Intensity: the speed of your runs. With the recent popularity of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), particularly for weight loss, it’s clear that running fast has significant weight loss benefits.

But too many runners run in a middle-ground, “grey zone” of training where the effort isn’t easy or hard - it’s moderate.

Let’s not forget the principle of varied training. It’s critical to run a variety of paces throughout the week so you’re increasing your metabolic rate at different times. The training plans in this program have multiple paces assigned to each week to help you here.

Intense workouts do not have to be very long to achieve their desired effect, but they must challenge you to push yourself way outside your comfort zone. Two examples that work well are hill sprints and 1-minute repetitions (200 - 300m reps on a track work well, too).

Hill sprints are done at maximum intensity with full recovery - you can read more about them in the training plan section. Short repetitions like 300m reps on the track or 1-minute fartlek intervals (a “fartlek” workout is one where you speed up for time- or distance-based intervals - like 1 minute in this example) should be done at about 2-mile to 5k race pace. The key is to spike your heart rate during each repetition.

The reason high-intensity sessions work is because they increase your resting metabolic rate and post-exercise oxygen consumption. Numerous studies have shown high-intensity workouts to actually improve your VO2 max (but don’t make the mistake of


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thinking that will make you faster. VO2 max doesn’t necessarily correlate with performance!). If you’re pressed for time and can’t complete a long run, an intense workout on the hills or track will create a very similar exercise after-burn.

Frequency: how often you exercise per week. If you have a specific race goal or a weight loss goal, running/exercising just a few days per week is likely not enough running to reach your objectives.

While it can work, it’s not ideal. And our goal is to provide the smartest, most effective training to not only help you obtain your goal weight, but to become a better runner.

The more frequently you run (and include cross-training like cycling or strength training), the more frequently your metabolism will be increased. With more repeated metabolic spikes, losing weight will be easier since you’re burning more calories.

We recommend building to 4-5 days of running per week, plus additional cross-training and strength workouts. The frequency of your workouts contributes a steady, smaller metabolic effect to your weight loss efforts. Long runs and intense workouts provide a less frequent, but larger spike in metabolism.

The combination of frequent exercise, long-duration running, and intense workouts works to build your fitness and increase your metabolism so that weight loss becomes more realistic - and sustainable.

When you look at a running plan in this program, you’ll see why we had to include training plans. Without proper training, you’re only attacking proper weight management from one angle: diet and nutrition.

But being at your ideal, healthy weight is a critical component to racing well - and one of the top goals of many runners. Training in a progressive, race-oriented manner is the best way to structure your exercise to promote weight loss (and faster race times!).

VO2 Max is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption during exercise. Also called “maximal aerobic capacity” or “maximal oxygen consumption” it’s one of

many indicators of running performance.


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Train Smart to Reach Your Goal Weight Summary and Action StepsREMEMBER THESE KEY POINTS FROM THIS SECTION:

✦ Training is different than exercise. When you train, you’ll achieve your goal weight more easily because it is progressive, varied, and goal-oriented.

✦ The three components of smart training that most aid weight loss are duration, intensity, and frequency.



✦ Follow a training plan from this program; each is specifically designed to follow the “smart” training principles in this section.

Running fast, enjoying your training, and reaching your goal weight are all accomplished with better training. Properly structured programs that follow sound training practices will help you reach many more of your running (and weight) goals.

This is precisely why this nutrition program includes training plans - they’re integral for reaching and maintaining your ideal weight.

Train smart and enjoy the process!


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Chapter 5: Perfection is for Losers BEFORE WE MOVE ON to the mechanics of fueling your workouts, a word on perfection.

One of the most common diet misconceptions out there is that to be healthy, we ALWAYS have to eat healthy. We disagree!

Whether that’s Jason occasionally eating half a box of Milano Cookies (90+ miles a week burns a lot of calories!) or Anne enjoying pumpkin pie (her favorite dessert), neither of us strives for perfection.

Clearly we aren’t suggesting eating cake for every meal, but if you have decided that a certain treat is worth it, and you will be enjoying it for what it is (as opposed to using it to avoid other emotions like boredom or stress), then by all means, have it!

Life is too short to spend your days without the things you love, and ignoring or suppressing cravings will only make that food more appealing - and you more likely to overdo on it later.

Remember: It’s more important what you do most of the time than what you do some of the time.

That’s why our biggest tip is to place no food (or drink) off limits. We realize this is counter to most of the advice out there. But for the mindful and intuitive eating approach we’ve been sharing with you to work, you have to truly allow yourself to have whatever you want, and without guilt.

When a food is off limits it becomes MUCH more appealing. And if guilt is involved and you DO end up eating that food, the “screw it, I’ve already had a bite and ruined everything so I’m going to eat the entire thing” mentality appears.

Give yourself permission to get pleasure from food. Food is supposed to be fun, not stressful, remember?


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When you allow yourself to have treats if you really want them, and actually pay attention and savor them, a little bit does the trick. Anne’s clients often tell her that when a food was no longer forbidden and when they actually focused when they were eating it (instead of guiltily rushing through the experience), they realized they didn’t even enjoy it as much as they thought they did, or that after a few bites they had had enough of the treat.

Along the same lines, when you are indulging, do your best to have “real food” versions of your favorite treats, not diet imitations. Not only will they taste better, but they will be more satisfying, too, so you won’t need as much to feel full.

A good example of this is real, full-fat ice cream (and an ingredients label with only a handful of ingredients) instead of low-fat or diet/sugar-free ice cream.

If you buy Haagen-Dazs coffee ice cream, for example (which happens to be Anne’s favorite), you’ll be eating the following ingredients:

✦ Milk

✦ Cream

✦ Sugar

✦ Egg yolks

✦ Coffee

That’s it!

Next, let’s look at the ingredients list on diet ice cream:

✦ Skim milk

✦ Sugar

✦ Corn syrup

✦ Polydextrose

✦ Maltodextrin

✦ Propylene Glycol Monoesters (if you read this as “monsters” you’re not alone…)

✦ Mono and Diglycerides

✦ Cellulose gum

✦ Cream

✦ Carob bean gum

✦ Guar gum

✦ Natural flavor

✦ Carrageenan

✦ Ice structuring protein

✦ Vitamin A Palmitate

✦ Annatto (for color)


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With more than double the ingredients (and a lot of things you can’t pronounce), which would you rather have?

Occasional treats can (and should!) be enjoyed, but always try to have the real stuff instead of diet versions of foods. Imitation food is not only less healthy, it doesn’t taste as good!

All of this said, it’s important to stay on top of your hunger cues, as we’ve already discussed. It’s impossible to make sound eating decisions when you’re absolutely ravenous. If you’ve ever gone to the grocery store feeling starved, you know what we mean. Jason has been known to uncontrollably stuff a donut in his face (his favorite dessert) and sheepishly tell the cashier, “please add a donut - it didn’t make it…”

Perhaps even worse than letting yourself get too hungry is not enjoying the food or drink you’re indulging in because you’re too hungry to eat slowly and pay attention! Letting yourself get over-hungry is an easy way to end up uncomfortably full.

