May 2, 2025 • 51 mins
Today, we’re tackling a topic that so many runners struggle with—how to fuel properly to prevent GI distress. Whether you’ve experienced mid-run stomach cramps, bloating, or the dreaded emergency bathroom stop, you know how much gut issues can derail your performance. So, how can you fuel smarter and run stronger?
Fuelling endurance while balancing gut health is a topic I work with many of my coaching clients on, and joining me in this discussion is fellow Dietitian Stephanie Small!
⏱️ Chapters:
- (0:00) – Intro
- (1:29) – Today’s Topic & Our Guest: Stephanie Small, Sports Dietitian & PhD Student
- (3:14) – Stephanie’s Background & Current Work
- (8:08) – Why Fueling Matters for Runners
- (10:30) – Fueling Before Short & Long Runs
- (13:04) – Is Fasted Running Helpful?
- (16:38) – When & How to Fuel During Long Runs
- (20:29) – Fat as Fuel? Why It’s Not Ideal for Performance
- (23:40) – Avoiding GI Issues While Fueling
- (27:32) – Gels vs. Real Food: Budget-Friendly Fueling
- (37:04) – Carb Loading Explained & Practical Tips
- (46:06) – Final Tips for Half & Full Marathon Nutrition
—
👤 Today’s Guest: Stephanie Small RD MPh
Stephanie is a Toronto-based Sports Dietitian, PhD student, and the owner of Stephanie Small Coaching. She specializes in helping athletes—from marathon runners and triathletes to MMA fighters and corporate professionals—optimize their performance through science-driven, realistic nutrition strategies.
Not only does Stephanie bring her expertise as a dietitian, but she’s also an accomplished endurance athlete herself. She’s completed a 50k ultramarathon, three marathons, three half-marathons, and is currently training for an Ironman in 2025!
📌 Stefanie's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniesmall.rd/
📌 Stefanie's Website: https://stephaniesmallcoaching.com/
—
👩🏻💻 RESOURCES & LINKS MENTIONED: ⤵️
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📌 Pre & Post-Workout For a Happy Gut Mini Course
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Our guts can handle about 60 grams per hour of glucose and
about 30 grams per hour of fructose.
And these are averages, right? So some people can tolerate more
or less giving the scenario. And fructose in itself is also
can be very unique. So fructose has a higher
osmolality. So it can actually bring water
into the GI system quite quicklyand could also cause some GI
(00:23):
issues. So with the big, I think
popularization in trying to eat clean foods, so some people
would result on things like dates for fueling because the
primary sugar is going to be in there is fructose, it could
cause this sense of like bringing too much water into the
gut causing some GI distress. Welcome to the Gut Fit Nutrition
(00:44):
Podcast, the show where we dive deep into the world of gut
health, nutrition and fitness tohelp you unlock your best self
from the inside out. I'm your host Lee Morado, a
registered dietitian, gut healthexpert, long distance runner and
movement enthusiast on a missionto.
Empower you with science. Backed whole body strategies to
fuel your body, heal your gut, and thrive in your active life.
(01:05):
Whether you're here to finally break free from IBS and
digestive symptoms, optimize your fitness performance, or
learn how to support your gut health with natural strategies,
you're in the right place. Each week, we'll explore topics
like conquering digestive symptoms, building a gut
friendly lifestyle, enhancing endurance and strength
performance, and more. So grab a cup of your favorite
gut friendly tea and settle in because we're about to get gut
(01:28):
fit together. Today we're tackling a topic
that so many runners struggle with how to fuel properly to
prevent GI distress. Whether you've experienced mid
run stomach cramps, post run bloating, or the dreaded
emergency bathroom stop during an important race, you know how
much gut issues really can derail your performance.
(01:50):
So how can you fuel smarter and run stronger?
To help us break it all down andhave a really in depth
discussion with me and this is atopic I talk with.
A lot of. Clients About I'm super thrilled
to introduce our guest today, Stephanie Small.
Stephanie is a Toronto based sports dietitian, PhD student
and the owner of Stephanie Smallcoaching.
(02:12):
She specializes in helping athletes from marathon runners
and triathletes to MMA fighters and corporate professionals
optimize their performance through driven, realistic
nutrition strategies. With over 8 years of experience
and having worked with more than200 athletes, she knows exactly
how to make fueling plans that fit seamlessly into any
lifestyle. Not only does Stephanie bring
(02:34):
her expertise as a dietitian, but she's also a avid endurance
athlete herself. She's completed a 50K ultra
marathon, 3 full marathons, 3 half marathons, and is currently
training for an Iron Man in 2025.
Let's get into today's discussion.
All right. Hello.
Stephanie, welcome to the show. Yeah, thank you for having me.
(02:55):
I appreciate it. Yeah, awesome.
I think the first time we met actually was when you were doing
the talk on on carb loading at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
Yeah. So we'll connect to our topic
for today, which which I'm very excited to chat about.
Just to get started, I guess. Do you want to explain a little
(03:15):
bit about yourself, what what you do, where you're working
right now? And yeah, just share, share more
about yourself. Yeah.
Absolutely. I'm a registered dietitian.
I specialize kind of in the endurance nutrition realm.
Kind of fell in love into the, the sports side of it about, I
don't know, 7-8 years ago. And like the endurance space is
(03:37):
just a very unique space from a nutrition perspective.
So I think that's where I kind of hone in on it.
There are some other areas that I work with as well, such as
combat sports, which also again,have their unique challenges.
But on top of being a registereddietitian, I'm also in my PhD
right now at the University of Toronto in the kinesiology
program. So along with my love of
(03:59):
nutrition, I love to to researchit as well.
