In fact, sometimes you may even see a weight increase. Consider using a different method to track your progress. Measure your body fat percentage , or simply notice the difference in the way that your clothes fit.

Runners have special nutrition needs , but the basic principles for healthy eating still apply. Try choosing smaller portions of high-fat and high-calorie foods and eating more whole grains, proteins and whole fruits and vegetables. One common eating mistake among runners is that they overcompensate for the calories burned with extra calories from more food and beverages.

Some runners even find that they gain weight or hit a weight loss wall , despite their regular training. The first step to hitting your goal is knowing just how much you're eating. Use this calculator to learn how many calories you need for weight loss.

Be mindful of what you eat after you run. Refueling after exercise is important, but the way that you refuel is key if your goal is weight loss. The very act of exercise will increase your appetite as your body demands more calories to keep it running. If you are not careful and eat too much of the wrong foods, you may end up exceeding your energy demands.

Studies suggest that muscles are most receptive to rebuilding glycogen stores within the first 30 minutes after exercise.

The theory is if you eat soon after a long run or intense workout, you can minimize muscle soreness. Choose a portion-controlled snack after your run, such as a glass of chocolate milk, a banana and a cup of yogurt, or a post-run smoothie. At mealtime, focus on fiber and protein-rich foods to help keep you feeling full and satisfied.

Here are more tips to keep your diet on track include:. Running is an effective way to burn calories in a relatively short period of time. The number of calories you burn while running will vary based on your body size, your pace, and the running duration.

But as a very general guideline, many runners of average size estimate that they burn about calories per mile. Individuals who successfully lose weight and keep it off burn about 2, calories a week through planned exercise, according to statistics from the National Weight Control Registry.

Assuming an average of calories per mile, that's about 28 miles per week. It's important to note that this is more than the average runner completes in a week and is especially a lot for a new runner out of the gates. You should ease into your mileage and work up to a number that works for you, as overtraining poses an injury risk.

If running is your only form of exercise for weight loss, it is possible to reach that goal. Don't worry about your pace or the intensity of your run, just focus on getting the miles with a consistent weekly schedule.

Plan your runs in advance and schedule them like you'd schedule any other important event. Eventually, you will burn the calories you need to lose weight with running. The type of running workouts you do can play a role in the time it takes to lose weight. While there is no "best" running workout to lose weight, but you can maximize your weight loss potential by combining different types of training.

Consistency is key to any successful weight loss program, especially one that involves running. Running is a vigorous sport. It may be too vigorous for some to run every day or even every other day.

But if you exercise only occasionally you won't reap the benefits. Try combining running with other activities such as weight training, rowing, cycling, or hiking.

Try to do some type of physical activity on most days of the week. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, those who are most effective at weight loss participate in to minutes of moderate exercise per week.

When you exercise, the ratio of carbs and fat your body uses for fuel can change depending on the speed, duration, and intensity of the workout. Think of it in this way:. If your goal is to burn fat, it would seem reasonable to work out at a slower but steady pace, right?

Not necessarily. While exercising at a lower intensity will allow you to burn a greater proportion of calories from fat, working out at a higher intensity means that you're burning more calories overall.

To burn more calories when running, you would need to run at a higher intensity pace, roughly 80 percent or 90 percent of your maximum heart rate.

At this speed, you're not doing an all-out sprint, but you're working hard enough so that you're not able to carry on a conversation. Start by doing a minute run at around 80 percent to 90 percent intensity. Alternately, you can do interval training where you alternate between high- and low-intensity workouts.

As you progress and become more fit, you can extend the time of the intervals as well as the repetitions. Of course, you shouldn't run at this pace all of the time.

After strenuous activity of any sort, you need to give your body a chance to recover and rebuild itself. It is reasonable to complete one or two high-intensity runs per week.

On the other days of the week, complete longer runs that are less intense. These runs will feel more sustainable so that you can put in more miles and burn more calories. Lastly, to bust boredom and build strength, consider doing hill repeats or indoor treadmill runs.