So if you’re going to eat an unhealthy food, do so when you’re not ravenous and slow down so you enjoy every bite!


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Perfection is for Losers Summary and Action StepsREMEMBER THESE KEY POINTS FROM THIS SECTION:

✦ You do not have to be perfect to be healthy or reach your goal weight! It’s okay to indulge occasionally on unhealthy food - in fact, we encourage it

✦ Always choose real, minimally processed versions of your treats when possible

✦ Slow down and enjoy your treats.

✦ Don’t let yourself get so hungry you ravenously scarf down the contents of the dessert table without enjoying each bite



✦ Don’t be perfect! Responsibly allow yourself occasional indulgences of “real food” desserts or treats. Just eat slowly enough so actually you enjoy them.

Be healthy and eat smart - but not all the time. Perfection is almost always the “enemy of the good” and can be counterproductive.

Pass the pie, please!


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How to Fuel for Workouts and Races

GETTING YOUR FUELING RIGHT can be enormously helpful for your running. With the right strategy, you’ll feel more energized during your workouts, perform at a higher level, and even recover faster.

But there’s a lot to plan: the right fuel, when to consume it, and what quantity are all critical. If you don’t get one thing right, you could end up with gastrointestinal issues, cramps, or simply not have enough gas in the tank to finish the big race at your goal pace.

We’ll talk about what type of food is recommended, how much you should eat, and also the optimal time to eat soon.

But first, we want to be clear that there is no 100% correct, universal rule for fueling. Some runners need calories during a 10k and have to eat something before a short morning run. Others can race a 10k with absolutely no fuel or run a morning 10 miler without any breakfast.

We’re all unique individuals with different needs and physiologies. So understand that your results will vary and that you will need to experiment to find what works specifically for you.


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In the following sections we’ll include ranges for time and calories. These are approximate answers based on what the current scientific literature says is ideal, plus what we’ve found to work with our private clients and for our own personal racing and training.

Remember that no fueling plan is set in stone. You can vary your routine during training to eat more, eat less, eat closer to your run, or eat different types of food. After some trial and error you’ll find what agrees with your stomach and what helps you run better.

All right, let’s talk specifics!

Get Energized: How to Plan Your Pre-Run FuelingThis section is for you if you’ve ever wondered what to eat before a run, how much to eat, and when to eat it.

For nearly every situation, it’s important to be properly fueled before a workout. After all, going into a workout without any fuel is like trying to start your car without putting any gas in the tank.

Carbohydrates are the ideal pre-workout fuel. They’re stored in the liver and muscles and are metabolized for energy while you're exercising - so replenishing those carbohydrate stores is key to keeping energy levels up during a workout!

Let’s also cover a few general rules:

✦ Give yourself 2-4 hours after a full meal before you go running.

✦ The less you eat, the sooner you can go running because there’s less to digest.

✦ The more fat and protein in your meal, the more time you need to give yourself before running (it takes longer to exit your stomach and digest).

These rules are most applicable to folks who run mid-day (like during a lunch hour) or after work. It’s important to give yourself time to digest your last meal before you start running - or else you risk seeing it again on the side of the road or feeling sick.

For those of us who prefer to run in the morning, these rules don’t apply unless you wake up really early to eat a full breakfast before your run. But most morning runners simply don’t have time for that, so there are two options:


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1. Eat a small snack before you leave. This is the best option if you’re running longer (75-90+ minutes) or doing a faster workout that requires a lot of effort.

A small amount of carbohydrate can help you perform better, feel more energized for the run, and speed along the recovery process since you’re not exercising after an overnight fast.

Simple foods that are easy to digest are your best options because they provide quick fuel and post the least risk for upsetting your stomach.

Good options here are a banana with a little nut butter, toast or a bagel with nut butter and jelly, or a granola bar/baked good that is lower in fat and protein. Other favorites include:

✦ Berries and other fruit

✦ Dates

✦ Dried fruit like raisins

✦ Oatmeal / Quinoa flakes

✦ Gel / Energy bar

✦ Sports drink

See the Meal Guide for some make-ahead recipe ideas that are great pre-workout meals/snacks.

Here’s a helpful table outlining the quantity of fuel needed before different types of morning runs:


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The number of calories needed is an estimate. Because we hate counting calories, it’s used simply to illustrate the amount of food you should eat. The actual number will depend on how much you ate the night before (a big, carb-heavy meal will make it less necessary to eat the next morning before a run) and therefore how hungry you are when you wake up, your body weight, and your particular needs as a runner.

Since we’re all individuals and respond differently to various types of foods, it’s critical to experiment and find what foods and brands you like that agree with your stomach. Some runners can’t stomach dates while others crave bananas. If you prefer toast and oatmeal makes you nauseated, then learn from that and eat more toast!

2. Eat nothing and just go run. If you’re doing a relatively short or easy run, this option works as well. You don’t need to fuel before every morning run, and it’s important to do what makes you feel best.

If your workout is relatively short (less than an hour) and at an easy effort, you can experiment with not eating anything beforehand. As always, we’re all unique so see if this strategy works for you. If it doesn’t, have a small snack even if it’s immediately before you start running.

Our Favorite PED: Coffee!We can’t talk about pre-run fueling without talking about coffee. It’s our favorite performance enhancing drug and best of all, it’s entirely legal.

The caffeine in coffee is a proven performance enhancer, having been studied extensively for decades. And the results are extraordinary: study after study shows that caffeine improves your ability to work harder.

Drinking coffee strategically can definitely make you a faster runner. A recent British study that was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology has shown that caffeine consumption can improve athletic performance in endurance activities like distance running.

Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky of McMaster University in Canada is incredulous that anyone could even be on the fence about consuming caffeine for improved performance. “There is so much data on this that it’s unbelievable. It’s just unequivocal that caffeine improves performance. It’s been shown in well-respected labs in multiple places around the world,” he noted.


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So how does it make you faster? There are several theories:

1. Caffeine improves the body’s ability to burn fat, sparing glucose for late in the race when it’s most needed.

2. Caffeine releases calcium into the muscles, increasing their power output and enabling you to race longer and faster.

3. Caffeine affects your brain’s interpretation of exhaustion – essentially tricking you to think you can run faster even when you’re tired.

4. Caffeine improves focus so you can be more attentive to racing and less likely to be distracted.

5. Caffeine stimulates the release of adrenal hormones like cortisol and epinephrine, which help with delaying fatigue, increasing alertness, and decreasing your perception of pain

Even elite athletes understand the benefits of caffeine and regularly take advantage of coffee: Americans Ryan Hall, Josh Cox, and Meb Keflezighi all drink coffee regularly to help them with tough workouts and races.

