Asheville Marathon Ambassador, Lyndsey Robinson, helps us rethink the relationship between eating and running in her post “Eating for Endurance & Health” from her blog ‘…Awakened Living…: where you can eat, bike, run, or walk your way to health’. Try some of these True/False questions out and see if you understand the relationship between eating and endurance:
1. TRUE/FALSE: If I consume 2000 calories/day (based on my height/weight/activity level), then I need to burn via exercise at least half of those calories in order to lose weight.
FALSE! Caloric intake should be based on height/weight/current activity level in order to maintain current weight. Cutting calories/increasing activity will allow for weight loss BUT cutting your intake by over half or even 1/4 can be dangerous. It can actually cause your body to hold on to fat because it thinks your starving to death… because you are in that moment. Slow changes are best. Remember, your body needs a baseline amount of calories from fat, carbs, and protein to simple keep your organs and brain functioning – without extra activity.
2. TRUE/FALSE: It’s important to eat carbs/protein right after I workout to help my body recover.
TRUE! Within the first 30 minutes after workouts ~1hr or more, you need to consume 100-200 calories of sugar/carbohydrates to keep your body from burning muscle mass and producing anti-healing stress hormones like cortisol. Often times, it’s hard to stomach much after a long or hard workout/race but at least consume some sports drink or fruit. Within two hours, you also need to consume a 4/1 or 3/1 ratio of carbs to protein to help muscle recovery and healing. Post-activity nutrition is vital to keeping you healthy during those long training periods so that you can reach the start line AND the finish line of your next race!
Read the full blog post, including more True/False questions from Lyndsey: Eating for Endurance & Health
LYNDSEY ROBINSON | HOOVER, AL
I am training for the Asheville Marathon (my 1st marathon!) .. Looking forward to it!