An important part of your running training involves no running at all. Runners who lose weight and keep it off make strength training part of their regular routine.

Not only will you burn calories while you're strength training, but your increased lean muscle mass will improve your running performance. You'll be able to run faster and longer, and burn more calories when running.

Having lean muscle mass also helps you burn more calories in a day overall, even while at rest. Strength training also helps prevent running injuries , so you'll be able to maintain your commitment to exercise by staying injury-free.

Try doing resistance or weight training every week. Set aside time in your training routine for 2—3 sessions of 20—30 minutes of strength training each week. You don't have to lift heavy weights to make a difference. Simple body weight exercises can be effective.

Running can be an effective form of exercise when you are trying to lose weight. Running not only burns calories effectively, but it also builds strength and endurance. Combine a consistent running plan with strength training and healthy eating to slim down and increase your level of fitness.

Then use running to keep the pounds from coming back. You can burn fat more readily if you are in a fasted state simply because there are fewer carbs in your system. But this doesn't mean that you should work out on an empty stomach. In fact, running on an empty stomach may lead to shorter and less effective workouts.

Instead, start your morning with a to calorie snack packed with protein and carbs. This will give you ample fuel for a workout and may even act as an appetite suppressant once you're finished.

There is quite a bit of controversy about the best time to exercise. According to research, your exercise benefits are maximized when your body temperature is at its highest. For most people, that is between 4 p. and 5 p. However, the best time workout time for you depends on when you feel most motivated.

Schedule your runs at a time when you know that you will complete them. Many experts recommend morning runs because other activities are less likely to get in the way when you get out the door early.

However, morning workouts don't work for everyone. If you're not sure, try experimenting with different schedules to see which works best for you. Spot reduction will not occur with running or with any specific kind of exercise.

A very common area of concern for some runners is abdominal fat. While many people are concerned about the look of extra fat in the stomach area, there are health reasons to worry about fat in this area of the body.

Abdominal fat isn't just underneath your skin, it's also deep inside your body, around your vital organs.

This is called visceral fat and the more you have of it, the higher your risk of developing serious diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and breathing issues. For women, a waist size of under 35 inches helps reduce the risk of serious health problems associated with visceral fat.

For men, the target waist size is under 40 inches. The good news is that studies show that moderate- to high-intensity aerobic exercise such as running can help reduce visceral fat, even without changing your diet.

The number of carbohydrates should be adjusted based on your level of activity. Carbs serve as the primary energy source for running, especially if you are doing a long run or a fast-paced run — so the more you run, the more carbohydrates you burned.

On days of a hard workout or long run, adjust your. Protein is not just for bodybuilders; a study published in PLOS ONE concludes that endurance athletes need to eat more protein than previously recommended.

The researchers suggested 0. Protein plays a vital role in the repair of muscles after a hard workout — including after a run. Protein also is essential for the health of bones, ligaments, and tendons, as a protein in the bones and joints collagen is broken down during endurance exercise.

Without enough protein, your body cannot repair and support itself — which means you will be at higher risk for injury and not see the full adaptations from your workouts.

Ideally, you want to spread out your protein intake throughout the day. Research indicates that 30 grams of protein are the maximum amount that can be synthesized in a single sitting. Instead of eating a majority of your protein at a single meal, aim to eat about grams at each meal and grams at your snacks.

The quality of protein matters. If you choose protein powders, opt for natural ones with minimal ingredients such as whey and no added sugars. Not all carbohydrates are created equal — and the same applies to fats and proteins as well. Complex carbohydrates whole grains, fruit, vegetables , healthy fats nuts, seeds, olive oil, avocado , and lean protein chicken breast, lean beef, legumes, eggs, Greek yogurt all offer a wide variety of essential vitamins and minerals.

Simple carbohydrates, saturated fats, and fattier cuts of meat do not provide as many valuable nutrients and produce negative effects on the body, such as spiked insulin levels, increased risk of heart disease, and a generally sluggish and fatigued feeling.