Hundreds of studies, anecdotal evidence from thousands of runners, and the behavior of the elites agree that coffee can help your running. Most studies find that the average performance improvement in a race situation is about 1-3% - with more benefits for longer races than shorter races. This is a potentially large improvement as a four-hour marathoner could run about 5 minutes faster with caffeine!

And of course, there is potentially the placebo effect, as well - if you believe caffeine will help you to run faster, it will. Don’t underestimate the power of your mind!

That said, it’s up to you whether or not to drink coffee before a run.

While it can improve your performance, it does stimulate soft muscle tissue (like that in your colon), often making you need to use the bathroom. For some runners, this is great if you can time it well before you leave for your morning run. For others, its effects might cause a mid-run pit stop.

Timing and Dosage of CaffeineJust like finding the foods and quantities that agree with you is an experiment, so is coffee consumption before a run. If you’re a regular coffee drinker, caffeine intake pre-run shouldn’t present any mid-run problems. But if you’re new to coffee, start with a small amount to see how you feel. You can always adjust the amount on subsequent runs.


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Most runners will experience the benefits of caffeine after consuming 100-200mg of caffeine 60-90 minutes before a run or race. To calculate your specific needs, ingest about 0.5 - 1 mg of caffeine per pound (1-3 mg per kilogram) of body weight before your workout. For a 150 pound athlete, this is about 75-150 mg of caffeine.

For comparison, a “tall” (small) brewed cup of coffee from Starbucks has 260mg of caffeine while the same size Americano has 150mg. A shot of espresso has about 65mg. Running gels with caffeine usually have about 50mg, but the amount may vary based on the brand.

Remember that only a moderate amount of caffeine is necessary to get the benefits we’ve discussed. Increasing the dosage won’t provide additional benefits but it could lead to gastrointestinal distress.

Caffeine has a “half life” of about four hours - or in other words, half the caffeine you ingest will be present in your body four hours later. So your window of performance after ingesting caffeine is about four hours (you want to compete while caffeine levels are at their peak).

For a marathoner hoping to run 3:00 hours, drinking a cup of coffee one hour before the start is all that’s necessary to benefit from caffeine. Slower runners will need to consume an additional 25-50mg around the halfway point of the race - this is where one of those gels with caffeine added can come in handy.

Coffee Myths ExposedWe’ve all heard the warnings around drinking coffee: it dehydrates you, doesn’t “count” as fluid in your diet, and can be a diuretic.

In the last decade, these statements have been proved false by the scientific community. At moderate intake levels, coffee doesn’t act as a diuretic and dehydrate you. The most recent studies looked at a longer time period (usually 24 hours) and found no adverse effects.

Previous studies only measured urine production a few hours after ingesting caffeine, didn’t compare coffee drinkers to water drinkers, and also used very high doses of caffeine that wouldn’t normally be consumed.

As long as you drink a moderate amount of coffee, the caffeine should present no problems and you’ll gain all the benefits of one of the best performance-enhancing substances available.


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Eating on the Run: How to Fuel While RunningEating during a run is less common than eating before or after running. Most runners will only need to eat during long runs and difficult workouts. We’ll cover how to fuel during a race in a later section.

To determine whether you need to eat during a training run, let’s look at both the duration and intensity of the workout.

Less than 60 minutes; easy-moderate effort. You probably don’t need to eat anything during a run of this duration and intensity - especially if you ate something before you started.

Less than 60 minutes; moderate-hard effort. You probably don’t need to eat anything during this type of run either. But if the intensity will be moderate-hard, then it’s recommended to eat something before the run.

60-90 minutes; easy-moderate effort. You may need to eat something during a run of this length. First, try to finish the run with no mid-run fueling to see how you feel. If after several runs like this with no fuel you feel lethargic or have low energy, you should eat something about halfway through the run.

60-90 minutes; moderate-hard effort. You probably need to eat something during a run of this length and intensity. About halfway through the run, eat a small snack.

90-120 minutes; easy-moderate effort. You probably need to eat something during a run of this length and intensity. About halfway through the run, eat a small snack.

90-120 minutes; moderate-hard effort. You will need to eat 2-3 times during a run of this length and intensity.

Space the fuel evenly throughout the run, like this for a 90min workout:

✦ 30min mark: small snack


Or like this for a 120min workout:


✦ 60min mark; small snack

✦ 90min mark; small snack


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120+ minutes; any intensity. You will need to eat at least 2-3 times during a run of this length to fuel properly and optimize your performance and how you feel. Many runners will find that they need to eat something every 30 minutes during a very long run or workout.

Now that you know the types of runs where you will likely need to eat something, what are the best food choices?

Many of the same foods that you can eat before a run are great choices mid-run, like gels, dates, dried fruit, bananas, or even granola bars (go for those lower in fat and protein for reasons already discussed). During exercise, immediate energy is helpful, so you'll want simple carbohydrates that are easily and quickly digested and turned into fuel for energy.

But as the intensity level of your run increases, you must exercise more caution with your food choices. Simpler carbohydrates like gels or sports drinks are much easier to digest and will cause fewer gastrointestinal problems than more complex foods that have more fiber, like energy bars or berries.

As we mentioned previously, during workouts is the one case where we do recommend having some idea of your calorie intake. It’s extremely hard to eat intuitively when you’re in the middle of a long run, and it’s critical that you’re taking in enough fuel and fluid to safely finish your workout. That said, once you get an idea of how your favorite fuels fit into these ranges, you can work on a more intuitive approach within the recommended ranges. Here is an easy formula you can use to determine how much to take in during a run:

✦ Body weight in pounds: ________ / 4 = ______ approx carb grams needed per hour

Mid-run food choices should include mostly simple carbohydrates that are easy to digest, simple to eat, and less likely to upset your stomach. The additional carbohydrate keeps your muscle and blood glucose levels stable, which makes your workout seem easier, improves your recovery, and enhances performance.

Sports drinks are also a great option (see our homemade natural sports drink recipe in the meal guide) that include the carbohydrates you need for energy and fluids and electrolytes (like sodium) for hydration. If you're headed out for a longer run or workout, you might want to combine real food with sports drinks and water to keep energy up.


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As you exercise and sweat, you lose fluids and sodium, so it's also important to replenish these while you're working out if you'll be out there for 90 minutes or more.

To stay adequately hydrated, take in about 16 to 20 oz. (~475 to 600 mL) of water/fluid per hour. Avoid flavored waters & soda (which are acidic, high in sugar, and low in electrolytes and nutrients). This number will vary based on how much you sweat and how hot it is outside, but it’s a good starting place and you can adjust as needed. Depending how heavy and salty your sweat is, you may also need to take in some sodium. We recommend between 200 to 500 mg sodium every hour (for every 25 oz. of plain water). As a reference, ¼ tsp salt will equal 575 mg sodium.