So part of my work is taking a look at nutritional intervention
in a clinical population, so specifically cardiovascular
disease and or survivors. Awesome.
OK. Yeah, when I I saw doing your
PhD private practice and then you're also training for a full.
(04:21):
Well, you're doing a half and then a full.
Iron, yeah. That you should write a do a
course on like time management as well cuz that's.
Gotta be. Tricky to like, balance and all.
Oh my Google Calendar is crazy but it is my life so.
Yeah, We'll have to do another episode on like training, how to
balance your training with working full time.
So actually on that notes, is this your, is that your first
(04:44):
like full Iron Man that you're training for or?
Yeah, so I'm doing the Panama City Iron Man in November and
I've, I grew up watching it cuz that's where I'm from.
And working with endurance athletes, I've always been
inspired to do what I just neverfully committed.
I've done an ultra as kind of like the furthest I've gone, but
they had a client. He was like, he can't poke in
(05:06):
me. He's like, you can do it, you
should do it. So I kind of bit the bullet this
year and yeah, I'm having fun with it so far.
It's very exciting. Awesome.
Yeah. So you have a boat, I guess
still like seven months or so totrain.
And then I saw you're doing that.
Is it 1/2? Yeah, I'm doing the Muskoka
half, so it's a hilly course. So I was told that's like a
(05:26):
really good testament if like you can prepare yourself for a
fool. So I will say we'll see how that
one goes. But I I'm once I set a goal, I'm
pretty dead set. So I'm I'll likely still do the
Panama City one no matter what. Yeah, yeah.
Awesome. I'll actually be in Huntsville
that weekend. There's like a trail nice on the
Yeah yeah, the Limberlocks Challenge, which is really fun.
(05:49):
So last year we we watched on the Sunday because we did it
last year too. We watched the finisher.
So I'll try to get there around the time that you might be
finishing and maybe we can show you I.
Appreciate it. Yeah.
There's a nice like uphill at the end so you'll need that.
Yeah, I've heard. Yeah, Yeah.
(06:10):
I guess just, yeah, getting intoit a little bit more, I guess
what what got you interested in in like sports nutrition
specifically and then working with runners and endurance
athletes? Like is that just from being
endurance athlete yourself or what sort of got you into that?
Yeah, I I'm actually growing up,I was not a very athletic child.
(06:32):
Like when people asked if I did sports growing up.
No, I was, I was in the library studying.
That's where I was at. I did not like gym class was not
athletic, but kind of in the later of my high school years, I
did find running kind of like asan additional outlet and I found
that it made me feel good, thosesort of things.
I think at the time it was a little bit more misguided,
misrected for weight loss. And so there was that period.
(06:55):
But as I kind of transitioned into college, I, I wanted to do
something in healthcare, but I didn't want to be a physician.
And at the time when I entered college, I've never heard of a
dietitian. I grew up in a really small
town, so that wasn't even like something that crossed my mind.
And so I attended a intro to exercise science class, which is
kind of the program everyone enters into when they want to do
(07:17):
healthcare. And so we had a couple weeks
there where we had no chiros andphysios come in.
But then we had a double sessionwhere someone spoke about their
sports nutrition research pairedwith a sports dietitian, right?
And so that's kind of how I ended up in both worlds because
after that talk, I was like, their, their lives sound really
(07:38):
amazing. I, it sounds absolutely
fascinating. So I started volunteering at the
smoothie bar at the university Iwas at under the dietician.
And then I started volunteering in the research lab.
And so it kind of really took off from there.
I just, I'm fascinated at how wemetabolize energy, nutrient and
those sort of things. Yeah, and how, just how it can
(08:00):
affect. Performance.
And recovery. And also digestion.
Today's chat. Yeah.
So just to get into it, I guess,why don't you take us away with
sort of talking about why, why fueling for running is so
important. I know I talk about it a lot
with clients too. But for everyone listening,
(08:20):
let's just go through the basicsof like why it's important and
why you want to make sure that you're adequately feeling, I
guess, on a regular basis and then also feeling properly like
before your runs. And then we'll get into the
longer runs. Yeah, absolutely.
Well, if we separate your, your nutrition from day-to-day
nutrition was running versus kind of around workout
(08:42):
nutrition. So you have those two buckets
day-to-day nutrition, if you're not feeling adequately there,
you're not only hurting your runperformance, but you're also
hurting yourself the rest of theday.
So from a cognitive perspective,sleep depending on like the
severity of the fluoric deficit,it could be that hormonal
impact, those sort of things. So like the way you function on
(09:04):
a day-to-day basis is, is truly impacted about how often you're
feeling, what you're feeling with and all those great things.
And then on the other hand, in the other bucket, when it comes
around training, that's going tobe more so how you feel during
the actual run, you know, are you feeling strong?
Can you push forwards and when you feel good when you run,
those are likely when you're having the adaptation.
(09:26):
So it's also worthwhile to have an adaptation so that running
can feel good and how you can continue to progress.
And even if you're not racing, it minimizes the risk for injury
and keeps that enjoyment in place with running.
Yeah. And would you say that applies
to maybe like for someone who maybe goes out and runs like 2-3
(09:47):
times a week, but it's for to run 20 to 30 minutes, Is that
going to be as important for someone who is maybe running
like a really high mileage and they're training like 5-6 days a
week? Yeah.
I think, I think it's still going to be as important, but
the impact may not be as large, right.
So if you're expending a lot more, having higher mileage,
(10:07):
then obviously you're going to have it a little bit more focus
on that nutrition around your runs.
