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There are several key elements of nutrition it's important to consider to maximise performance. The main focus with endurance training is to match your fuelling to the volume of training - this is known as 'periodising' the training diet. Your nutrition should look different on each day...
1. What to eat on rest & easy training days
3. What to eat on heavy training (high-intensity) training days
On heavy training days you'll need to pay close attention to hydration levels and up your carbohydrate intake. Make sure you're eating the right kind of carbs with our recipe suggestions...
This article was last reviewed on 6 March 2017 by sports nutritionist James Collins. James Collins is head of nutrition at Arsenal Football Club. He's worked with some of the world's best athletes over the last decade within Olympic and professional sport. His Performance Nutrition principles are now helping everyone to look, feel and perform better each day. Find out more at: www.jamescollinsnutrition.com. All health content on bbcgoodfood.com is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional. If you have any concerns about your general health, you should contact your local health care provider. See our website terms and conditions for more information. Are you training for a race this year? What have you found most challenging and do you have any top tips to share with other runners? We'd love to hear from you below... What to eat on heavy training days Find meal options that can help you prioritise your protein, mixed vegetables & fats, over carbs on easier days, plus how to incorporate 'fasted training' into your routine.
What to eat on rest & easy training days
2. What to eat on normal (moderate-intensity) training days
A moderate increase of macronutrients on these days will help boost energy and will help muscles recover. Our recipes suggestions will help you to get all the nutrition you need on these days...
What to eat on normal training days

How to use the nutrition plans

There are lots of free training plans for different abilities and distances available online from trusted sources such as Bupa, Runner's World and The Virgin London Marathon. To give you an example, a typical week's training for a half marathon will resemble the following towards the end of your training schedule. We've marked which diet plan you should be following that day in relation to the volume of training you're undertaking.

More training & nutrition tips for runners

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There are several key elements of nutrition it's important to consider to maximise performance. The main focus with endurance training is to match your fuelling to the volume of training - this is known as 'periodising' the training diet. Your nutrition should look different on each day... 1.

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Why Runners Shouldn't Diet (and What to Do Instead)

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Why Runners Shouldn't Diet (and What to Do Instead)

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Jason Fitzgerald is a 2:39 marathoner, USA Track & Field certified coach, and the founder of Strength Running where runners go to get faster and prevent injuries.
Runners have a reputation for being exceptional eaters. We've been known to out-eat our bigger, heavier friends while they look on in amazement (and, sometimes, in terror). And we've all been on the receiving end of well-intentioned comments like, "Are you really going to eat " as we scarf down food after a long run.

RELATED: Hate Running? 25 Ways to Learn to Love It

For distance fiends trying to shed pounds, can make weight loss difficult - but it's not impossible. All you need is a smart approach that will help you balance your running schedule with your weight loss goals. Unfortunately, many runners combine a standard calorie-restriction diet with race training, hoping their high mileage and limited food intake will blast off pounds. More often, this results in sub-par performances, feelings of sluggishness and poor weight loss results.

"If you diet while training, you won't perform at your best because your body won't be able to adequately repair your muscles after workouts," says Anne Mauney, MPH, RD, and the author of the food and fitness blog fANNEtastic food. The consequences aren't just limited to feeling sore and tired, either. Mauney says, "If taken too far, under-fueling while training can lead to more serious issues like stress fractures or passing out during runs due to electrolyte imbalances."

RELATED: 9 Thinks I Wish I Knew Before I Started Running

The solution? Implementing a short-term weight loss phase before your normal training cycle begins. During this period, you should be focusing on weight loss, and running for cardio, not performance. While there are a lot of different diet strategies, these three are the best for runners during this weight loss cycle.

1. Focus on Nutrient-Dense Foods

Certain foods will help you better manage your hunger after runs. A landmark study from the Nutrition Journal found that a nutrient-dense diet lessens the experience of hunger, and thus, is an effective tool not only for improving your health, but for weight loss, too. In other words, a protein-packed quinoa bowl will probably fill you up more than cheese fries.

RELATED: 5 Healthy Fast Food Breakfast Options for Crazy-Busy Mornings

Naturally, the best foods to eat during your weight loss phase will be high in nutrients, while also being relatively low in calories. Focus on eating foods like vegetables, fruit, legumes and grains for the bulk of your pre-season running diet. Mauney says that healthy fats can also be great for satiety.

If you know you always feel ravenous after workouts, plan what you're going to eat before you even leave for a run. This strategy will help you avoid any last-minute decisions resulting from those "must eat" survival mechanisms that tell you to dial for pizza, pronto. Having food that's ready and waiting for you, or already prepped, is the best way to go.

RELATED: 12 Brilliant Meal Prep Ideas to Free Up Your Time

2. Don't Drink Your Calories

Water should be everyone's beverage of choice, for a whole host of reasons. And for the athlete trying to lose weight, one of the biggest perks is that it contains zero calories.

While sports drinks are helpful immediately before, during, or after a strenuous workout, they contain too much sugar to consume regularly. Instead, choose water during most of the day and to hydrate for easier runs.