See the meal guide and recipe section for some during-exercise recipes to try.

Eat to Recover: Post-Run FuelingEating soon after a run is critical for the recovery process. Studies have shown that the sooner you consume calories, the faster you’ll recover. More specifically, you will:

✦ restock depleted glycogen stores (so there’s enough fuel for the next workout)

✦ repair damaged muscle fibers, reducing delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS)

The refueling window after a run is relatively short: it’s best to eat a meal or snack within 30 minutes of finishing a workout. However, some believe there is a short window of 5-10 minutes after a workout when the body is hyper-sensitive to nutrients. During this window, the body restocks glycogen much more rapidly because it’s more sensitive to replenishment.

We recommend eating as soon as possible after a run - and the sooner the better after a particularly hard or long run. Nutrients simply don’t have the same effect if they are consumed hours after a workout, resulting in less energy throughout the day and reduced performance during the next run. Not refueling properly or quickly enough will also increase cravings throughout the rest of the day, so do yourself a favor and eat up.

If you’re under-eating, your muscles are not adequately being repaired after long runs. That means your training could actually hurt more than it helps, and under-fueling can lead to stress fractures from weak bones, too.

Our “Whole Food Philosophy” is particularly important for full meals and post-run fueling. So while you could grab an energy bar or swig a sports drink, there are better alternatives – though any source of carbs is better than none after a hard workout!


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Studies indicate that a 4:1 ratio of carbohydrate to protein is ideal for the recovery process, especially after a challenging run. Chocolate milk has this ratio, which is why you see it touted as an ideal post-run beverage. But it’s important not to get consumed with this ratio - it’s a guideline that simply shows runners need more carbohydrate than protein after a tough workout.

Focus on foods rich in carbs and protein, like yogurt, fruit, and granola, or eggs and toast, or even an omelette with veggies and fruit. Another favorite is the Perfect Microwave Banana Oatmeal recipe in this e-book topped with cottage cheese for an extra protein boost (it sounds weird but it tastes great).

The meal guide and recipe section included in this program has many recipes that you can follow for post-run meals and snacks. But some of our favorites that are super easy to prepare include:

✦ Fruit smoothies with a scoop of protein powder (choose one without added sugar – artificial or real – and with a very short ingredient list)

✦ Trail mix (with dried fruit instead of candy and no added sugar)

✦ Chicken or tuna sandwich

✦ Greek yogurt with berries

These mini-meals/snacks include both carbohydrate and protein. Studies have shown that eating both macronutrients together restocks glycogen levels more than eating carbs alone - exactly what you want when refueling after a tough workout.

Just like it’s more important to eat during a very long or difficult workout, it becomes more important to refuel properly - and quickly - after a similar workout that depletes your carbohydrate stores and damages your muscles.

Sometimes you might feel queasy after a run because you ate too many gels or pushed yourself to a high level of fatigue. In this case, it’s best to stick to foods that take a little while longer to digest like cream of wheat with milk or a banana. These foods will stay in your stomach for a longer period of time, reducing queasiness and indigestion from stomach acid. Another option is to try liquid nutrition first and a real meal after your stomach has settled.

Refueling after every difficult workout is one of the best ways to maximize your recovery, reduce fatigue and sluggishness, feel energized for the following run, and keep your metabolism stoked to meet any weight loss goals you might have.


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Fueling for RacesThere are subtle differences between fueling for training runs and fueling for races so we want to devote an entire section to this topic. Particularly for the longer race distances like half marathon and marathon, your race fueling strategy is critical; we’ll be providing sample fueling plans for both race distances.

Before we begin, let’s cover some race fueling basics.

Types of Carbohydrate: There are two types of carbohydrate that are necessary for optimal fueling: glucose and fructose, both of which are absorbed by your body at different rates, though they provide the same amount of energy per gram. Most commercial energy gels and chews these days contain a combination of both.

The most valuable indication of carbohydrate use during exercise is the glycemic index (GI), which measures how quickly carbohydrates will be digested and deliver energy. Foods with a low GI will produce long-lasting, sustained energy, as they are digested at a slower rate. Foods with a higher GI will result in quickly-released energy because they are digested at a faster rate. High glycemic sugars can result in a "crash" after the initial rush of energy, so it is important to provide a steady stream of sugars to result in long-lasting energy during exercise.

Combining glucose with fructose and complex carbohydrates results in immediate energy release followed by gradual energy release, and finally sustained energy release, resulting in an effective energy-releasing formula to keep you going throughout exercise.

In the energy gel recipe in this e-book, we use brown rice syrup and honey, which is an example of an ideal combination for energy during a long run. Brown rice syrup is comprised of approximately 50% complex carbohydrates (lower GI), which are slowly digested and result in delayed energy release, and 50% maltose (higher GI), which is quickly broken down into glucose, resulting in immediate energy production. Honey is a sugar source high in fructose, which allows for progressive energy release.

If you’re eating commercial gels or chews, don’t worry about balancing the types of carbohydrates as the manufacturers have done that for you. For example, here is the ingredient list for a Clif Shot Gel, mocha flavor: Organic Maltodextrin, Organic Dried Cane Syrup, Water, Organic Cocoa (Processed with Alkali), Coffee Extract, Natural Flavor, Sea Salt, Green Tea Extract (Contains Caffeine), Potassium Citrate. Maltodextrin is a form of glucose (basically a bunch of glucose molecules put together); the other sweetener, cane syrup, is mostly sucrose, which is a combination of glucose and fructose.


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This table shows the amount of total carbohydrate in the major energy fuels:

While rich in carbohydrates, these fuel sources contain no or very little protein. A small amount of protein intake during exercise has been shown to improve recovery, but it’s best to avoid foods that contain significant amounts of protein (e.g. no more than a few grams of protein/serving) during a race. Protein slows digestion (how quickly your body absorbs carbohydrate) and won’t directly provide energy to help you maintain your pace. That said, you may find it beneficial to include a little protein during endurance runs, especially once you are over 15 miles in.

Practice Makes Perfect: As always, never try something new on race day! This holds especially true for your fueling strategy, which should be practiced several times during training with the same fuel choices and schedule. You should understand exactly what you’ll be consuming on race day:

✦ Brand and flavor of fuel

✦ Type of fuel: gels, blocks, beans, chews, bars, etc.

✦ How much to eat per hour and at what intervals

✦ Hydration needs (this varies significantly)

Fueling during faster workouts can also help your body adjust to processing calories while stressed. It’s a mistake to only practice fueling while running an easy long run, so ingest your preferred fuel during a tempo run or marathon-pace workout as well to see how it sits.

But the amount and frequency of food you eat aren’t the only things to practice. Review the aid stations for your goal race and be able to answer these questions:

✦ Will I carry my own water/sport drink or rely on the aid stations for fluids?