If you're just going out for a 20 and 30 minutes run jog or for
enjoyment, you still would benefit from the nutrition
around there. It just you may not have as
large of a degree of impact if you did, right, just because it
is a shorter duration. Yeah.
(10:29):
OK. And then getting into just like
the fueling and setting yourselfup for the run sort of what's
what sort of your like take away, I guess when you ask
someone feel properly before, before those sessions, whether
it's like a shorter run and thengetting into longer runs and
even like workouts or track sessions.
(10:50):
Yeah, at the base minimum is starting to practice having
something right before, whether you're working out at 5:00 AM or
6:00 PM, having some type of simple, easily digestible
carbohydrates kind of in that, you know, 15 to 30 minutes prior
to heading out the door can be extremely impact.
And I know at the end of the day, we have research that
(11:11):
suggests that as long as your total carbohydrates are there
and you had a high carb meal within 3 to 4 hours, you're
likely still going to perform during that run.
But it's one thing to be able toperform, but also to feel good,
right? And a lot of my clients and
myself included, I find that when we run with something, you
know, on the stomach and, you know, fresh blood glucose in the
(11:32):
bloodstream, it just makes a difference on how you feel at
the end of the run. If you're able to kind of push,
if you had strides or intervals,then you're really able to
maximize those efforts there as well.
And then if anything, even if itwas a slow 20 to 30 minute jog,
you're already ahead of the gamenow for that post recovery
period because you had that feelbeforehand.
(11:55):
And by simple digestible carbohydrate, you know, we're
looking at, you know, fruits date part of the two biggest
one. But my client also used things
like honey and Maple syrup are pretty popular.
If you can stomach it, you know,some toast with maybe a light
spread of peanut butter or jam. So it's quite flexible.
(12:16):
I even have some athletes that use cereal and milk if they can
tolerate it. OK.
And then I guess in terms of like the amount of
carbohydrates, like the longer the run that you'll be doing
when we get into like long runs,maybe you're up to 90 minutes or
longer than obviously we're going to need more carbs and
probably have to start feeling abit earlier for those runs.
(12:39):
Yeah, I always have a general rule of thumb if you want, you
know, 15 to 30 grams of carbohydrates before the run per
hour. Again, there's some give or take
there, but if you're about to gofor a three hour run, you would
probably be better off if you fed yourself with a 1675g
carbohydrates, maybe pancakes and syrup style versus just an
applesauce, which could probablysuit well for something that's
(13:00):
30 to 45 minutes long. Yeah, so you don't recommend
fasting running? I do not.
Well, there there's research to say that, you know, fasting can
improve adaptation that's only done in the elite performances.
And when we talk about elite athletes, they really are the, I
(13:22):
guess unicorns per SE when we look at them metabolically, like
they they don't metabolize things the same.
Just because they're able to perform at such a high
cardiorespiratory capacity, we can't compare that to
recreational athletes. And so while your favorite
athlete or marathon rather may be doing some FAFSA workouts,
which actually your top ten don't do that necessarily, it
(13:45):
may not benefit you just becausethere's a difference in
metabolic function just from thea performance perspective.
Exactly. I guess even when it comes to
minimizing like digestive distress, I know specifically
faster training when you're getting into like efforts that
are more more intense like styleruns or getting into like your
(14:08):
longer running where you're justlike out there for longer,
faster training specifically cansure you can speak to this as
well. Yeah.
It's sort of like intestinal permeability cause sort of like
inflammatory reactions and then we get that like natural surge
of cortisol for those sessions to like fuel us help relief
(14:28):
release blood glucose. But if we do those sessions
fasted, it can cause like an amplified response of cortisol
and then we can actually get more of like those GI symptoms.
So especially for if someone were to maybe prioritize when
they're doing fasted run, maybe it's much less impactful if
they're doing, you know, a really short, easy run first
thing in the morning. But if they're doing further
(14:50):
sessions or long runs, then that's where we really don't
want to get into the fasted realm.
Is that doctor? Would you add anything?
No, I did. I think that was pretty small.
But it's funny, we actually see this in it's, it's mainly
studying like religious style fasting, but we see the
reintroduction of food even after about a 24 to 48 hour
fast. We see the influx of
(15:12):
inflammatory cytokines, increaseintestinal permeability and
those sort of things, which is interesting because you know, I
think fasting, it's this notion that it is very repair and
recovery, but the transition of reintroducing foods can still be
really harsh on the body. So when you're deciding to fast,
if you do fast religiously and most of the time they do
encourage like slow reintroductions of foods, but
(15:34):
doing purposeful fasting really doesn't seem to have any sort of
additional benefit. You know, as long as you're not
eating for chronically 16 hours of the day, fasting is not going
to have a long term health benefit per SE.
Yeah, yeah, a lot of like mixed.Yeah.
(15:55):
I generally recommend like an overnight fast.
Like I tell clients not not to eat too late into the night time
and allow like roughly like 12 hours overnight.
Just we've shown that helps sortof digestive cleansing activate.
You let your organs rest and repair and not focus on
digestion. And then sleep is better when
you're not, you know, your body's not focusing energy on
digestion, it's focusing on likerepair and recovery.
(16:17):
So but yeah, more is not better and especially for like elite or
people who have really high training volume, trying to yeah,
stuff all your food into like a small eating window is usually a
recipe for disaster. So.
Absolutely. And then that also can cause
problems in itself as well, right?
So. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, yeah. And then getting getting into
(16:38):
it, I guess let's talk a little bit about fueling for longer
run. So sort of walk us through when
someone might want to think about intra workout fueling or
taking in forms of calories during the runs or extended
sessions. Yeah, Typically when you're
starting to hit that 75 minute threshold mark is only really
(16:59):
want to start considering havingfuel and some people use the 90
mark. But let's say 75 to 90 minute
mark tends to be a really good rule of thumb of when you want
to start introducing those carbohydrates.
And that's primary because the the amount of carbohydrates that
you have stored in your muscle really only last about 90
minutes long. And if we start to see those
(17:20):
stored carbohydrates in the muscle go down, that's when we
start to see fatigue. So when someone is bonking in a
marathon or even some sort of long distance event, typically
we see a complete depletion of these carbohydrates stores in
the muscle tissue. And in order to spare that those
carbohydrates, we really want tostart to have fueling beforehand
(17:41):
just to kind of preserve that and use that when we absolutely
need it, but relying on those digestible, easy digestible
carbohydrates during the training as well.
So roughly 7590 minutes or longer, we want to think about
fueling. I know that yeah, the resources
online is kind of a mixed recommendation, but I guess for
most, most athletes, you can kind of see like, you know how
(18:04):
hard you're working. I think if you're.
Maybe. Work out within a long run then
you may stick to the quarter end.
If it's really slow and easy then maybe you can get away with
the 90 minutes. And then you said, did you,
sorry, did you touch on the grams of carbs per hour or
generally how much you? Recommend.
Yeah, I did not. So the general recommendation
(18:25):
for up to 4 hours is going to bethat 30 to 60 grams if you're
going beyond four hours. And that's where we start to see
the recommendations jump to 60 to 90 grams per hour.
And in certain populations, depending on intensities, we see
some of your elite cyclists going up to 120 grams per hour.
But again, they're typically cycling for you know, 678 hours
(18:47):
of the day. Now I will say like when we do
start to get into those events that are longer than four hours,
ultra event and whatnot, it can get a little bit more tricky.
I would the introduction of fat and just when total calories is
a concern. But if we're focusing on mainly
running in at the half to full marathon distance, 30 to 60
(19:10):
grams per hour. If you are running at a higher
pace in intensity, I encouraged a favor closer to that 60, even
tracking up to 75 depending on the type of athlete that I'm
working with and what they can tolerate.
This is true. I guess as your heart rate
climbs and you're working at like a higher heart rate, your
body is burning through more. Yeah.
(19:32):
So if you're really racing a hard marathon, you do actually
need more cars going out. Yeah, a little bit of a slower
effort. I was actually, well, maybe it
was like a year ago I went into,it was like a popular running
store in Toronto and we were looking at like different gel
products and I didn't yeah, the sales associate there was like
(19:55):
asking us what we were looking for and we just said we were
looking for it to try different gels.
I wanted to like, I like experimenting.
Yeah, of course nutrition products just like so I can talk
about them with clients, but looking at different gels and I
remember him asking and I didn'tdisclose that I was a dietitian,
but he. He asked like how long we were
running for and I said, you know, long runs were about an
(20:17):
hour and a half to two hours. And he actually said like you
don't, you probably don't need to be taking in anything during
that because your body's like burning fat for fuel.
So you really don't need to be taking in anything if you're
running like slowly. So I had some things to say
that, but I'd wonder what you what would your response be if
(20:37):
you encountered someone? Like that, yeah, I think that's
a good question. And I do the same.
I don't typically disclose I'm adietitian when I'm in stores
sometimes. You know, I think we it's kind
of brought to the notion that utilizing fat as fuel is this
like magic superpower. But in reality that's not the
(20:58):
case. So Doctor Louise Burke has done
a phenomenal series of studies on fat adapted athletes or
having a higher fat intake when it comes to more of these
endurance style sports. And so when we start to
metabolize faster, that is our primary energy source because
that's what's most available. And that's what would happen in
this scenario. If you're going to that 2 hour
(21:19):
mark and not having anything in your run, it requires more
oxygen to metabolize your fat sources.
So when we see this utilization of fat sources, OK, it requires
more oxygen. So now the heart is having to
hump faster to get some more oxygen to the to the muscle
tissue. And so when we have the heart
beating faster with them, we also have our lungs breathing
(21:41):
faster because it's got to keep up with that exchange of oxygen.
So we see a higher heart rate, ahigher perceived effort.
So it feels harder even though the effort may not be harder.
And we we see an increased rate to fatigue.
So people are typically not ableto run as long at a certain
intensity when they are relying mostly on fat for their primary
(22:03):
energy source. So it's, it is not necessarily
superpower. If anything, it's going to maybe
be more harmful to your runs andit could potentially slow
adaptation, right. So even kind of in that post
workout in recovery phase, your body, I guess Simply put, it's
like, OK, I use fat, we're goingto create the enzyme so that we
(22:26):
could metabolize fat. But that, again, is still not
the most efficient way to do so.If we were to fuel
carbohydrates, your body's goingto be really efficient at
utilizing carbohydrates, which we know turned out to be better.
Physiologically, that keeps the heart rate lower, perception of
fatigue is lower, breathing rateis lower.
So physiologically, it just it makes sense to fuel with
(22:50):
carbohydrates and not as I rely on those, Yeah.
Exactly. Or even as we went to before,
not not doing it fasted because you can then contribute to the
risk for GI issues. I guess even like for a lot of
runners too, maybe like leaner. And then we also want to try to
preserve our muscle mass becauserun faster.
(23:12):
So if we're, you know, not taking in fuel, any fuel during
the long runs, then our body's going to draw on some fat
stores, but also like our muscletissues going to make us lose
more muscle, which most of us don't want.