Pick high-quality foods from natural sources such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, lean meats, legumes, and dairy. You will feel more satisfied with these foods and less likely to overeat, which will help manage healthy body composition.

The vibrant hues of seasonal produce indicate a powerful nutritional profile. Runners need more vitamins and minerals than the average person, especially nutrients such as iron, vitamin D, calcium, potassium, and magnesium. The more colorful the vegetable and the more variety of produce that you eat, the more of these essential nutrients you get.

Colorful foods such as blueberries, tart cherries, and turmeric also supply more antioxidants. Running places a large amount of stress on the body, especially if you are doing speedwork or long runs to prepare for an upcoming race. Antioxidant-rich foods can naturally combat training stress and help you recover quicker from your last workout better than any store-bought supplement.

Nutrition is not simply about what you eat — when you eat has an impact on your running as well. You can maximize your training and nutrition by timing some of your meals and snacks around your runs.

Eating before a workout will provide you with energy to run as far or as fast as you need to, especially if you will be running for longer than 30 minutes.

Strawberries, cranberries, and blackberries are other great berries for runners. They are rich in nutrients that fight free radicals and inflammation. Nuts are an excellent source of protein, fiber, and unsaturated fat—all of which you need to keep running at your best. The protein in nuts helps with muscle recovery.

Eating nuts regularly leads to a lower level of inflammation in the body, which can reduce your risk of injuries. Walnuts, cashews, almonds, and pistachios pack plenty of nutrients as well. Most other nuts are good for runners. They provide pre-workout fuel without weighing you down—provided of course you eat them at least an hour or two before you run.

Watch what you eat and drink and pay attention to the nutrients and electrolytes you are taking in—or missing. You can combine different foods into a pre-run recipe or post-run recipe you can create at home.

Try all the foods on our list and experiment with different fruits and veggies. Listen to your body to see how it reacts to them. Your body will tell you what foods work best for you. Remember that you have to enjoy the foods you eat.

There are many alternatives out there! Pick something else. Tip: After an intense workout or long run, reward yourself with some of your favorite healthy foods for runners. Having regular, unhurried meals is important for good digestion.

It will help your intestines absorb the most nutrients. With so many great foods around, do runners need supplements? The pace of modern life, time constraints, and other factors can make it difficult to eat optimal meals all the time.

Also, as a runner, you have higher dietary requirements than less active people so that every calorie and protein counts.

The best supplements for runners can boost your endurance and muscle and joint recovery, supplement your vitamin, iron, and electrolyte intake, and give you more energy for longer distances.

Many runners opt for protein and weight loss supplements. At the end of the day, supplements are not a substitute for a healthy diet, but they can give you the extra boost you need to run and feel at your best. And when they are all-natural, they work in harmony with healthy dietary choices.

So, time to try them? Carbohydrates are the main source of energy for running, so it is important to eat plenty of complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Protein is also important for repairing and building muscle tissue, so it is a good idea to include lean protein sources such as fish, poultry, and beans in your diet.

Fat is not essential for running, but it can provide a feeling of fullness and help you absorb fat-soluble vitamins. However, it is important to limit your intake of saturated and unhealthy fats.

An anabolic diet is a diet that is designed to promote muscle growth and repair. It is typically high in protein, moderate in carbohydrates, and low in fat.

An anabolic diet for runners may include the following foods:. The DASH diet is a diet that is designed to lower blood pressure. It is typically high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

A DASH diet for runners may include the following foods:. By following these tips, you can create a diet that will help you reach your running goals and improve your overall health and well-being.

The best snack foods for runners are those that are high in carbohydrates and protein. This will help to provide you with energy and help you to repair and build muscle tissue. Some good snack options for runners include:. The amount of food you should eat before a run will depend on the length and intensity of your run.