✦ What type of fluid is served at each aid station?


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✦ Will I walk or run through the aid stations?

✦ What foods are offered at the aid stations?

When you can answer these questions, the next step is to practice during training. Use the same water bottle (or hydration pack), or, if planning to use aid stations on race day, practice drinking from a cup while running. Try setting up a table with water cups at a track or have your kids volunteer to hand you cups of fluid to practice, and make sure you eat and drink the same fluids you will on race day.

Experiment Early and Write it Down: It can be easy to forget how certain food choices and eating schedules made you feel, so it’s important to write everything down in your training journal.

Make a Spout with Paper Cups: This is a learned skill that takes some practice! The best option for drinking a paper cup of fluid while running is to squeeze the top of the cup to form a “spout” from the rim. Slowly sip the fluid and don’t rush - there’s no need to gulp it all down in a few seconds.

Drink to Thirst: There’s a reason we don’t give specific amounts of fluid to consume during a race: it varies dramatically based on your individual sweat rate, weight, air temperature, and humidity. The best strategy is to drink to thirst; your thirst mechanism is outstanding and is rarely wrong, though older athletes may have a compromised thirst mechanism so that should be addressed.

You don’t have to replace 100% of the fluids you lose during a race (this is a popular myth). In fact, dehydration levels of 2-5% are normal and nothing to be concerned with. Elite marathoners often reach the finish line 6% dehydrated! Just make sure you start a race well hydrated with pale yellow or straw-colored urine and then drink to thirst during the race, consuming roughly 8-24oz of fluid per hour based on the many factors we mentioned previously. If you feel overly thirsty throughout the race, you aren’t drinking enough.

Now we’ll focus on how to fuel before, during, and after the major race distances: 5k, 10k, half marathon, and marathon. Let’s start with the shorter distances.

5k and 10k Race FuelingThe 5k and 10k race distances are relatively short so you don’t need a structured fueling strategy before and during the race.

At only 3.1 miles, you don’t need to consume any fuel during a 5k race. You have plenty of carbohydrate already stored in your muscles to carry you across the finish line


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feeling strong. The vast majority of runners won’t need any fuel during a 10k either - but if your finish time is over 65-70 minutes, it’s recommended to consume a gel (or equivalent) halfway through the race.

To truly optimize your performance (and how you feel!) for both race distances, you’ll want to eat a carby pre-race meal 2-4 hours before the race to make sure your body is well fueled.

Review the recipes for breakfast and pre-race meal ideas in the Cookbook. These are optimal meals that will give you the right ratio of macronutrients, calories, and carbs (without you having to calculate it yourself - who wants to do that?!).

Pre-race meals for the 5k and 10k should include:

✦ High-carb, low-fat foods that are easy to digest and provide the fuel you need (oatmeal, bananas, toast)

✦ If your meal comes two hours or less before the race (I.e., you get up at 5am for a 7am race start), eat a small breakfast of 200-300 calories

✦ If you have more than two hours before the race, you can afford to eat slightly more. You don’t want to be hungry on the starting line.

Since the 5k and 10k are relatively short events, fueling and race nutrition are less important. The calorie needs are relatively low and if you don’t get it perfect, the race will be over soon so there’s relatively no harm done!

After the race, consume 100-300 calories to help jump-start the recovery process as soon as possible. Effective options include energy bars, bananas, chocolate milk, and sports drink.But within an hour you should eat a full meal that includes complex carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats (see the recipes and meal guide for ideas). While races are more difficult than training runs, the calorie expenditure is similar and only requires small changes to your normal diet.

Both the 5k and 10k are high-octane events - they’re fast, speedy, and require some carbohydrate to fuel the race. But they’re not long enough to require a structured nutrition or fueling approach. Have a small or medium breakfast and a healthy meal after the race and you’re good to go!


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Half Marathon FuelingNow that we’re moving up in distance, fueling becomes much more important during a half marathon than a 5k or 10k. Just like many runners hit the wall around mile 20 during a marathon, many also feel a similar “bonk” around the 10-mile mark of a half.

Unlike the marathon where it’s recommended to truly maximize your carbohydrate stores, you don’t have to follow a structured carb-loading protocol before a half. Instead, there are several ways to ensure you’re properly fueled:

✦ Dinner the night before the race should include 2-3 different sources of carbohydrate. Examples include rice, sweet potatoes, quinoa, pasta, and beans. This ensures you’re topping off your carb stores with multiple complex sources of carbohydrates.

✦ Your pre-race breakfast should be on the larger side, consumed at least 3 hours before the start. Focus on high-carbohydrate foods like oatmeal, bananas, toast, etc.

As always, never experiment with new foods the morning of or night before your race. Eat foods that agree with your stomach and won’t present unknown digestive side effects. Plain, low-fat, low-protein foods are easily digested and increase your glycogen levels - perfect for a pre-race meal.

During the race, most runners should eat 2-3 gels (or equivalent), spaced evenly throughout. A good goal is about 30g of carbohydrate per hour of racing, which is all that’s needed to optimize performance.

Below is a sample fueling schedule for a half marathoner trying to run a 2:00 finish time:

Marathon Fueling: Time to Get Serious!The unfortunate reality is that most runners don’t fuel properly for the marathon. In 2009, researchers in Great Britain studied over 250 middle-of-the-pack runners at the London Marathon. And they found that the vast majority of runners under-fueled the day before the race - the most important time for boosting carbohydrate stores.


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The runners who ate seven grams of carbohydrate or more for every kilogram (2.2 pounds) of bodyweight ran more than 13% faster than those who ate less than seven grams. But only 12% of runners ate enough carbs the day before the race!

And it showed: while the group that consumed enough carbs performed 13% better, those who didn’t slowed down the most.

The researchers recommend to actually eat more than seven grams per kilogram of bodyweight: they tell their athletes to shoot for 10g per kg of bodyweight the day before the race.

So what does this study indicate? First, fueling REALLY matters before a marathon! A carb-loading strategy should be employed during the two days before the race to optimize your fuel stores.

Follow these principles during the two days before the marathon:

✦ Your goal should be 7-10g of carbohydrate for every kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight. A 150-pound runner needs about 480 - 680g of carbs the day before a marathon to race at her potential.

✦ Eat carbohydrates during every meal. Focus on complex carbohydrates like yams, wild/brown rice, quinoa, bread, and fruit.

✦ Drink 1-2 liters (32-64 ounces) of sports drink to supplement your carb intake.

✦ Snack often: fruit is a good option but you can also include more questionable foods like granola bars, juice, and pretzels.

It’s also important to remember that you won’t have time to digest an enormous meal the night before a marathon. Instead, eat a reasonable meal and avoid gorging yourself on pasta or other carbohydrates. While a sensible meal is preferred the night before the race, your biggest meal should be two nights before the race.

See the Meal Plan section to review a sample carb-loading diet for a marathoner.