Right, exactly do. Everything we get, yes, I had
that response, but you feel the same.
(23:37):
And I guess when it comes to thinking about like GI issues, I
know I've had a lot of like runners say when they do take in
fuel during long runs and then even, you know, maybe when
they're actually racing their half marathon or marathon, they
experienced GI issues. So stool cramping, nausea,
vomiting. So what would you say or maybe
(23:57):
like some of the the key mistakes people make when it
comes to fueling like those extended runs in the context of
like sort of setting them up formaybe more digestive issues or
how can they avoid GI issues? Yeah, absolutely.
I do tend to have a common view.I will say I do find most of my
patients either fall in the bucket of like they can eat a
(24:19):
full pizza before they run and they're OK and then sensitive
stomach, right? I would say one of the number
one things is brushing the process too fast, right?
So we hear the recommendation of30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates
per hour. And so most of the time I do see
individuals are like, oh, I wantto take in 60 grams of
carbohydrates per hour. And without, yes, if your, your
(24:44):
stomach's not used to it becauseit's not that you're just taking
in food, but you're now taking in food and you have almost this
jostling sense going around because you're running.
And it could just be, I guess, arecipe for disaster.
So it can sometimes result in dumping, which is when food is
in the stomach and goes into theintestines too fast.
And then that can cause crampingor runners trots and those sort
(25:07):
of things. So bumping up too fast tends to
be something I see often. And then the type of
carbohydrate can be impactful aswell.
So we have trying not to put tootoo much of my sciency brain on,
but we have different types of carbohydrates.
(25:29):
So most prominently we see glucose and fructose.
Fructose we're going to see a lot more in some of our natural
sugar sources such as fruits andthose sort of things.
Glucose is going to be what we find in most sugar based
products. It's the base component of table
sugar. As far as our gut, our guts can
handle about 60 grams per hour of glucose and about 30 grams
(25:51):
per hour of fructose. And these are averages, right?
So some people can tolerate moreor less giving the scenario.
And fructose in itself is also can be very unique.
So fructose has a higher osmolality, so it can actually
bring water into the GI system quite quickly and could also
cause some GI issues. So with the big, I think
(26:13):
popularization in trying to eat clean foods, so some people
would result on things like dates for fueling because the
primary sugar is going to be in there is fructose.
It could cause this sense of like bringing too much water
into the gut causing some GI distress.
So types of carbohydrates I findtend to be another area of
(26:34):
concern. And then the last one I would
say would be electrolytes. I think electrolytes have been
really hyped up over the past few years and I have my personal
opinions about electrolytes. I don't think we need to be
replenishing them at the rate that we are seeing some
athletes. I saw triathlete, elite
(26:55):
triathlete, he had posted that he was consuming like 3000
milligrams of sodium an hour because that's what his sweat
rate test said he lost per hour.And I'm just like, that's a
recipe for disaster for like forheart problems for one.
But too many electrolytes can also cause GI distress.
And I'm actually seeing that more and more because there is
(27:15):
this big push for electrolyte. And then also electrolytes are
in a lot of the gels that we seeas well.
So you're having the liquid electrolyte plus them in the gel
and it's just again, too much for the GI system to handle?
Yeah, and even with electrolytes, we do forget that
we can get them from food as well.
(27:36):
Putting a little salt on your meals and then eating magnesium
and potassium we get from a lot of plant based foods, fruits,
vegetables, full grain. So I mean being mindful of like
those foods around you're running, but you know, getting
on a daily basis, we can, you know, replace them and we don't
have to be taking and not everyone has to be taking an
electrolyte supplement, but that's another topic for another
(27:59):
day. Yeah, back to the carb feeling.
So you said that range of like 30 to 60 grams per hour up to
hours, like 4 events or if you're running 4 events 4 hours
or longer, sorry, and then trying to stick to the lower end
when you're just getting used tothat.
So that gets into the like gut training.
So we talk about training like our mind and then our physical
(28:23):
body for, you know, marathon or half half marathon, which is
quite a big fee. But we also want to make sure
that we're training our gut to take in those carbohydrates.
Because I believe the science isthat we only have so many
carbohydrate transporters in ourgut.
But by practicing taking in carbs during like our our
training sessions, we can actually increase those number
(28:46):
of carbohydrate receptors and then be able to tolerate more
generally. So I guess do you like have a
number of sort of long runs you recommend clients like train
with you know at the the 30 grand mark before working up or
what sort of your way to get them to to increase?
(29:06):
I think it depends on the sensitivity of the athlete.
Most of the time individuals know if they have a sensitive
stomach or not. So you know, if someone's like
never really had a problem, theycan eat something, go out for a
run, then we may go ahead and start off like, hey, have a gel
at the 20 to 30 minute mark, seehow you feel and go for it
again. That's kind of Beijing the
athlete if they can well tolerate it.
(29:27):
Now, if you have a lot more sensitive gut, what we do is we
start off by having a very smallbolus of carbohydrates kind of
as you're walking out the door, right?
This could be 1/2 a gel, it could be an applesauce, maybe
even like a single bite of a banana as a strategy I had to
use with a client that was extremely sensitive, right?
So starting in that really smallrange.
And so once you can tolerate something kind of as you're
(29:50):
heading out the door, it's like,OK, now can we translate this
during the run? So as you're running, you start
to slowly reduce how much blood flow you have to the gut.
So early on in the run, you havea lot more blood flow.