In general, it is a good idea to eat a light meal or snack about hours before your run. This will give your body time to digest the food and provide you with energy for your run.

Chris Zibutis is the Head Running Coach and founder of Joggo — that one person on earth who loves interval runs. He holds a degree from Copenhagen Business School and is an avid runner — having participated in numerous marathons and triathlons, Chris brings substantial fitness and running experience to the Joggo team.

Create a personalized running program and get expert guidance that will help you achieve your goals. Wondering how to start running? Excellent choice! Climbing stairs has long been a staple exercise for runners and other athletes. More than improving cardiovascular health, it can….

Is running a weekly habit for you? Or is it your favorite method to lose weight? Either way, with the…. Running App For beginners Running advice Training Nutrition Motivation. Start Now. Running advice Running to lose weight. By Chris Zibutis.

Share article:. In This Article:. Try Joggo for FREE We combined exercise and meal planning for the most effective way to LOSE WEIGHT. Claim my FREE trial. The Debate Continues.

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From Runner's World for Barilla. Snack Choices Can Sabotage Other Healthy Eating.

One key to eating enough to fuel your training is being aware of physical hunger, and honoring it with nutritious foods. After a training run or workout you may log it Strav a, or send your coach a note, with how it felt. You could use a pen-and-paper or online journal to check in regularly with how your nutrition changes feel to you.

Your energy levels, mood, sleep patterns, maybe some meals and recipes you love, and how you feel emotionally. These things are notable because a dramatic change in mood, trouble with sleep, low energy on the run or throughout the day, and daily bowel movements could be indicators that you are on the verge of overtraining.

If you reach this point, you can eat yourself out of overtraining , but it will take a long time to bounce back. Many commercial diets present an all-or-nothing strategy, which often leads to extreme cravings, fluctuations in weight both down and back up , and a low chance of successfully improving health and fitness.

The approach I endorse is that in which you ease up a bit on the food rules of right vs. wrong, healthy vs. unhealthy, clean vs dirty, or whatever categorical system of choice. Approach changes to your diet as you would a new training schedule; start with small changes first, and build on them to get to your goal.

Once you hit your stride with foods that give you energy, help you recover, and adequately fuel your health and training, take notice of what works for you. Plus, get a breakdown of how many calories you need to eat including how many carbs, proteins and fats you should target to lose weight.

Click here to get yours free. Heather Caplan is a registered dietitian and marathon runner in the DC area. She coaches runners for Team Amazing Day, and can be found through her website, heathercaplan.

com , for all coaching and nutrition inquiries. Your team of expert coaches and fellow runners dedicated to helping you train smarter, stay healthy and run faster. We love running and want to spread our expertise and passion to inspire, motivate, and help you achieve your running goals.

University of Virginia, Human Resources: S. Goal Setting MIT Medical: The Hunger Scale. If you took a class on nutrition, the very first thing you would learn is that there are three sources of calories: carbohydrates, fat, and.

I have been using athletic greens every single day for just over a year now and today I want to share with you both my. Your email address will not be published. Coach Tina. Now is as good a time as any! But proceed with caution and patience. What does it mean to eat with a 90 10 diet?

Runners think of food as fuel for training, but it should also be something you enjoy. mindset, not a calculation. Avoid the urge to cleanse your diet One of the popular diet approaches right now is cleansing. Instead, start with step number two.

Identify small changes, and start with one at a time Change your nutrition at the same pace you would increase your running: slow and easy, just a little bit at a time. Now: Identify what habits, or meals specifically, you want to work on.

Results showed that, on average, running 1 mile on the treadmill burned 33 more calories than walking, and running 1 mile on the track burned 35 more calories than walking 3. A report by Harvard University compared the calories burned over 30 minutes by people at three different weights and found similar results.

Specifically, they discovered that a pound kg person could burn calories in 30 minutes running at a moderate pace of 6 miles per hour 10 km per hour.

This is as many calories as are burned during vigorous swimming and martial arts, and even more than those burned during a minute game of basketball 4.

