Ok, how does this work then?

GADavies

I'm familiar with most of the rubbish spoken about diet but I'm a little more vague about exercise beyond being aware there's a similar amount of confused people who can't tell the difference between how a fit person's body works and how a fat person trying to lose weight works.

My question is really simple: I've started running, what should I eat and when? Does it really make a difference for 3-5km at a slow jog?

kellijauch

Follow your calories set by MFP and keep working out. Lots of cardio to lose weight. Eat as clean as possible. Check out some recipes on thegraciouspantry.com

epie2098

For me, a 3K jog/run doesn't impact me at all. I can do it first thing in the morning before food or I can do it in the afternoon depending on my schedule/weather (it gets icy and hot here depending on the season). For a 5K jog, for me, that's when I need to be specific about what I do. If I go first thing in the morning, I use an energy gel etc. www.stridebox.com does monthly running snacks to the US and Canada so you can try some. I pop an energy gel, for about 100 calories, and power through the run. If I do 5K later on in the day, I make sure a snack or dinner is the first thing I make (and then eat) when I get back in the house.

tl;dr - those runs shouldn't impact too much. Pay attention to MFP's calorie counts for you, and remember to eat some of the exercise cals back.

I hope that helps.

RisaLynch26

You should eat a good breakfast to get your metabolism going. Do you run first thing in the morning? If so, run, then you have a one hour window to get nutrients to your muscles to repair. Have a healthy protein shake is good because it gets the nutrients there quickly and they can be easily absorbed. Then eat every 2-4 hours - healthy, clean, which means whole foods, and little or none out of a box.

You want to eat breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner.

Also, while jogging is good, it you do it all the time and that's all you do, your body will adapt and you won't necessarily see great improvements. What are your health and fitness goals?

GADavies

What are your health and fitness goals?

In January they were to not be 17 stone overweight, now it's not to be 8 stone overweight and to run a 5k before the end of the year. Never in my life have I run a consecutive mile until this week, I'm just working on building it up now but exercise has never really featured in my life before. Walking both real world and treadmill has helped with the weight loss but running is bloody hard work.