But as we're kind of progressingin our run, that blood flow
starts to reduce and that's where we can start to see an
increased risk of GI symptoms. So we may play around with
(30:11):
having a little bit more food earlier on.
So again, closer to that 20 to 30 minute mark is when I like to
start fueling rather than sometimes you see, I know in the
gel packets they will recommend at the 45 minute mark.
And in my opinion, that's a little bit too late because we
do want to reserve that carbohydrates in the muscle as
much as possible. So in order to do that, we need
to feel a little bit earlier. And then from there, we can
(30:33):
start working our way up. And so again, depending on the
sensitivity of the gut, we may do increases of about 10 grams
per hour or it could be a littlebit more aggressive of 1520 or
30 grams per hour. But the goal is each run, you're
building up to that threshold you want to meet for your race.
And so if the goal is 60 grams per hour, because you do plan on
(30:58):
maybe, let's say, running out ofBoston qualifying time, then you
would likely want to give yourself probably a good six to
eight runs to practice and trialthings out.
And that gives some room for error.
You may not need all 6 to 8 longruns to test it out, but it's a
really good start. Yeah, for.
Sure, you don't want to just be trying that all out.
(31:21):
No, you know, I get sometimes the influx of clients like right
before like the Toronto Marathonor something, and they're like,
hey, like I need to feel for my race.
I'm like, oh, we're two weeks out.
Cool. That's funny.
Yeah, I guess going back going back to the minimizing the GI
issues and like the carb types because I I see a lot of clients
(31:43):
with IBS or IBS type symptoms and then quite a few of them are
like runners or endurance athletes.
So they do have very sensitive guts.
So I tend to use like the concept of, you know, even for
some of them that are not not doing like the low FODMAP
elimination, but I tend to use low FODMAP carbs around runs and
(32:03):
then for inter workout feeling. I guess is that something that
you use at all in your practice like the concept of of low
FODMAP? I think it's becoming a little
bit more like used in the endurance sports nutrition
space. But what are your thoughts?
On that, yeah, I think it, it depends on the severity and kind
of like how much work I've done with the client beforehand.
(32:24):
So if someone does have yeah issues I my approach to Fodmaps
tend to be a little bit more modified so I won't typically do
a full FODMAP diet. And I actually saw that was in a
was it AGI position statement, whose position statement was
they are less and less recommending like a full
elimination diet of Fodmaps, butrather trying to find which
(32:46):
Fodmaps are kind of the issue. So if we're able to identify
those beforehand, then absolutely we would try to
minimize those around kind of that those running periods just
to minimize any sort of any sortof potential risk.
A lot of times that does put a client at ease as well because
no one wants to have GI issues while they run.
You know, there's sometimes nervousness.
(33:07):
I've also had clients that had accidents during runs as well.
So we can minimize that risk. Sometimes we will produce any
sort of potential sugar foods around those running periods.
Yeah. So it sort of depends on what
their history is. And I think this fall, yeah, I
had some with quite like severe events during runs.
(33:29):
So it tends to be. A little, yeah.
I think for severe IBS or GI conditions I tend to refer out.
The whole whole thing can be quite complex and then yeah, you
mentioned being cautious around like I guess the real foods
(33:49):
during running. I know like because gels can be
expensive like they do does add up.
I I personally do sometimes recommend like you can try doing
like real foods like dates or even pitted dates are actually
lower FODMAP in certain quantities.
Banana. I have a couple clients that
(34:10):
make their own like oat based carby bars, really low fat, low
protein. And then sort of mix that in
with gels just for more like I guess a budget friendly
perspective too. Is that something that you
recommend or do you have clientsjust stick with gels or?
What do you no, I, I love the combination of both.
I'm, I think I'm on board like the, the cost of gels I think
(34:31):
has rapidly increased with the increase in runners and just
the, the culture in itself. I will call out more teams.
I think their gels are like $5 agel or something crazy and
that's a good much. So if you're doing a long run
and you need 4 gels, that's $20 like that's a bit much.
So, you know, I, I always ask the client like, you know, do
(34:55):
you have a preference? I do have some clients that are
just like, hey, I just want to carry my gel.
They don't really want to have Whole Foods.
So there, some others are, are open to it and they, they want
to have Whole Foods anyway. So I always put the clients
preferences first and there's noright or wrong.
So we can get away with Whole Foods and Whole Foods can be
just as functional. I think when it comes to
(35:16):
carbohydrate gel, two things come to mind.
One, they're just easier to carry and have on hand.
And then 2 is that most of your gels nowadays are formulated to
kind of have a nice ratio of fructose and glucose for
digestibility, right? So there are pros to to that.
But again, cons would be that cost, cost effectiveness of
(35:40):
gels. So I do use also things like
honey and Maple syrup. They also make reusable pouches
now, which I think is phenomenalthat you can buy so that you can
make your own gels at home. Oh.
That's cool. Yeah, you can buy them on
Amazon. I first saw them at Endurance
Tap. So they're a Maple syrup gel
company. They kind of have it where you
(36:02):
can buy like a a bulk container of their gel and just refill the
container. So it's a little bit cost saving
and you also they did it for notusing so much waste for the
plastic pieces. But then I also I started to see
some now on Amazon, which are just like little plastic
containers that you can reuse and refill.
Interesting. OK.
(36:22):
Yeah, yeah, Maple syrup is another one.
I, I tend to stick away from honey.
I my understanding was that it was more fructose based just
because I work with the low fod,but so honey becomes high
fructose like above a teaspoon. So I'm a little cautious around
that. But Maple syrup is more glucose
dominance. I think that one's yeah and
(36:42):
yeah, that one, it's easy. I mean, Maple syrup is you get
good quality. It's a little more expensive,
but it'll last a while if you'remaking your own gels and stuff
compared to buying the gel. So that's good.
