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Marathon Runners Diet | Eating for Endurance

Marathon Runners Diet | Eating for Endurance
Updated: December 5, 2020
Posted In: Best Of The Web

After a long break from marathon training, this summer I found myself prepping for the Chicago marathon.

Building miles and getting refocused on a runners diet plan.

Which is to say, reminding myself that I needed a few key things:

  • Eating enough calories to maintain energy as the miles increase
  • Not relying on sugars and quick carbs
  • Focusing on eating enough protein to maintain muscle mass
  • Including a wide range of nutrients to prevent runger

Who hasn’t spent the last mile of a long run fantasizing about a huge slice of cake, a burger or maybe for you it’s the sound of an ice cold coke fizzing in the can. There’s not a darn thing wrong with enjoying these foods because our body is reminding us that it needs fuel.

But obviously an entire day or week or month of eating these foods isn’t ideal for boosting our endurance training.

Marathon Runners Diet

We have a tendency to focus on those treats and the idea of a high carb lifestyle as the way that marathon runners should eat, but nearly everyone will tell you that’s lead them to gain weight.

It seems impossible to be running more miles and gaining weight, but the wrong foods, the wrong fueling and the stress of the  miles makes it all too common.

In fact, if we looked at a pyramid of what matters most when it comes to our performance a lot of people would be disappointed to realize that all the running supplements and recovery tools are near the top (meaning least important, but still useful once you nail down your nutrition).

Thanks to my friend Lindsay Cotter, a blogger and Nutrition Specialist over at Cotter Crunch for contributing a lot of great information to this article, she has worked with many amazing Sports Nutritionists, and endurance athletes, including her own husband who raced professionally for years!

What we’ve all come to learn is that every body works differently in regards to fueling and race day nutrition, but the one thing that all endurance athletes NEED is GOOD QUALITY food the 75% of time they’re not training.

What should long distance runners eat?

The number of calories runners need depends a great deal on body size, speed and percentage of calories burned from carbs or fat. I fully recommend working with someone to make those determinations, but you can use online calculators to get you starts.

However, as I’ve stated previously with those calculators I’d be eating enough to gain weight, not maintain and definitely not lose body fat.

  • You don’t want to have massive calorie deficits, which can lead to energy swings that make training harder
  • You don’t want a high volume of calories from sugary processed foods which cause inflammation
  • You do need to plan ahead for meals to eat enough quality foods

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