Running is an excellent choice of exercise for weight loss because it burns more calories than many alternatives. Doing any exercise regularly will help you lose weight, but only a few types of exercise will continue to burn calories even after you finish working out. High-intensity types of running like hill repeats and interval runs can continue to burn calories up to 48 hours after you work out 5.

These exercises use many muscles and need more energy afterward to recover. In one study, 10 men cycled for 45 minutes at an intense pace to calculate how many calories they burned after the workout and for how long.

The average participant burned calories during their workout and an extra calories over the 14 hours following the workout 7.

Cycling is simply a convenient way to measure calories burned in a controlled laboratory study. Many people try reducing their calorie intake by eating less food or changing the food they eat.

Unfortunately, these strategies may sometimes only increase hunger and make losing weight a challenge. Several studies have found that high-intensity running may combat this struggle by reducing your appetite after a workout 8 , 9.

The exact processes surrounding this response are unclear, but one way high-intensity running may reduce appetite is by suppressing the levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin and producing more satiety hormones like peptide YY PYY.

A study in 11 men found that running for 60 minutes or strength training for 90 minutes reduced ghrelin levels, compared to no exercise. Only running increased PYY production 8. Another study with nine men compared the effect of 60 minutes of running and no exercise on ghrelin production.

They found that running lowered ghrelin levels for three to nine hours in comparison to no exercise 9. Running may help you lose weight by lowering the production of hunger hormones and increasing the production of satiety hormones.

Many studies show a connection between belly fat and an increased risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and many other diseases 10 , Studies have found that moderate-to-high aerobic exercise like running can reduce belly fat , even without changing your diet 12 , 13 , An analysis of 15 studies and participants found that aerobic exercise reduced belly fat without any change in diet.

However, training at moderate-to-high intensity was most effective at reducing belly fat Lastly, a study of 45 healthy but inactive women found that high-intensity interval exercise three times per week significantly reduced body fat and belly fat, compared to steady pace exercise or no exercise Many studies have found that moderate-to-high intensity aerobic exercise like running targets harmful belly fat, even without dietary changes.

Aside from weight loss, running has been linked to many other health benefits. Along with weight loss, running can provide various health benefits, including a lower risk of heart disease, reduced blood sugar, lower cataracts risk, lower falls risk, stronger knees and less knee pain.

This includes good running shoes, a comfortable top, a water bottle and running shorts, tights or comfortable pants. It is highly recommended for women to wear a sports bra while running to reduce pain. Reflective gear is highly recommended as well if you plan on taking your run during early hours or late at night.

This will help to prevent any accidents. Running is easy to begin and requires minimal equipment. A beginner should aim to run for 30 minutes 3 or 4 days a week, including 5 minutes of warming up and cooling down.

As you can see above I tend to run something close to the Zone Diet and that works for my body and those post menopause and the way I train with Low Heart Rate burning more fat than carbs. Although our bodies require a wide variety of nutrients, the most important ones, referred to as macronutrients.

These can be divided into three categories:. Macronutrients, or macros for short, refer to a wide range of chemical compounds that our bodies require in large quantities for proper functioning.

Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals essential to function. Having a balanced diet is one of the most important things for a runner. A balanced diet for runners should consist mostly of complex carbohydrates, moderate amounts of lean protein, and sufficient amounts of healthy fats.

Protein is considered to be the building block of life. And so, these compounds are required to produce energy, maintain basic biological processes, and sustain life. Proteins are required for building, repairing, and maintaining cells, tissues, and organs throughout your body.

They are also necessary for other vital bodily functions such as metabolism, digestion, the generation of antibodies to combat infection, and so on. When your glycogen stores are depleted, protein can also be used as a source of fuel.

This is especially true during long hard training sessions and runs. Protein is made up of 20 different kinds of amino acids, all of which are required for optimal functioning. Only nine of these are considered essential amino acids.

