What We Need to Eat VS. What We Eat!

Wednesday, September 13, 2017 · Mike Davis

Good morning! Grab your coffee and pull up a chair. This morning Kathy and I sipped coffee and continued a discussion on nutrition that we had started last night. For sure, I am not a nutrition expert, but Kathleen has some educational expertise. I have some basic understanding, so I can give some general thoughts on what my help runners with fueling, recovery, and basic weight loss. Kathy, is studying overall exercise health at the local college and is doing an ACE nutrition course, so she has a much better grasp of the technical aspects of exercise and nutrition. Now that I have prefaced our knowledge level, I will share some of what we talked about. Most of us runners (me for sure), do not utilize eating for what its intended purpose is. I tend to choose foods based on my eyes, hunger level and comfort. Only on occasion do I think about what choice (and portion size), is best for fueling, recovery, or overall good health. However, I do not give a lot of thought to eating being a “need,” versus a pleasure. If I did think about what my body needs more often, my choices would certainly be different. Runners and those that exercise regularly, “need” to consider what they eat if they want to maximize their workout, improve recovery, and become stronger. I have yet to meet a runner or an active person, that does not want to get stronger, run easier, or drop a few pounds, and yet no a lot of focus is put on the “need” of what they eat. Most of us make eating decisions based on what we like, what is easy to make (or grab on the run), or what our eyes tell our brain. Not too many of us think about a challenging workout that we have planned, or one just completed, when we make our dinning choices. Knowing that our body needs proper carbohydrates and fats in order to have sustainable fuel is not always at the forefront of my thoughts when deciding on a meal. Definitely, the amount of those nutrients is not much of a thought. I tend to exceed consumption and that does not benefit my workout and increases my chance of weight gain. On the recovery side of nutrition, it is often easy to mislead ourselves about how much we burned and how much we can consume after a workout. Running a 5K race is awesome and a lot of fun! On average, we burn 100 calories for every mile we run, so running that 5K, will burn between 250 and maybe 400 calories. Those delicious bagels that we treat ourselves to after, have around 450 calories, without even adding a drop of cream cheese. Our post-workout should be a nice time of enjoying the rewards of our effort, but we need to be careful how much we earned. Recovery is the time to replenish carbs, repair muscle (protein) and rehydrate. Quick thanks to Kathleen Davis for her input for this chat this morning. It is wonderful to have someone with the knowledge and experience to learn from! Have a great day and think about your fueling! God Bless! Mike