The biggest names in energy bars are generally the worst for you. They want you to believe that what you are eating is good for you and ideal for a runners diet.
To achieve the best results you have to eat a healthy balanced way according to your body. Natural anything gives the body a significant source of minerals, vitamins, protein, etc. Even if it isn’t the healthiest snack or meal, if you put effort into making something yourself you know it has more health benefits than energy bars.
Things that don’t constitute running nutrition would be sugar, cane sugar, sugar alcohol, preservatives, milk ingredients, gluten, flavouring, colour, unhealthy fats, you get the picture. This is what you would expect in fast food, because it is quick, easy, and cheap; the typical north American’s dream. So a runners diet usually includes energy bars that are quick, easy, cheap, and healthy?! Not so much, what food that is quick, easy, and cheap that is actually deemed healthy other than fruits or vegetables. Not much, especially in meal replacements.
Take your average energy bar, first ingredient might be a protein source. It might even be a good, healthy source. But many people justify it off that alone. Keep reading you will find milk ingredients, preservatives, and countless forms of sugar. It is fascinating how many different words you can use for sugar.
Researching one of the current bestselling Amazon products under “energy bars”, it has 0 grams of fiber to 16 grams of sugar. The second ingredient after protein blend is caramel filling, the third being chocolate. This just goes to prove it is more of a chocolate bar than a healthy snack.
Plus there are always a high amount of carbohydrates in energy bars. Just remember, protein is necessary after a workout to help provide glucose to muscles for recovery. Carbs are not as important as most will be converted to fat anyways. Most people have too much carbs in their diet already causing spikes in blood sugar. Stressed adrenals, exhausted pancreas and diabetes is the end result.
A runner is burning up many calories on each day of running. Therefore a balance will need to be found to keep a consistent weight and energy level. In many ways the runner’s body is like a machine. It needs fuel and good care if a runner is to perform at a top level.
The body can protect itself from many illnesses. We don’t often think of our running body when they’re working well. We worry about our health when we’re not well. But the time to protect our health is when we do feel well.
Food is one of the basic human needs. A runner should eat enough food and also the right kind of foods for additional calories used up. A good practice when preparing foods is to eat selections in its most natural state. Take an apple for example. It’s most natural state would be a raw apple, rather than in a pie or jelly.
Runners need plenty of carbohydrates as found in vegetables, breads and cereals. They help to give us plenty of energy. Other foods called proteins are found in meat, beans and peas. Although a good practice is to eat red meat no more than once a week if any. Meat source should be bird and or fish. My personal performance is no more meat than one day, a week. Such foods are also needed to build muscle. Fats also provide us with energy.
Minerals such as calcium found in milk, cheeses and yogurt are needed to build strong bones. Other minerals such as iron give us rich healthy blood. Very important in the runner, the machine. The constant pumping of blood to the muscles. All very important for a balanced healthy diet for runners. Just to make sure you’re not losing out on any of your daily requirements of vitamins, it’s best to take supplements. A couple rest days a week are important, to let your body time to fully recover from the long runs.
Bad diet comes from ignorance, poor food habits and poor distribution. Or lack of foods. Many people of the United States have a bad diet. Some people do not eat enough food or enough of the right foods. They suffer from malnutrition. However, as a runner it’s your responsibility to stay abreast of your intake of calories to keep you feeling full of energy and vigor.
Running as a rule makes your metabolism work so fast that you constantly have to feed the fat burner, your fuel burner. Most runners don’t have a problem losing weight. The problem is keeping it on. You may have read in my other articles, weight in every morning. This is to make sure you haven’t lost more than three pounds in one day. If you have drink up! You’ve lost too many body fluids.
To balance out a healthy diet for runners is with plenty of fresh air and enough sleep. Of course we’re runners we all get plenty of fresh air. Some runners may be choosing the wrong running routes. Maybe they have to choose between the factory route and the city park route. Take the park! The last of our healthy diet for runners is to get plenty of sleep. Top off each run with twenty minutes of stretching, yoga is best.