These are the compounds that our bodies require but do not produce themselves. For this reason, not all proteins are created equal. Some are complete, while others are not. Complete proteins have all nine necessary amino acids. As a result, your body can quickly utilize them for protein synthesis, which is the process through which muscle tissue is built or repaired.

Animal products are the primary suppliers of complete proteins. You can get all the essential amino acids your body needs from most animal-based forms of protein such as chicken and beef, as well as eggs and fish.

As a result, if you consume incomplete proteins, your body will not be able to fully use them during protein synthesis. The majority of plant-based sources, such as vegetables, beans, grains, and nuts, are often lacking in one or more necessary amino acids.

The fact that incomplete proteins are incomplete does not imply that they are inferior. Nor does it imply that a plant-based diet cannot provide adequate complete proteins. Simply combining different plant-based foods can assist in providing your body with the necessary balance and amount of essential amino acids.

Protein expert Stuart Phillips, PhD from McMaster Univeristy says runners need a minimum is 1. A consistent period of being in calorie deficit means your body will begin to use muscles, not fat, to provide the energy you need for those long workouts.

When you eat carbs except fiber , your body breaks them down and turns them into glycogen which is a form of glucose. It then stores this glycogen in your muscles, liver, and bloodstream. These stores serve as a source of energy for your body.

When you run, glycogen reserves are transformed into energy, which contracts the working muscles. The more time and effort you put into your run, the more glycogen you use up. That is why eating too much of it causes weight gain. There are two types of cards: simple carbs and complex carbs.

Simple carbohydrates are found in everything from sugar to fruit, but complex carbohydrates, or starches, are found in whole grains and vegetables such as sweet potatoes. Each form of carbohydrate raises blood sugar levels but in a different way.

Simple carbohydrates, often known as sugars, are made up of shorter chains of molecules and digest faster than complex carbs.

Because of this, simple carbs cause a surge in blood glucose, providing the body with a short-term source of energy. AND is key to fueling during long runs or your marathon fueling strategy.

Simple carbs can be found in healthy meals like milk and whole fruits, which include a range of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. And of course in tons of processed foods like sugary drinks, candy, cookies and all the best energy gels for running.

Complex carbohydrates can also be found in unhealthy forms such as highly processed starches e. However, most are found in whole grains and vegetables such as sweet potatoes. In general, complex carbohydrates are unprocessed and contain a variety of essential nutrients and fiber that are naturally found in food.

Complex carbs also have a low to moderate calorie density, making them a key part of your daily diet to get enough nutrients.

Raise your hand if you started running to lose weight and then fell in love with running? But, as we increase mileage, add race goals, and try to continue to lose weight — this can get tricky. This sounds simple, but there are so many other factors that make this much less simple, such as changes in resting energy expenditure, genetics, daily habits, food choices, etc.

For these reasons, a weight loss journey will look different for everyone. First and foremost, ask yourself. Undercutting nutrition for weight loss is in direct competition with performance. When we consistently under fuel for weight loss, we are not supporting optimal performance in workouts and we sure as heck are not supporting recovery.

Think about it — as mileage increases, we need more energy. You will not replete glycogen stores. You will likely feel fatigued, sore, irritable and performance suffers. So, if you are in a training cycle, do not cut your energy intake to try to lose weight.

The safest and most sustainable way to lose weight is to surround your runs and workouts with solid nutrition. Nail your pre-run snack, fuel runs over 70 minutes, and rock that recovery nutrition. Then, skim a small energy deficit across your day.

We are not talking about skipping meals and snacks. We do not want large energy deficits during the day. Research has shown that women who cut more than calories per day can experience menstrual disturbances, amenorrhea, lower metabolism, higher cortisol, and lower hormone levels.

Men who cut out more than calories per day were more likely to have lower testosterone, lower metabolism, and greater muscle breakdown.

Hunger is the enemy of weight loss. Controlling hunger is key. If we skimp too much and are ravenous at 2 pm, we will face plant in all the snacks, and overeat later in the day or on the weekends.