Several Harvard University studies have connected the consumption of calorie-containing beverages with obesity. One study showed that people who drank their calories didn't feel as full as those who ate them from food.

If you're trying to lose weight, drink water at least 90 percent of the time, and stick to unsweetened tea, coffee or other unsweetened beverages when you want to mix things up.

RELATED: 10 Ways to Stay Hydrated (That Aren't Water)

3. Protein, Protein, Protein

Eat protein with every meal, especially at breakfast. Research has confirmed again and again that eating protein increases your feelings of satiety. Not only will you feel fuller, longer, but you'll probably eat a little less, too. So make protein a priority, especially at breakfast, which will help reduce cravings later in the day.

Mauney agrees that protein is critical for runners. "Your body needs protein to repair and build muscle tissue after a challenging workout. It is an important building block of bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, and even blood, and you need it to make enzymes and hormones, too."

Some of the best sources of protein are wild fish, free-range poultry, and lean meats, or plant sources like legumes, nuts, and seeds. Or, mix up a smoothie with protein powder for a filling milkshake-like treat. Most runners should aim to consume about .5 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day, depending on how many miles they're logging.

RELATED: 13 Dessert-Inspired Protein Shake Recipes

The Final Word on Running for Weight Loss

Maybe you've heard that 95 percent of people fail at their diets. But perhaps we should shift the blame and consider that 95 percent of all diets fail. That's a critical distinction.
RELATED: The 30 Best Marathons in the Entire World
Dieting can be risky for runners. Restricting calories - or avoiding an entire macronutrient, like carbohydrates - is a mistake when you're training hard.

But if you focus on eating on minimally processed, nutrient-dense foods that are high in protein and fiber, it will be difficult to gain weight while running. In fact, many people find that by mainly eating meat and vegetables, and drinking water almost exclusively, they're able to lose weight without having to count calories or "diet" at all.

If you do want to focus on weight loss, do so before you start a serious training program. Integrate some of these healthy eating habits into your pre-season program, and you may just find that you're not only lighter, but also when you're ready to take your training up a notch.

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Why Runners Shouldn't Diet (and What to Do Instead)

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Jason Fitzgerald is a 2:39 marathoner, USA Track & Field certified coach, and the founder of Strength Running where runners go to get faster and prevent injuries. Runners have a reputation for being exceptional eaters. We've been known to out-eat our bigger, heavier friends while they look on in amazement (and, sometimes, in terror).

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5 Reasons Running May Not Help You Lose Weight Fast | Shape Magazine

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5 Reasons Running May Not Help You Lose Weight Fast | Shape Magazine

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"My body just can't lose weight." That's the first thing I heard when I picked up the phone. Sounding frustrated and hopeless on the other end of the line, my client Sarah continued. "If you knew how hard I've been working, you'd understand. You'd know I wasn't making excuses."

Sarah first contacted me after a friend of hers had successfully lost weight through my online coaching program, just six months after having a baby. I asked her to keep an open mind and walk me through everything she'd been doing in terms of diet and exercise. The problem was immediately clear: Sarah was putting in effort, but the type of effort-specifically her over-reliance on running for weight loss-wasn't the best way to lose fat and get the results she wanted.

Once Sarah understood why her approach to cardio was holding her back, we adjusted her plan and the pounds starting coming off again (seven pounds in one month, to be exact.) So to make sure your cardio training isn't the reason your jeans don't fit better (despite spending plenty of time in the gym), here are five common mistakes, plus simple solutions to get back on track. (Here, more on running for weight loss, and other cardio myths that could be holding you back.)

Running for Weight Loss Mistake No. 1: Your Workout Is Always the Same

Your body is an amazing machine. It's designed for efficiency, meaning if you do the same thing over and over again, the process becomes easier. This applies to your running workouts too. Not only will they start to feel more effortless (even if you're still sweating and pumping your legs), but your metabolism literally learns and reacts so that fewer calories are burned with the same exercise output.

This is where traditional "steady state" running falls short on a long-term weight-loss plan. Research conducted at the University of Tampa found that doing steady state cardio-such as running on the treadmill for 45 minutes at a consistent pace that's not near maximal effort (think sprinting)-helps out with weight loss... but only initially. Subjects lost a few pounds during the first week and then kaput! Nothing more. The reason? Within one week, their metabolism had adjusted and now didn't need to work as hard to burn off the fat.

One of the biggest problems with running at a steady, moderate-intensity pace, is that the calories you burn are limited to the time you spend sweating. So once your body adapts, the benefit is limited. That's why weight training is oftentimes viewed as better than "just" running for fat loss. Lifting weights impacts your metabolism by causing mini-micro tears that need to be repaired. That healing process requires energy, which means you're burning more calories-a process that can sometimes last for nearly two days after your training session.

To put it more simply: With cardio, you can slog away for 30 minutes at a lower intensity and burn 200 calories-or you can just eat 200 fewer calories per day. It's the same thing. With weight training (or as you'll soon find out-sprints), that's not the case. The calories you burn are not limited to what you do in the gym. So while a little variety might not seem like a big change to your routine, it will have a dramatic impact on transforming your body.

