While many runners keep meticulous stats on their runs from week to week, may overlook the importance of how their diet may impact their performance. Keeping a food log or food diary can provide many benefits and much insight for runners of all levels.
How Runners Can Benefit From Keeping a Food Log
Keeping a food diary can be a simple yet very telling look into your own diet, run performance, and weight goals. Your diary does not have to be complicated. A simple pen and paper notebook will work however, I prefer the ease and accuracy of an app like My Fitness Pal. The apps will break down and analyze your information for you.
What should you track?
To get a truly accurate picture of your current overall diet, it is important to track all of your meals and snacks over a period of time. This includes paying attention to portion sizes and hydration. Yes, this includes that Friday night beer and pizza or that bowl of ice cream. Your food log won’t judge but it will give you some often surprising information.
What and how much are you really eating?
A food log can give you exact information on what and how much you are really eating. Many runners are surprised to learn they are way over or under eating to achieve their goals. Training at higher levels often requires the need for more protein.
Identify shortfalls in your diet
Are you taking in enough protein and fat to sustain your workouts? Using an app will show you any potential shortfalls with particular micronutrients and vitamins. Sodium and fiber levels are often surprising to note.
Timing of meals
Everybody is different and learning how your body reacts to food is a key to improving your running. Do you do better eating or not eating before you run? If you are a runner who loses steam at the end of a long run, your food log can provide actionable information.
Sensitivity to certain foods
You may notice a pattern of foods that upset your stomach. (ex gluten or dairy) Conversely, you may realize that eating other foods make you feel like you could run forever,
Pay attention to hydration
Adding hydration to your food diary can also be very helpful for many runners. This can also help you determine your sweat rate with vigorous exercise,
These are just a few of the many ways that keeping a food log can help runners to improve their running. Sleep, hydration, and nutrition all play an important role in running success. Figuring out which foods help and or hurt your performance can be very impactful in your overall running achievements.
Looking for some individualized help? I currently have a few openings in my one on one nutrition coaching program. Feel free to reach out with questions.
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Thanks for helping to make the Runners’ Roundup a huge success by visiting all of the hosts: Laura, Me, Debbie, Jen, Lisa
You are so right about identifying shortfalls in our diets.
I tracked my food on the Cronometer app to see whether I was missing out on any vitamins, minerals, fibre, etc. and I was surprised how many gaps I had!
As a consequence, I now include flaxseed, hempseed, chia seed and various nuts. It was so helpful!
That is great info to learn about your nutrition!
I was thinking I should track my food for a few days just to see how I’m actually doing with fueling my runs. A long time ago I used Myfitnesspal regularly but I felt like it was too obsessive, so I broke the habit and decided not to track food. But I do think that checking in for a few days could be really helpful!
tracking a few days a week for a few weeks could give you some interesting info to work with
You cannot improve on what you can’t measure. That’s why using a diary is key for not only tracking but also making the most out of training. Thank you for shedding more light on the subject
I agree! Many runners fall short in the nutrition area and then don’t understand their performance shortfalls Thanks for checking it out
Honestly I had never thought of tracking food for fitness’ sake. I’m not concerned with weight loss, but the nutrition aspect is significant when it comes to fueling, etc. for workouts ((duh LOL). Thanks for the lightbulb revelation 😉
It really does not have to be about weight loss or gain. Having more info about yourself and your health can provide great insight
I’ve kept a food diary in the past. at various times of my life. It’s definitely eye-opening! I was just reading an article where different elite runners talked about what they do to prevent injury, and many of them mentioned eating enough calories- interesting!
Thanks for this post- definitely an important topic.
I do believe that so many runners do not eat enough to fuel their workouts properly
Thanks for the info.
I have never done this and never even considered it.
Truthfully working and blogging is sometimes more than I can handle. Recording one more thing is probably never going to happen.
I totally understand that! Just putting it out there for consideration 🙂
So many helpful tips here to have a successful workout.
thanks for checking them out
These are awesome tips, I can’t track my macro but my dietician does it for me
I bet that is a great help for you
I did track my food for many, many years. I don’t anymore. While I might benefit from it since I’m a few pounds more than I want to be, I’m just continuing to try to eat healthy and be mindful of what I eat.
I do think it can be a wonderful tool if you’ve never done it — sometimes a real eye opener!
It can be a real eye opener for sure.
A food diary will certainly help track down food sensitivities for sure it is how I found my Kale intolerance.
yes they are a great way to track food sensitivities
I food dairy is so helpful! I recently became allergic to a ton of food I use to eat before, so tracking what I eat helps me identify the triggers in certain foods.
that is great that you have found it so helpful. Not great to have a lot of sensitivity!
I definitely think that tracking can be helpful at times to make sure that we’re fueling properly! I do it every now and then for a few days to get a general idea (I don’t like doing it daily as it becomes a bit obsessive for me).
It can become obsessive for some people. It can be really helpful to do a few times a week for a snapshot of your overall eating
I think a food diary is a great idea for everyone. I don’t do it all the time but if I’ve put on a few pounds or noticed some changes in how I feel (or my bathroom habits 🙂 ), I’ll track my food for a while so that I can figure out what’s going on. Great information.
I agree, it can be really helpful to get a snapshot of your overall nutrtition
My husband and son keep food logs but I do not. I feel like I am pretty good about my nutrition, but tracking opens the door to some unhealthy behaviors on my part.
I totally understand that it is not appropriate for everyone
So many runners underfuel, and keeping track can help show where to make some changes!
It definitely can be very helpful