If you are starting to get hungry… eat something! The best way to stay satiated is to eat balanced meals and snacks. But it is a pretty comprehensive list. And these are the ones that I talk about with my clients the most and the ones that we focus on the most, and the ones that seem to have the biggest impact on your weight loss.

The first one is this. And that principle is this: you cannot outrun a bad diet. The real thing that we have to understand, though, is that the biggest driver of your weight, the biggest driver of your overall body composition is not cardio, it is nutrition.

I work with runners who are in massive amounts of training, who are training for ultra marathons, and who gain weight during a training cycle. This happened to me several times, I was training for ultra marathons and was gaining weight.

And I was like, this does not make sense. I had a client a while back, who was running at least three miles a day. So he was doing at least a 5k every single day. And he had done this for seven straight years.

That is a lot of running. And he gained like 15 pounds in the process. So you cannot outrun a bad diet, what you eat is way more important than how much you run. So the second principle you have to understand is that if you want to lose weight, you have to burn fat.

We eat the kind of diet that really keeps our body storing fat. So I want to explain this process really quickly here. When you eat certain foods, like sugar, for example, this will spike your blood sugar, this will also cause a spike in the hormone insulin.

The other thing is though, every time insulin is present, your body is holding on to fat in its fat cells. And you cannot, you know, burn fat, you cannot lose weight while your insulin levels are high all the time. So really, what you want to do is you want to eat the kind of diet that keeps your blood sugar regulated, pretty normalized, and you got to get your body into fat burning mode and get out of fat storing mode.

Okay, so we are naturally good fat burners, human beings. We started eating more processed food, more junk food, a lot more snacking, a lot more sugar, and we are just storing and storing and storing that fat.

For times of famine, you can survive for a long time off of your own stored body fat. But we never put our bodies in the state where we can actually burn that fat. So really, you have to understand that there is a fat burning state that your body needs to be in, versus a fat storage state that your body might be in, right?

And in order to get the fat burning optimized, you have to eat a diet that regulates your blood sugar a little better. The next principle is the order in which your body burns fuel, you have to understand that we metabolize certain macronutrients in a certain order. So, the order that we metabolize different nutrients is like this.

First is alcohol. And it takes about 48 hours, 48 to 72 hours for your body to metabolize that alcohol fully, and get you back into fat burning mode.

So alcohol is number one. Number two is sugar. You eat a chocolate bar, some of that is going to be used for fuel. And some of that is going to be stored in your fat cells to be used as fuel later.

The next thing we can use as fuel is what we call exogenous fat. So that is fat that you eat. So if you eat, you know, some bacon, and then you go for a run, you might be using some of that exogenous fat as fuel, which is fine. You know, fat is not a bad fuel source. But you can use exogenous fat as fuel to some extent.

Okay, the next order of metabolites that your body will use as fuel would be stored body fat. So this is important to understand, because we want to limit the amount of alcohol and sugar.

But we want to, you know, limit the amount of sugar and alcohol especially that we are consuming in order for our body to kind of force our body to use its own stored body fat as fuel, okay?

So you want to get really good at burning your own stored body fat. So the typical way we think about this is just think of a fuel tank, and at the top of the tank is sugar and at the bottom of the tank is like your own stored body fat.

And you got to get rid of that sugar first you got to like get rid of that as a fuel source, you got to burn through that. And then you can start tapping into that stored body fat, okay.

So this is why it matters, the kinds of foods that you eat matter, more than just like calories, you know, calories do matter.

But just understand that it is important to eat the right kinds of foods and not go too crazy on the sugar side of things especially, or alcohol. Next principle, what you eat is more important than how much you eat. So the types of foods you eat, like I just was explaining here, matter more than the number of calories.

Yes, calories do matter. But typically, the right diet will help to regulate caloric intake, and do that in a way that is nice and easy and sort of effortless. The wrong diet, on the other hand, though, tons of carbs and tons of sugar will make you crave more of that stuff.