I'll have to look at homemade. Yeah, just find some recipes
too. And then let's talk about carb
loading. So yeah, why don't you explain
(37:06):
what carb loading is? Is it beneficial for every
runner? And then what would sort of be
the the general guidelines that you would recommend?
Yeah, absolutely. I love carb loading.
I think it's a fantastic concept.
And when we take a look at the research, we can see anywhere
between a 7 to 14% improvement in performance, even in kind of
like that elite athlete population where you know 2%
(37:28):
performance is like fantastic. So the degree of impact that we
see from carb loading is so beneficial, right?
And carb loading is going to make sure those carbohydrate
source in the muscle are kind ofat their maximum capacity.
So if we kind of think about someone's training routine, most
(37:48):
of the time marathon runners arerunning anywhere between four to
seven times per week. So they're really the, the
capacity to run at full glycogenor stored carbohydrate is really
hard to do unless you're eating a lot of food on a very regular
consistent basis, specifically carbohydrates.
It's just physiologically just very hard to, to keep really
(38:10):
100% stored carbohydrates at their capacity in the muscle.
So when we're kind of heading into that paper week or right
before a race, volume tends to be low, you know, you may go for
a shakeout run very low volume. This is a really good time to
make sure that we're maximizing those carbohydrate source.
And then So what you'll start tosee is I, I suppose commonly
(38:32):
we'll do a 2 day. So you need at least 24 hours.
So it takes about 24 hours for that whole process of like
taking in carbohydrate digestingand putting it into the muscle
tissue. But two days is what we
typically need for the amount ofcarbohydrates to maximize the
muscle glycogen or or carbohydrates.
(38:52):
Some people need upwards of three if they have a lot of
muscle, right. So kind of will depend on the
person's body size at that point.
But then we focus on increasing carbohydrates for those two to
three days leading up into the race.
When I say increase in carbohydrates, I always like to
emphasize this is not cookies and pizzas and things like that,
(39:13):
but it's, you know, what we callnaked carbohydrate.
So those carbohydrates that don't necessarily have a fat
component added to them. So we're thinking of white rice,
pretzels, fruits, granola bars, noodles, you know, it's very
simple carbohydrate where we canadd fats and proteins to them.
But we don't want to over consume fats and proteins kind
(39:34):
of in those days leading up to the race and.
Would that apply for like? Do you have the same
recommendations for 1/2 marathonversus a marathon or?
Yes. So our general recommendation
for carb loading is 8 to 12g perkilogram of body weight per day
for those two, maybe upwards of three days for 1/2, because the
(39:59):
duration is shorter, we don't necessarily need as many stored
carbohydrates. So you could actually just get
away with probably increasing your carbohydrate intake closer
to that. Kids to 8G per kilogram mark,
because if we think about it, a marathon or half marathons
lasting between some people who are super fast, 90 minutes
(40:22):
upwards to, you know, 2 1/2 three hours.
And again, if we're taking in some feeling kind of around that
race or that running period, then we tend to do a pretty good
job. Now, if you want to maximize it,
increasing those carbohydrate sources would be beneficial.
But now when we head into that marathon distance, so if you
plan to run at a very high intensity or if you plan to run
(40:43):
it even in three to four hours, that kind of goes into an
extended period of time where weneed to make sure those glycogen
or sort of carbohydrates in the muscle are at their peak so that
you don't hit a wall, which we commonly see, you know, between
mile 18 and 22. Or that bonking.
Yeah, yeah. OK.
And when it comes to, I guess preventing like digestive
(41:07):
issues, I know there's been, youknow, complaints of feeling
bloated, nauseous, maybe, you know, not feeling great during
that carb load. What What tips do you usually
suggest to help prevent that? Yeah.
I think first thing to to kind of comprehend is that when we
are in our training period, we likely should be eating 6 to 8g
(41:29):
per kilogram per day of carbohydrate anyways.
And I do find day-to-day nutrition, most people are not
quite hitting that or more kind of practice that to certain
extent. So I think Step 1 is that when
you are in your half the full marathon prep, you are starting
to kind of increase that carbohydrate intake there so
that your gut can get used to that volume of carbohydrate,
(41:51):
right. But as we're heading into the
actual carbohydrate loading piece, we want to keep foods
consistent. So anything that you typically
have on a regular basis, I want you to introduce those here as
well. We don't want to try new foods
because that's where we can increase the risk of GI upset,
keeping fiber lower. So again, this is a time where
(42:15):
you don't want to have a high fiber diet.
You don't want to opt for those whole grain because we want to
keep it simple. So again, white rice, white
potatoes, rice noodles are one of my favorites.
I think they're fantastic and really easy digestible.
And some people do well, you know, because of the volume of
carbohydrates is so much, there is likely to be some distinction
of the stomach. And we associate that with
(42:38):
floating. And I'd like to explain to my
clients that that's not necessarily bad, right?
We're having an increased volumeof food into the stomach.
So it is going to be natural. We're going to have a little bit
more distinction of the stomach.So what's going to be really key
here is that making sure you're having enough hydration in the
process, right? So in order for us to take those
(42:58):
carbohydrates and put them in the muscle, it really it
requires a certain amount of water.
I think it's like 3 grams of water per gram of carbohydrates
you store. So if you're not having enough
fluid, we can kind of see maybe some stagnation in the digestion
process and not putting the carbohydrates where they need to
necessarily. So making sure you're well
(43:19):
hydrated throughout this processis also a mistake I see quite
often. And then I guess even thinking
about the electrolytes as, as wedo need those to absorb fluids.
