Nutrition For Running - Why Carbs Are Your Best Friend
Running season is well and truly underway with the Dublin Marathon only a short few months away. Sarah Hawkins ANutr, BSc is here with some tips for how to fuel those runs!
Food is our fuel and can make the difference in shaving off those extra few seconds from your PB. One nutrient in particular which can make all the difference are carbohydrates. Even still, this can be a tricky subject with the people I work with. With a lot of confusion and fear around this particular nutrient, I’d like to discuss 3 key reasons we should all befriend carbohydrates instead of fearing them.
Let’s start with the why
As a nutritionist, carbohydrates tend to come up in some shape or form with the people I work with. Lots of people ‘cut carbs’ because they feel like carbohydrates don’t suit them or are bad for health. Unfortunately for many of these individuals, they also experience digestive issues, food cravings and low energy/recovery in sport and exercise as a result of cutting carbs.
Which surely isn’t the goal if we’re aiming for health and performance?
I would love for this blog post to pose an opportunity for us all to challenge those beliefs we have learned. They tend to stem from fad diets and diet clubs over the years, who tend to encourage cutting carbs for rapid weight loss.
Weight Loss: Is it bodyfat we’re losing? Or something else…
Let’s start with the biology: when we eat carbohydrate rich foods, these are broken down into their simplest form - glucose - which is our body and our brain’s preferred energy source.
Our body will convert some of this glucose into glycogen, which is a stored form of carbohydrate we store in our liver and our muscles. This stored glycogen can then be tapped into when energy levels are low, in particular during a long race or workout.
With each 1g of stored glycogen however, we also hold onto 3g of water. So if we consume 500g of carbohydrates over the course of a weekend for example, we’ll also be holding onto 1.5litres of water, totalling an additional 2kg on the scales - which is nothing to do with body fat levels!
On the flip side, when we cut out carbs, we also cut out this water storage which appears to give us rapid weight loss promised in these fad diets. It's usually when this storage is used up and the scales begin to plateau, we get tired, crabby and might find ourselves struggling to maintain this approach as our body works to rebuild those stores and get the energy it needs to support you by driving up cravings for sugar.
Sadly, in most cases, it’s ourselves we blame despite being sold misinformation. So really, it’s not the carbs that are the enemy, it’s the programmes and misinformation we’ve been sold.
Now that you know carbs aren’t so bad, here’s 3 reasons why you should befriend them, instead of fearing them. Especially if you want to fuel and recover well from your races!
3 Reasons to eat more carbs
1. Train for longer
Carbohydrates are our body’s primary energy source, meaning we can use these for energy straight away. A study carried out in 1967 compared those on a low carbohydrate diet, a moderate carbohydrate diet and a high carbohydrate diet, showed that those who ate a high carbohydrate diet stored 7 times more muscle glycogen than those on a low carbohydrate diet and were also able to cycle to exhaustion for much longer, at 170 minutes vs 60 minutes in those on the low carbohydrate diet (Bergstrom et al. 1967). This is certainly not new knowledge, but very interesting to see the comparison.
2. Less DOMS
Carbohydrates are also involved with recovery, especially when paired with a protein source. This helps to replenish muscle glycogen stores ahead of the next session as well as to support muscle repair and growth. Reduced pain means faster recovery and a better performance in your next session. Recovery will depend on the intensity of and duration of your session, the higher your intake of carbohydrates, the quicker your recovery time.
(By the way, DOMS = Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness… The sore muscles you get the day after exercising!)
3. Better concentration and focus
In addition to better performance and recovery, eating enough carbohydrates can also support concentration and focus, be that in your training or in normal day to day activities. If you’ve ever tried a low carbohydrate diet, you’ll likely have experienced lethargy, poor concentration or sometimes even brain fog. This is because carbohydrates are our brain’s preferred energy source and we have to work much harder to get energy from other sources. Your body literally needs carbs to function optimally.
How much carbs should I be eating?
Great question! This depends on how much you train, among other factors. Below is a rough guide to help:
Hopefully I’ve changed your mind about carbohydrates and I hope that you can learn to befriend these foods instead of fearing them. You will be surprised how this can transform your performance and how you feel.
Remember, your body wants to look after you! Can you do the same for your amazing body??
If you’d like to explore your relationship with carbohydrates further to support your energy and performance, you can contact Sarah here.
Sarah is the founder of F.I.G (Food Is Good) Nutrition and is a registered associate nutritionist and yoga teacher specialising in digestion, performance and disordered eating. Combining nutrition and mindfulness, Sarah supports individuals to perform at their best without the food restrictions, helping you to develop a healthy and happy relationship to food.
References:
Bergstrom, J. M. et al. (1967), 'Diet , muscle glycogen and physical performance'. Acta. Physiol. Scand., vol. 71, pp. 140-50.
Anita Bean, The Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition (London: Bloomsbury, 2017), p. 34