It will drive hunger up, it will cause you to overeat. And sugar especially because your body will respond to those things, and will release some hormones that make it very difficult for your body to regulate your hunger signals. Like ghrelin is the hunger signal, and it actually ramps up that signaling of that hormone when you eat more sugar.

Leptin is the fullness hormone. So we do carb loading in the days leading up to runs. And then after the run, we need to recover. So we eat a bunch more carbs. Or for some people, it really does not work at all, ever.

Next principle. The goal here is to eat a diet that helps to regulate your blood sugar. It causes overeating, it causes poor running performance too. It takes longer to recover from those harder workouts, sleep becomes compromised. So we want to make sure that we are doing the opposite of that, right?

Get to a diet that helps to regulate your blood sugar, and helps you to keep your blood sugar normalized. This is going to be key, okay. Next principle is this: all foods in moderation does not work for everyone.

So I hear a lot of people, especially dieticians, talk about all foods in moderation, like there should be no foods that are off the table, like you can eat everything, but just moderate, just moderate it. This is like telling somebody that has a drinking problem, just moderate your drinking.

So I think we have to be very careful when we lump everyone together and say everyone should be able to eat everything that they want. Just do it in moderation. I believe there are some foods that we should kind of stay away from and that or should be consumed very sparingly.

And that some people just have a very hard time doing that in moderation. Some of these foods, so why not just stay away from it? Some people can moderate their sugar intake, and maybe just have, you know, a piece of chocolate every now and then.

So the next principle is this. You need to avoid what I call the Vile Triumvirate. What is the Vile Triumvirate? The Vile Triumvirate does this. And for some people, it can be pretty dramatic, the health improvements and weight loss that you experience when you just stop doing these three things.

Moderating is hard, and we probably all need to eat a lot less of it. Okay, so sugar, all the forms of sugar, just get rid of that. Refined grains, those are wheat, corn, rice, oats. This spikes your glucose, in some cases, even higher than just eating pure sugar does.

Some people have a real problem with this stuff, right? So those are the big two. And then vegetable oils. These are just gross industrial seed oils. Stick with good healthy fats, you know, like olive oil, butter, ghee, coconut oil, that kind of stuff.

Those are all good for you. Avocado oil. Okay, just get away from that stuff. Okay, so what should you eat? I love this one. One of my favorites is eat real food. Just eat real food. Like sugar, flour and vegetable oil seem to be the three main ingredients in most junk food.

So food that still looks like food, you should be able to recognize that our ancestors should be able to recognize it. Oh, this is an apple. Oh, those are berries. My diet is so simple and so easy. That was my lunch.

And it was amazingly delicious. Or at least you know, it has a few ingredients, and you can pronounce them all. And you know what? If you just stick to these things, here we go: meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, eggs, dairy, tubers, potatoes, that kind of stuff.

Nuts, seeds, healthy fats, salt, spices, just eat that stuff. All right, next principle, say no to snacking. And again, we want to keep your blood sugar pretty regulated, right.

So just one of the easiest ways you can keep your meals spaced out and give your body a chance to tap into that stored body fat as fuel is to just stop snacking. Snacking is not hunger. Real hunger means you can sit down and eat a meal. Can you eat a meal? If the answer is I want like six nuts.

Come on. Give your body a chance to burn fat. Do that instead, right? And the food industry, they introduced all these packaged snacks that cater to our basic cravings for sugar, salt and fat.

And by the 80s, by the s, people were eating snacks everywhere at home, at work, at school, while in the car, walking down the sidewalk.

We did not evolve to snack all day long, right? This was never a thing until like the 50s. It is a relatively new thing. Okay, say no to snacking. Okay, this leads me to my next principle, which is this.

The food companies do not care about your health. They just want you to eat more of their garbage. They do not care about you know, your health, you are not their priority. Their priority is selling more food. So they make their foods hyper palatable.