Ditching Poor Diets Can Increase Running Performance

Balanced vs. poor diets

Poor diets can severely decrease your optimal performance potential for running. We’ve all heard the same information over and over again about eating a balanced diet. We all need to lose weight, and we all want to have a lean athletic body. Runners, of all people, should know the difference between eating a healthy meal and a nutritionally starved meal, right?

Tracking calories burnt While Running

You slap on your Garmin, Fitbit, Apple watch, or whichever step-tracking device and start tracking those miles. Run for a good 5 miles at a decent pace and work up a sweat. You slow down to a walking pace to enter your cool-down phase. Sync your device to your phone, and you stare in amazement when your tracking app shows you that your body burned 500+ calories. (This is assuming that you burn 100 calories a mile. For larger framed, beginner runners, your calorie per mile consumption can be as high as 175 calories a mile.)

Eating is 80% of the equation

Your mind begins to throw images of what kinds of food you can eat with the surplus of calories. Not picking the right food is where new runners fail. Instead of replacing the 500 calorie surplus with good, nutritional food, new runners tend to go for the burger or side of fries. Not eating enough nutritious food is an example of a poor diet. While there is nothing wrong with a burger and fries every once and a while, the problem lies with the nutritional value you get from these foods which are less than what you would have gotten from lean meat coupled with fruits and vegetables. Boring, right? Elite runners have known this for a long time. What you eat directly affects your performance while running.

Don’t go crazy

Lastly, some nutritional guides tell you that you should never eat processed foods and when you have one cheat day where you can eat whatever you want to, your body takes at least a few weeks before recovering from the surge of non-nutritional food. I’m not asking you to go crazy hardcore with your diet. Instead, be mindful, and try to choose better foods for your body.

Runner Related Diets: Keto, Paleo, Mediterranean

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Coach Scott's Credentials:

Published Author
RRCA Certified Running Coach (Level 2)
RRCA Certified Youth Running Coach
NASM CPT (Certified Personal Trainer).
NASM CNC (Certified Nutrition Coach)
NASM WLS (Weight Loss Specialist)
ACE SFC (Stretching and Flexibility Coach)
ACE GFI (Group Fitness Instructor)

He has published over 20 books including, Beginner's Guide to Half Marathons: A Simple Step-By-Step Solution to Get You to the Finish Line in 12 Weeks! (Beginner To Finisher Book 3), which has become an Amazon International #1 bestseller. Scott specializes in helping new runners become injury-free race finishers. He recently completed his 22nd half marathon race.

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