Now that we’ve covered fueling before a marathon, how do you fuel during a marathon?

The latest research indicates it’s ideal to eat 45-60g of carbohydrate per hour during the marathon. The simplest way to meet this quote is to consume calories twice per hour at 30-minute intervals.


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Two standard gels per hour will provide enough carbohydrates for most runners. If you find your fuel needs are higher, you can also drink some sports drink in addition to water with each gel.

Below is a sample fueling schedule for marathoner hoping to finish the race with a 4:00 hour finish time. For simplicity, we’ve just included gels, but you may want to consider alternative sources of fuel as well, depending on preference. Anne finds that she runs best with a couple gels early in the race, but prefers to finish the second half of a marathon by fueling with real food like lower fiber/protein/fat granola bars, and dates stuffed nut butter (recipe included in this ebook). Check the meal guide for during exercise fuel recipes and ideas!

Many runners find that too many gels or other processed foods during a marathon make them queasy or nauseous so it’s critical to experiment during training to find what works for you. Practicing your fueling strategy during a long run with the same foods you will eat on race day will help you understand how each impacts your stomach.

Eating while running is a learned skill so don’t become discouraged if you have trouble eating several gels during a training run. Practice often so you can fine-tune your strategy before the big race.

Fueling Q-and-AWe polled our readers, asking them to submit their most pressing nutrition and diet questions. This section includes the top questions we received. Enjoy!

During a marathon, should I consume sports drink AND gels or some other combination of water, gels, and sports drink?


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This is a GREAT question because most runners get this wrong on race day and their performance unnecessarily suffers. When you eat a few gels and only drink sports drink while running, your body is ingesting a large amount of electrolytes from both sources.

This can be problematic because your body needs water to process all those electrolytes and there’s usually not enough water in the sports drink. To compensate, your body pulls water from your working muscles and you get dehydrated much more quickly.

To avoid this situation, it’s best to drink water with gels and other in-race fueling options that are high in electrolytes like sodium and potassium. Those with a sensitive stomach who can’t handle as many gels can alternate between a gel with water and sports drink by itself during a marathon or half marathon.

A helpful illustration of this phenomenon is to notice how many runners are salty and dehydrated after a longer race. Their skin takes on a gray hue, they stop sweating, and their face is covered in a salty crust. This happens because they’ve consumed too many electrolytes (mostly salt from salt sticks, gels, and sports drinks) and not enough water.

Dehydration is made worse by runners not getting enough fluid and consuming too many electrolytes. Instead, it’s best to strike a balance between water and gels - or just sports drinks.

Should I use gels that have caffeine in them?Oh caffeine, how we love this incredible drug. It has been studied for decades and the results are conclusive: caffeine is a proven performance enhancer (and it’s legal, too!).

As we’ve already discussed, caffeine can help you run faster through several mechanisms:

✦ It changes how your brain perceives pain and fatigue. You don’t think you’re as tired as you really are!

✦ It makes your muscle contract more forcefully with the same effort

✦ It increases your focus

For these reasons, you won’t see Jason racing under-caffeinated. And he most certainly uses caffeinated gels during a marathon!

Even though caffeine is proven to help runners perform at a higher level, there is a downside: it stimulates smooth muscle tissue, the same type of muscle that’s in your gastrointestinal tract. This is why a cup of coffee can cause a bowel movement.


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That’s great before a race, but the last thing you want during a race is to run to a portable toilet because you’ve ingested too much caffeine.

The solution is to know how you respond to caffeine. If you’re sensitive to its effects, a small cup of coffee 1-2 hours before the race might be all you need - and will give you enough time to use the bathroom before the starting gun.

If you have a tolerance to caffeine, you may want to use caffeinated gels during your race. There are two options: consuming a caffeinated gel during every fueling interval or alternating with standard gels. This strategy reduces your total caffeine consumption and limits the risk of GI distress and unnecessary bathroom stops.

As always, experiment with your fueling strategy beforehand during a long run so you know exactly how much is enough - and how much caffeine is too much. See the beginning of this section where we cover caffeine intake in more detail.

When should I stop drinking before a marathon?Most runners need at least a half hour without consuming any fluids to empty their bladder and reduce the number of bathroom stops during a race. Some runners may need up to an hour.

A helpful strategy for both ensuring you’re well hydrated but also not over-hydrated is to stop drinking one hour before the start of your race. Take small sips of water a few times before the start, but limit your fluid intake to about 4-6 ounces total in the hour before the race.

Just like fueling for a marathon mostly occurs the day before the race, hydrating occurs the day before and during the hours leading up to the race. There’s no need to be guzzling water or sports drink at the starting line of the marathon.


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Ask the Dietitian: Nutrition Q-and-A WELCOME TO A SPECIAL SECTION that focuses on the most important questions about diet, nutrition, and weight loss.

While researching this program for nearly a year, we uncovered many hot-button topics surrounding nutrition and weight loss (like the effects of fasted long runs, alcohol, and salt cravings).

This collection of Q&A will give more perspective and a deeper understanding of these issues so you can better plan your nutrition strategy.

What is the impact of sleep on weight management?Getting an adequate amount of sleep is critical to your running performance, general health and well-being, and also your weight. Its importance can’t be overstated. Here are a few sobering facts about how sleep affects your weight and appetite:

✦ If you don’t get enough sleep, food will seem more rewarding. For the real science nerds, “acute sleep loss enhances hedonic stimulus processing in the brain underlying the drive to consume food.” In simpler terms: lack of sleep up-regulates a hormone called ghrelin that makes you hungry. (source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC535701/)

✦ Sleep deprivation causes you to over-estimate appropriate portion sizes.

✦ The same study as above also shows missed sleep can cause you to favor unhealthy, high-calorie food. Other research shows this is because willpower is reduced in sleep-deprived people.

Prioritize sleep by getting at least 7 hours per night and setting up a bed-time ritual. Our favorite strategies:

✦ No screen-time (TV, laptop, smartphone, iPad, etc.) within an hour of going to bed. The blue light from screens negatively affects your circadian rhythm.

✦ Read 30 minutes of fiction immediately before bed to quiet your mind and relax.


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✦ Go to bed at roughly the same time every night to promote a routine.

✦ Use blackout curtains to block any light coming through your windows (although this can make it harder to get up in the morning).

To reach your goal weight, sleep becomes an important tool in your weight loss arsenal. More sleep will properly regulate your hunger hormones, so you’ll feel satisfied and make better food choices.

What are the best clean carb sources for runners?We don’t love the word “clean”, as it attaches a sort of guilt to foods that are not nutritionally perfect, and in our opinion being healthy means not ALWAYS being healthy. That said, there are certainly some carb choices that are more nutritious than others.