If you’re looking for a healthy diet for runners, you must be very careful not to eliminate any major food groups, especially carbohydrates. Carbs provide the fuel your body needs. If you cut out carbs, you will notice that your energy level goes way down and your stamina will decrease.
As a runner, if you’re looking to lose weight you must find a weight loss program that allows you to eat a well balanced diet. Even just cutting calories can be counterproductive. If you cut out too many calories, your metabolism will slow to the point where again you will notice your energy level decreases. So what’s the answer?
There is a weight loss program called Calorie Shifting that approaches weight loss from a completely different perspective. You don’t have to cut calories or carbs to lose weight. In fact, they recommend that you eat four normal sized meals a day instead of three. The key to Calorie Shifting is that you eat your meals at different times from day to day.
By doing this, your body doesn’t get a chance to adjust to any one particular eating pattern. Because your body can’t adjust, your metabolism doesn’t slow down like it would with most diets. With your metabolism working at a higher rate, your body will burn calories much faster than normal and you’ll lose weight without losing energy.
This sounds like an excellent choice for a healthy diet for runners. Of course, there’s more to it than just eating meals at different times. They actually have software so you can enter your favorite foods and the software will give you a schedule of when to eat your meals. If you’re looking to lose weight, Calorie Shifting is definitely something you’ll want to look in to, especially if you’re a runner.
Before turning to professional running, beginners must remember that it takes a lot to become a successful runner. In addition to being devoted to your sport and training hard to excel in it, you also need to take care of your diet. Nutrition and diet play a major role in all fitness programs, particularly during periods of strenuous training. As a committed athlete, you will obviously do everything legally possible to keep getting better at his sport. You may of course have a good diet. However, you also need to know that a few simple changes in your diet can work wonders in your overall performance.
Importance Of Nutrition For Athletes
Proper nutrition is very important to the success of your career. Athletes burn a lot of energy within short periods and obviously need to recharge their bodies. If running beginners do not ensure that they get adequate nutrition, they will soon slip into a condition known as overtraining – a condition that physically weakens an athlete and increases the risk of an injury. That is why most runners consume a variety of drinks and food to help them regain strength, energy and endurance as quickly as possible.
Depending on how strenuous your training is, your running diet must help you quickly regain whatever you have lost during each training session so that you can be well-prepared to face the next workout. Your training diet may include protein shakes, dried fruits and the power-packed nuts. Your emphasis here must be to make sure that you get enough calories and the right balance of all essential nutrients.
Most of the time, athletes use up so much calories that it is normal for them to consume almost double the amount of what an ordinary person eats and still continue to lose weight. So athletes must understand how many calories they need to maintain good physical health, high energy levels and adequate weight and then try to acquire those many calories everyday.
Eating Right
To continue performing at peak levels and be strong enough to cross that ‘barrier of pain’ that all endurance athletes face at some point in a race, here are some tips to keep in mind:
Drink lots of water: You will lose plenty of fluids in the form of sweat. So keep yourself well hydrated.
Maintain a good training diet: The right running diet must be low in processed cereals and refined sugars and rich in carbohydrates and proteins. Long distance runners may benefit more from a diet rich in fats and carbohydrates.
Ensure a proper race day diet: Keep your race day diet nutritious yet light so that your body is easily able to digest everything before the race. It would also be a good idea to reduce your intake of products like cow’s milk to minimize buildup of lactic acid on the race day.
Keep away from junk food: Cut down on burgers, fries, buttered popcorn and carbonated beverages. Junk food is okay maybe once in a couple of weeks. But remember that to be a top-level runner, you must behave like one and eat like one.
To sum up, if you are a running beginner, you must have moderate levels of quality proteins, high levels of carbohydrates and moderate levels of fats to keep you body in top shape and keep you lean and healthy. A well-balanced diet will ensure development of strength and endurance so that you will be ready to give your best on the big day.
