Food for marathon training

macinalli

Hi all,

I'm fairly active - cycle each day to work (about 100 km a week), play astro soccer, do a bit of running etc. Recently though I've signed up for the Connemarathon and am doing a lot more running (about 40 km a week at the moment) while still keeping the cycling going. Since upping the training though, I've noticed that my appetite has gone through the roof!

The foods I'd eat are fairly normal - cereal/granola for breakfast, sandwich at lunch, dinner in the evening. What I'm noticing though is the amount of food I'm putting away. Dinners are not small, but I'm still hungry more often and end up taking more snacks. Are there any foods that I should be including in my diet to get over these hunger pangs? Any help appreciated!

g'em

Moved to Marathon/ Triathlon forum

Stupid_Private

The simplest response would be to make sure you're getting enough carbs. Plenty of pasta, potatos, bread, rice etc.

trinewbie

I am in the same boat, began training for triathlons around a year ago and my apetite grew. I began my serious training for Paris marathon just before chistmas and my appetite exploded. My girlfriend thought I had worms.

I usually start with something fairly substantial for breakfast, something with slow energy release, a whooper bowl of porridge or 5 weetabix does the trick, on top of that I would usually have a few portions of fruit and maybe some wholmeal brown bread or a low fat bagel.

Lunch for me is usullay rice/pasta with some sort of grilled meat or fish and another pice of fruit. I usually snack on nuts throughout the afternoon. No dodgy refernces please.

I tend to stay away from whote bread as it doesnt ill me. Its differerent for everyone I suppose. My appetite usulally can fluctuate depending on how much I am training a given week

hunnymonster

macinalli, Can you just clarify for us, do you want to lose weight and you are concerned with your snacking?

macinalli

I'm not too bothered really about losing weight, I'm probably a little bit over at the minute but nothing much. The snacking is a concern as I could easily pick away on whatevers to hand all afternoon.

It's more of an overall diet thing I suppose - I just haven't been as active as this before and I'm surprising myself with how much I'm eating. As a rule, is it better to have your main meal of the day at lunch-time?

hunnymonster

no, it's better to have your total calories spread pretty evenly throughout the day. The nutritional forum is a great place to look for information on eating properly in general. There are calculators there to estimate how many calories you need to eat for your gender, age, activity levels etc. If you're not putting on weight then don't worry too much about the snacking. Try to eat good foods (high quality, low processing) rather than junk but snack is not a bad word.

macinalli

Excellent, cheers for the tips folks, I'm off for my elevenses!