The goal with carbs is to aim for the least processed form possible, because in general the more processed or refined a food is, the less nutrients it will have. So instead of instant oatmeal, go for rolled (old fashioned) or steel-cut oats. Instead of white rice, have brown. Instead of refined flour, aim for a whole grain or 100% whole wheat flour Whole wheat pastry flour and white whole wheat flours are favorites of ours for baking, since they have a nice soft texture).

Tip: if you only have regular whole wheat flour vs. whole wheat pastry flour, run the whole wheat flour through a blender for a few cycles – it will make the final baked good less dense.

Starchy vegetables, like potatoes, peas, and corn, are also an excellent source of carbs for athletes because they pack a multitude of other nutrients beyond just the carbohydrates. Fruit (we runners love our bananas) and beans are also great carb choices for athletes.

What is low, moderate, and high carb? “I want to continue with weight loss but have enough energy for my runs.”There isn’t a clear consensus in terms of the amount of grams that constitutes low, moderate and high carb diets.

The AMDR (Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range) recommendation for carbs is 45-65% of your diet, which is between 225 and 325 grams per day for someone on a 2,000 calorie diet. Some people consider anything under that range technically low carb, although most low carb diets limit carbohydrate intake to anywhere from 50 to 150 grams per day.


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We don’t recommend low carb diets in general, but especially to athletes, as they aren’t sustainable in the long term and you need to ensure you are adequately fueling for exercise. Instead, focus on improving the quality of your carbs (as discussed in the previous question) by increasing real food carb intake and decreasing added sugar and refined flour.

I’m craving a lot of salt - is this normal and should I satisfy that craving?This is normal! And you should certainly listen to the craving - it is your body’s way of telling you it needs more salt. Salt cravings are common in athletes, especially long distance runners, since we lose so much salt through our sweat.

If you find yourself craving salt (this is especially common after long, sweaty runs), add a few extra shakes to your meals, and consider taking a closer look at your sodium intake during runs, too. (More on that in the fueling section.) It’s hard to overdo it on sodium, especially as an athlete who is sweating a lot, unless you are eating a lot of processed foods (e.g. canned soup, frozen dinners), so don’t be scared to use the salt shaker.

Does the body get accustomed to fuel needs over time? In other words, will I need less calories as I get in better shape?The answer to this question is a bit complicated. Weighing less means that you will burn less calories during your workouts, so you will likely need less calories to refuel. That said, muscle burns more calories than fat, so you could be improving your metabolic rate (e.g. calorie burning potential) even if you are losing weight as long as you are gaining muscle.

Another thing to consider is that the body gets more efficient if it is doing the same exercise - so the same workout will not be as challenging for your body after you’ve done it several times and have adapted to that particular stress. This is why if weight loss (and performance improvement) is your goal, you need to make sure you are varying your workouts or you will plateau - both in terms of athletic performance and weight loss.

Do I need supplements? If so, which ones and when should I take them?In general, if you are not looking to become pregnant, do not have a medical condition that impairs nutrient absorption, and eat a balanced, varied diet, supplements are not necessary.

If you are taking an excess of the water soluble vitamins (the B vitamins and vitamin C), your body will simply discard that which it does not need (via the urine). The fat soluble


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vitamins (vitamins A, D, E, and K), on the other hand, can be harmful to take in excess amounts; because the body stores them, and taking in too much can lead to toxicity. Remember: too much of a good thing is still too much!

It’s also helpful to consider several studies that show mega-doses of antioxidants (like Vitamin E or Vitamin C) actually block training gains. In other words, you won’t adapt as well to the workout if you also consume high levels of antioxidants, preventing from you from developing your fitness as high as it could be without antioxidant supplementation.

Of course, whether you individually need supplementation due to a deficiency is something to discuss with your doctor, following blood work.

Can I drink coffee or tea with caffeine? How does that impact running and weight loss?Yes, absolutely! Both coffee and tea won’t hurt your weight loss or running goals. In fact, they could help.

Caffeine is a proven performance enhancer for endurance sports like running and has been studied for over 40 years. Study after study proves that caffeine can help you run faster by changing how your body perceives fatigue and improving your power output. In other words, caffeine tricks your brain into thinking it can run faster and your muscles to contract more forcefully.

In terms of weight loss, the jury is out. Caffeine may slightly boost weight loss or prevent weight gain due to its appetite-suppressing tendencies, but there is no evidence that the changes will be significant or long term. And on the other side of the coin, if you’re having a lot of caffeine due to lack of sleep, we already know that poor or too little sleep leads to increased hunger and sugar cravings.

Bottom line: enjoy caffeine in the morning and/or before a run if it works for you, but don’t place too much weight (literally) on its weight loss benefits. Most importantly: get good, quality sleep.

How can I control sugar cravings after a long run or hard workout?The most important thing you can do to control sugar cravings is to refuel immediately after your workout with a mix of protein and carbs. Waiting too long to refuel can lead to dips in blood sugar, causing the body to crave a quick fix.

If you know it will be a little while before you have a full meal, make sure to have a small snack immediately after your workout to tide you over; aim for a carbs-to-protein ratio of about 4:1 or 3:1. Here are some ideas: Greek yogurt with fruit, chocolate milk, a


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hard-boiled egg and a banana, etc. For more ideas, see the meal plan and fueling sections!

Do I need sports drinks on hot days or before/during a long run? Whether you drink sports drinks or combine water with food is up to you, but you certainly want to make sure you are taking in fluid and electrolytes during your long runs in the summer.

To stay adequately hydrated, take in about 20 to 25 oz. (~500 to 750 mL) of water/fluid per hour. Avoid flavored waters and soda (which can be acidic, high in sugar, low in electrolytes and nutrients). This number will vary based on how much you sweat and how hot it is outside, but it’s a good starting place and you can adjust as needed.

As for sodium, you’ll want to take in 200 to 500 mg sodium every hour (or for every 25 oz. of plain water). As a reference point, ¼ tsp of salt is 575 mg sodium. Again, you can achieve this through a sports drink (see the homemade sports drink recipe in thie ebook) or through your fuel of choice. Experiment and see what works best for you.

Are fasted long runs helpful to improve the body’s ability to burn fat?A fasted long run is one in which you don’t eat anything before you start running or during the run itself. They’re typically done in the morning with no breakfast and after fasting overnight while sleeping.

Running without any fuel does increase fat oxidation, or your body’s ability to burn more fat. But it’s important to understand that this doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily run faster or lose more weight. Running fasted likely means you’ll run a little slower, so you’ll be sacrificing your training and performance.

Furthermore, if you’re training for a half marathon or marathon, there’s virtually no reason to train your body’s ability to burn fat. Why? Well, you can eat breakfast and have carbohydrates during the race! Why would you train yourself to become more efficient at something you won’t experience on race day?

