When to eat when running?

ball858

Personally I cannot eat just before running / exercising no matter what time of day.

I find that eating a Banana / apple or having a protein shake about 30 minutes before my workout works for me.

SouthernSkylark

anything up to 10k then I can get by on a slice gluten free toast with marmalade with a mug of green tea and a mug of coffee, 10k up to 10 miles and I just take water and nakd bar x

bsmith404

Thanks so much for the advice. Seems most people do not eat before a run. I don't know how you all get up at 5am to run. Kudos to you.

vjohn04

I eat after my run. I have coffee before my run, and eat after. Today I had two oatmeal packets with protein powder mixed in.

LoosingMyLast15

I eat a light snack an hour or so before i run. I'll have string cheese or a yogurt but nothing more. anything heavier than these two i end up with heartburn. so as long as you're not feeling lightheaded then i say run then eat.

ATT949

I have been wondering about protein shakes? Is it necessary to drink? Do you feel a difference when you drink them? Are they gluten free:)? There are probably so many out there how do you choose which one?

As some other posters have said, it's a personal choice.

Since losing my weight, I've taken up running and have read a fair amount about running and nutrition. There are many studies that show that runners who eat before hand perform better than those who don't (I'm interested in long distance running, not sprints).

When I'm running < 6 miles, I don't worry if I don't get some food on board before I run. If it's longer than 6, I'll take some Gu Chomps and I recently bought honey at CostCo. Honey is not quite as effective as Gu but it's much, much cheaper. For longer than 12 miles, I carry up to 32 oz of homemade "recovery drink" that has glucose, potassium, and sodium.

Keep in mind that we have quite a bit of glycogen in our muscles, bloodstream, and liver. All told, it's about 2k cals worth of glycogen whose sole purpose is to fuel our muscles.

"protein" - never before a run. Protein takes a long time to break down and it provides no benefit for high intensity exercise. After a run, recover with a ratio of 3:1 carbs:protein but that's after a run.

I would really, really suggest that you check out the nutrition section at runnersworld.com They tend to push food (RW is more of a newbie runner site vs the more hard code runningtimes.com) but if you look at, for example, the Sweat Science section, you'll get more of a flavor of "science" vs "dumbed down science" that sometimes creeps into the other sections.

Happy running!

bsmith404

Yes I have printed out Runner's World food guide for runner's. I have been on my computer for two days asking questions, looking up plans, looking at nutrition. If i'm going to do it, I want to do it right.

sjohnny

I feel like crap if I eat before running. If I'm going over 10 miles I'll have a tbsp of peanut butter on a piece of bread with a squirt of honey about an hour before I go. Under 10 miles I go totally empty. On long run Sundays I'll make a big breakfast to eat with the family when I get home and showered. Other days I don't eat until after noon regardless of whether or not I ran that morning.

I ran my first half marathon at the beginning of the month. I ate my peanut butter and honey sandwich before I left the house which was about two hours before the race. I ate one GU at about the 8 mile mark. That was it. I had a gatorade and a beer at the finish and then actually ate something about two hours later.

A friend of mine doesn't use GU or anything when he's training but will use them when he's racing. This makes sense to me.

EowynRuns

I find it hard to eat anything before a run, but oranges are somehow a strange exception to that. Going on an empty definitely isn't my thing, so I eat one or two oranges after I get up and then a more filling breakfast after I come home from that run!