Running for Weight Loss Mistake No. 2: You Go Longer, But Not Faster

One of the most important variables with any type of exercise-cardio or other-is intensity. If you look at the average person who runs, they pick a pace that they can maintain for a long duration. Think about it: When you jump on a treadmill, elliptical, or bike, you're starting with the intent to be on there for a while. Whether it's 30 minutes or an hour, your goal is to push at a pace you can sustain, work hard, feel tired, and then go home. While this is great for endurance, it's not so great for fat loss.

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association followed the exercise habits of more than 34,000 women and concluded that it took about an hour a day of moderate exercise (walking at 3mph) to maintain weight. Notice, that's not weight loss. And three miles per hour is not very fast.

Now imagine if instead of arbitrarily picking an amount of time to exercise, you focused on pushing yourself to certain level of difficulty. If the 3.0 on a treadmill would be a "four" on a difficulty scale of one to 10, what would happen if you pushed yourself at an eight or nine for a shorter period of time?

There's no need to guess, I'll tell you: More fat loss. Researchers at the University of Western Ontario compared short but intense exercise to long, less-intense cardio. One group performed four to six 30-second "sprints" while the other group did cardio for 30 to 60 minutes. The results were nothing short of amazing. Despite exercising for a fraction of the time, those in the sprint category burned more than twice as much body fat.

That's because the process of sprinting causes similar internal changes to your body as those that occur during weight training. Your body needs to replenish it's ATP (energy), convert lactic acid that's produced during exercise into glucose, and restore your blood hormone levels after an intense workout. All of those processes mean your body works harder and burns more fat-both of which don't happen during steady-state aerobics.

Running for Weight Loss Mistake No. 3: You Focus too Much on Calories Burned

One of the most common weight-loss mistakes is believing that the majority of the calories you burn results from exercise. This is a dangerous misunderstanding. Simply being alive-sleeping, standing, eating, thinking-requires a tremendous amount of energy. The number of calories you burn at the gym actually pales in comparison to normal functioning and your daily activities that are not exercise based.

Does that mean there's no need to hit the gym? Of course not. Exercise has many health benefits, but the type of exercise you perform in the gym will influence how many calories you burn outside of it. Running will burn calories, but sprinting or lifting weights will result in more muscle. And the more muscle you have on your body (no-not the "bulky" muscle of bodybuilders), the more calories your body burns just functioning.

Running for Weight Loss Mistake No. 4: You Don't Try Other Forms of Cardio

Now that you know muscle is important to your overall weight-loss goals, it only makes sense that you would want to do the type of training that helps this happen in the least amount of time. So if you're a lover of slower, longer duration cardio, I have some bad news: "Endurance" running and walking (longer duration, lower intensity) impairs strength and muscle growth, according to research in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. What's more, even if you increase the intensity and run on an incline, cycling is still better for gaining muscle and burning fat, researchers found.

Again, the point here is not that "running doesn't work" or that there aren't any benefits. However, if you're looking for the most efficient weight loss strategy and are short on time, you might be better served by cycling (preferably at a high intensity), rather than going for a long walk or relying on jogging to lose weight. (More on that here: Do I Have to Run to Lose Weight?)

Running for Weight Loss Mistake No. 5: You Run Too Much (Yes, Too Much!)

This might sound crazy, but just hang with me: The number on the scale might not be changing because you're running too much. While this isn't a problem for the majority of people struggling to drop a few pounds, I've worked with more than a few people-and seen hundreds of other case studies-where fat loss has been stunted by doing too much.

Exercise is an indisputable component of a healthy life, but it's still stress on your body. And the demands of that stress impact your hormones, which also control your ability to lose fat. More specifically, the hormone cortisol is released when you exercise. All cortisol is not bad (despite what late-night TV and supplement ads might have you believe), but chronic stress and chronic cortisol can lead to insulin resistance which forces you to store belly fat against your best-laid plans. Research published in the journal Hormone Research found that long distance running-like that done in endurance runners-causes a sustained increase in cortisol. And this increase in cortisol for long period of times can lead to more inflammation, slower recovery, breaking down your muscle tissue, building up fat, and even harm your immune functioning.

Just as bad, if you're suffering from too much stress-whether it's the result of exercises for too many hours or not recovering with the right nutrition-you can harm your thyroid and lower your metabolic rate, making weight loss more difficult.

If you're doing an hour of cardio per day, that's more than enough for fat loss. (Remember, this isn't for endurance training.) If you start running two to four hours per day and aren't losing weight (or maybe evening gaining), you might be best suited to reduce your running frequency, add some resistance training, and see what happens. Odds are, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

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5 Reasons Running May Not Help You Lose Weight

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"My body just can't lose weight." That's the first thing I heard when I picked up the phone. Sounding frustrated and hopeless on the other end of the line, my client Sarah continued. "If you knew how hard I've been working, you'd understand. You'd know I wasn't making excuses."

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Yoga Practice for Runners, 20min Sequence - owh@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg - United World College of South East Asia Mail

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Yoga Practice for Runners, 20min Sequence - owh@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg - United World College of South East Asia Mail

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