For weight loss, fasted long runs can make a small difference. While you will increase fat oxidation, it’s only by a small percentage. And since you’ll have to run slower, the overall metabolic effect of the run will be lower. So now you’re burning a slightly higher percentage of fat from a low metabolic activity. It’s much more beneficial to train for performance as the weight is lost more effectively when this is your goal.

However, we do use fasted long runs strategically in our Weight Loss Training plans.


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If you do plan on running fasted long runs, it’s best to schedule them early in your training cycle when the overall mileage and intensity are at their lowest.

How much time do I need between when I eat and when I go running?The answer to this question will vary depending on the individual runner and what you’re eating. For a full meal, at least 2-3 hours is needed to digest most of the food before a run, but you might only need 1-2 hours after eating a small meal or a snack. If you’re a morning runner, you may be able to have a small snack (e.g. a banana with a little nut butter, or toast with jam) just before heading out the door.

The amount of time you need for digestion also depends on the type of run you’re attempting. More time will be needed before a long run or faster workout.

Ultimately, you need to experiment. Give yourself slightly more time than you think you need and see how you feel. You can add or subtract time based on how your stomach feels while running.

How does being a diabetic impact my fueling and diet?If you are diabetic, one of the best things you can do for yourself is to stay active because exercise will improve insulin sensitivity and glucose control.

There are two main types of diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2. Roughly 90 percent of diabetics have Type 2, which means that the body doesn’t make enough insulin or doesn’t use it properly. This is known as insulin resistance. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that is responsible for controlling blood sugars, lipid and protein metabolism.

Running with Type 2 diabetes is actually a great way to control your diabetes, as exercise makes the body more sensitive to the action of insulin. This is great, but will also mean you need to monitor your blood sugar closely until you determine how your body will respond to exercise.

Usually, if you exercise shortly after a meal, the meal consumed will not cause your blood sugar to rise as high as expected. Work with your doctor or dietitian to adjust your insulin dosage as necessary, particularly for longer runs. Diabetics also need to pay special attention to their hydration, as if your blood sugar is high, you are at a greater risk of dehydration.

Bottom line: check with your doctor before beginning an exercise program, and work with a dietitian who specializes in diabetes to ensure you are planning your meals and snacks (and insulin, if applicable) adequately given your exercise regimen.


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How does alcohol affect running and weight loss?You might notice after immersing yourself in the running community that runners also like to enjoy a few adult beverages. Whether it’s a post-race celebration, a running pub crawl, or the common slogan, “Our drinking club has a running problem,” it’s clear that runners love to drink.

As long as you consume no more than 1-2 standard alcoholic drinks in one evening, you won’t experience any declines in running performance. In fact, studies have shown that light drinking can reduce your risk of heart disease, dementia, and cognitive decline.

But enjoying more than just a couple drinks will certainly impact your training and negatively affect your nutrition. There are several problematic consequences from drinking alcohol:

Dehydration occurs because alcohol is a diuretic. For example, if you have a shot of liquor, you’ll pee four times that amount as a result! The solution is to have a glass of water for every alcoholic drink to prevent excessive dehydration, which can affect the next day’s run.

Poor recovery occurs because alcohol negatively impacts your sleep. While a drink in the evening can help you fall asleep faster, more than one drink reduces REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep and makes you sleep less deeply during the second half of the night.

Having more alcohol makes these effects worse - you’ll fall asleep practically instantly but then toss and turn in the early morning hours. Restless sleep, combined with less time in REM sleep (which is helpful for memory and focus), will make you far less recovered for the next day’s workout.

Alcohol has calories (duh). Runners trying to lose weight should avoid most alcohol (though we believe the occasional glass of red wine has more benefits than drawbacks) because most drinks are relatively high in calories. For example, just one wheat or IPA beer can have over 200 calories!

But more importantly, drinking alcohol can displace the nutrient-dense calories from your food. By replacing the calories you need in a post-workout meal, alcohol can hinder your recovery and reduce the amount of carbohydrate that can be restocked in your muscles.

Ultimately, one or two alcoholic drinks a couple times a week won’t negatively impact your running, general health, or weight loss goals. Just take the right precautions when


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you plan on drinking more (scheduling extra sleep and hydrating) and don’t expect to run at your best the next day.

Can you lose weight by eating more? Yes - and in fact, if you aren’t eating enough, it will hinder your weight loss efforts. Counterintuitive, right?

Fat cells secrete a hormone called leptin, which is considered the satiety hormone. It regulates the amount of fat stored in the body by adjusting energy expenditure and the sensation of hunger. If fat cells shrink due to calorie restriction, less leptin is secreted, which will increase hunger and decrease metabolic rate; essentially, your body is compensating because it thinks it is starving.

Under-fueling will also lead to getting over-hungry, which makes you more likely to overdo it (or binge) when you do eat. Trying to outsmart your body and under-fuel when you need it always backfires.

For example, one common mistake Anne see a lot of her clients making is to try to be “good” earlier in the day by eating a low calorie breakfast and a salad with no carbs for lunch. Guess what happens? They get so over-hungry by the afternoon that they usually end up binging on whatever is nearby - often cookies or the office candy jar.

Instead of focusing on calorie counting and restriction, make it your goal to include a mix of protein, healthy fat, and carbs at each meal, and eat before you are starved. Your body knows how much food you need if you allow yourself to listen to it – and slow down enough to recognize those fullness cues.

How should I exercise if I want to lose weight?This is a great question because your running program should definitely be structured differently if your goal is weight loss rather than training to finish a race or get a particular time goal.

The training plans in this program use four different techniques to maximize your weight loss:

✦ High intensity interval training (HIIT) to spike your metabolism

✦ Prolonged aerobic running (i.e., long runs!) to burn fat

✦ Strength training to build muscle (which burns more calories at rest than fat tissue)

✦ Consistent, frequent exercise to keep your metabolism high


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After working with hundreds of running and nutrition clients, we’ve found these strategies to be the most successful for weight loss. But they’re not just based on our professional experience.

The latest studies indicate these are the most effective ways to lose weight - and keep it off long term.

But you may be wondering if distance running is effective for weight loss. We’ve seen our share of “fitness experts” online who only do strength training while claiming that running just makes you fatter.

Well, nothing could be further from the truth. While it is important to include strength training as well, endurance exercise results in more net-calorie burn than interval workouts (and doesn’t excessively raise appetite).

And running helps weight loss and fat loss more than other exercise burning the same number of calories - so if your goal is to lose weight, running should be your main source of exercise.

Even with strength workouts that claim to boost endurance like kettlebells, treadmill running has been shown to burn more oxygen and calories.

Ultimately, if your goal is weight loss, you must exercise at a high intensity sometimes, while doing strength training and long runs, in a consistent and frequent schedule.

Combined with a healthy diet of “real” foods, your weight loss goals will be reached in a healthier, more effective way.

And you’re much more likely to keep the pounds off long-term!


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nutrition for runners final - amazon s3 · anything.” but this lab work clearly showed that i...

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