Life is all about balance when it comes to both our training and our eating habits. It's important that you're establishing sustainable routines that make you happy, fit in with the rest of your life, whilst helping you to achieve your goals. While there is nothing that we would advise you against eating, foods that are high in refined sugar or saturated fat are often better enjoyed in moderation.

A good place to start when it comes to day-to-day nutrition is aiming for three balanced meals per day, consisting of carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats. Prioritising fresh, whole-food sources and reducing reliance on processed alternatives is a great habit to build, but sometimes convenient options are helpful just before a workout or during your carb-load.

Running puts a lot of stress on your body, so you need to fuel adequately to ensure you can recover and repair, and become fitter and stronger. We like to use the analogy between our bodies and a car; when you drive further, you'll burn more petrol and need to fill up the tank more. The same can be said for running. As you build up your mileage, or enter a bigger training day/week, you're going to need to put more in your 'tank'. This brings us nicely onto calories.

Simply put, calories refer to the amount of energy within a given item of food.

You'll need to balance daily/weekly caloric intakes with your total energy expenditure to maintain weight and normal body functions, and support optimal training adaptations. In other words, when you increase your running intensity and volume, you'll need to increase your energy intake to match it.

Our TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is the sum of three figures. Our BMR (basal metabolic rate) is the number of calories it takes to run our vital organs and sustain daily life (60 - 75% of your daily calories). Our activity thermogenesis is the amount of calories burned from moving our bodies (15 - 30% of daily calories). Finally, the thermic effect of food is the energy required to process and digest food (10% of daily calories). If you'd like to estimate your daily calorie intake or TDEE, you can use a simple calculator online.

To give you a bit of a reference point, the recommended intake for an average, sedentary male is 2500 calories daily, and 2000 for the average sedentary female. Like the previous driving analogy, this number will go up or down depending on your daily activity and is influenced by a number of factors including your height, weight and genetics.

Each gram of fats, carbs and protein contains 9, 4 and 4 calories respectively.

While fat is the most calorie-dense macronutrient, our bodies are much quicker at digesting and utilizing carbohydrates. Carbs are rapidly broken down into glucose, the body’s preferred energy source - especially during physical activity. That’s why carbohydrates are the go-to fuel before and during exercise. They provide fast, accessible energy that helps sustain performance, delay fatigue, and keep you going strong throughout your workout!

Fats v Carbs is a common debate on the nutrition topic with lots of myths out there making the topic all the more confusing. While you need both to be a healthy adult, from a day-to-day perspective, neither is necessarily better than the other. You should look to meet your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) with a combination that suits your taste buds and keeps you feeling full and energised throughout the day. Some people choose to consume more carbs and some a higher ratio of fats - there is no right or wrong here - simply work out what suits you best, what foods you enjoy and take it from there.

Protein is the nutrient source that helps to repair and grow your cells. This makes it super important when you're looking to get stronger, faster and more powerful, whilst also recovering from your fatiguing training sessions. You should aim to eat 1.6 - 2 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight per day, but including some high-quality protein within each meal should be enough!

Contrary to popular belief, snacking is not a bad thing! Having a snack before you head out running is often a good idea to support your training. Additionally, a mid-morning and late-afternoon snack can help to maintain attention, concentration and bolster energy levels across the day - particularly during heavy training periods.

Whilst it may be tempting to order that muffin with your coffee (and that is totally fine), exercise moderation and try to balance the sweet treats with snacks lower in refined sugar - unless you're about to workout. Daily snack ideas include nuts, rice cakes and nut butter, yoghurt and fruit, a protein bar or homemade flapjack.

If you're craving another snack, we suggest having a drink first, waiting 30 minutes then seeing if you're still hungry. Sometimes it may be that you're just dehydrated!

On that note - hydration. An inactive adult should be looking to drink a minimum of 2 litres of water daily. However if you're exercising and/or have a high sweat rate, then you'll need to consume significantly more. We would advise that you drink regularly throughout the day to keep your hydration levels topped up!

To read more about how to fuel, pre, post and during your running sessions, check out our article covering this topic.
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