I think it's also why it's important to remember, like if
you are, you know, maybe have done carb loading on your own or
intra workout feeling and, you know, struggled with these
(43:41):
issues, it can be helpful to work with a dietitian because it
can be personalized. There are like a lot of
different recommendations online.
I think even in the like, you know, sports nutrition papers,
there's differences in like recommendation.
So it, it can be like important to have it tailored to you.
I know I see like for clients who maybe habitually they eat a
little bit lower carb intake, you know, going up to that 8 to
(44:04):
12 range would just be too much for the carb load.
And they can still keep 2 withinthe 6 to 8G ratio for their
marathon and still feel really good and perform well.
Just they usually adapt too. And then even for the fiber
intake, like if someone is used to eating a very high fiber
diet, we don't want to drop it so low close to the race because
(44:25):
then that can result in Constipation.
So it's fine tuning sort of based on what you usually do,
how you usually fuel your body, your size, that can impact that
too. So yeah, yeah, here we chat.
To it, it's always the yeah, like the nuances of like
recommendation versus application, right?
I always explain that people like, Oh yes, we have these
(44:47):
guidelines and I think these guidelines tell us like what's
typically best, but doesn't meanyou absolutely have to to meet
that. I think a really great example
of that is, you know, if if you have a client that has extra
adiposity or extra fat tissue, you may not want to also do the
8 to 12g per kilogram. You know, I think the, the
(45:08):
running culture has been fantastic.
It's welcoming for everyone of all different fitness levels.
So if you are coming in and you're doing 1/2 or full
marathon, for example, I had a client, you know, she was at a
higher body fat percentage. And so when we do the math on
that, the grams of carbohydrates, that's a lot of
carbohydrate. But if we recall, our goal is to
(45:30):
maximize the carbohydrates in our muscle tissue, right?
And so if you can make adjustment based off of muscle
tissue rather than total body weight, that's also a really
good consideration as well. Yeah, that's fine too.
Even plays a role in like protein recommendation that are
really high body weight. Yeah, gets a little messy for
(45:51):
using grams per kilogram becauseit can be.
Yeah, Yeah, that's a good point,I guess just yeah.
Final, final thoughts here. What advice would you have for
someone training either for their first half or full
marathon around pop refueling and card loaning?
I guess just like your key takeaways.
(46:11):
Yeah, I'm, I'm a real big proponent of simplicity.
Like I know we talked about, youknow, these numbers and grams
per hour and things like that. So just keep it simple for
yourself. So because we say these numbers,
these recommendations doesn't mean you have to track or count
anything, but rather, you know, think about are you eating
(46:33):
something before you're run, right?
Are you eating something after you're run?
How's the rest of your nutritionlooking like, right?
So starting in these small, again, little buckets where you
can make a a big impact without overwhelming yourself, I think
is one of the really biggest thing because there's a lot of
nutrition information online, even just running information as
you're starting to get into it. So keep it simple as much as
(46:56):
possible just to ease the mind abit throughout this process.
And it can be helpful to find that balance, like part of it.
It's good to have those externalguidelines and maybe objective
data, you know, try tracking, just seeing how much you're
getting. But it's also important to you
to listen to how your body's feeling.
How are you feeling during your runs?
Are you recovering well? Are you are you not getting sick
(47:19):
all the time? Are you able to increase your
mileage? Are you getting injured?
All of those things are important too, to kind of look
at and give you a picture or properly feeling like on a daily
basis. If you said and then also, you
know, properly setting yourself up for your runs and and feeling
well during them. Yeah, absolutely.
One last thing here, I guess, would you say it's, is it normal
(47:41):
or is it a myth to or yeah, whatwould you say to someone who
says they have to take like a nap or they crash after a long
run? Is that is that a normal thing
or something we want to be awareof?
I I put it more so in the bucketof not being a normal thing,
especially if it is coming at such an intensity where you
(48:02):
can't go through the rest of your day unless you have that
nap. I think there are certain
exceptions of very high volume, but athlete that, you know, if
they're hitting, you know, 80 miles per week that take a nap,
right. But you know, if you are hitting
20 to 25 slowly increase where you, you've needed to, then
having that nap right afterwardsis probably a good sign that
(48:24):
you're not having enough fuel. And it's not that you're not
even having enough fuel during that long run, but also how
prepared were you before that run?
So kind of going back to that day-to-day nutrition, which can
be hugely impactful because I'vehad clients that they their pre
and post workout nutrition was beautiful, but kind of outside
of that they were under eating or under fueling kind of
(48:47):
resulting in this chronic or day-to-day style deficit that
resulted in low energy levels. Yeah, that makes sense.
Yeah. So, yeah, for, I guess runners
training really high mileage then they need, you know,
benefit from a nap just to get abit of extra hours of yeah,
rebut those, those of us more around that moderate level,
(49:08):
like, yeah, may not be, may not be a good thing that you're
needing. Good sign.
Yeah. Cool.
Yeah. Any final thoughts or anything
else like to add or or share thecontext of this discussion or
did we cover, cover it all? I think covered covered the
(49:31):
bases. Yeah.
Yeah. OK, cool.
Well for anyone watching, if youdid have any questions, I guess
you can post them below and we can get back to you.
And how can people find you, contact you, get in touch with
you? Yeah, I've, I've tried the
social media thing with a littlebit of a challenge.
You can reach me through social media of Instagram or I have a
(49:53):
contact space on my website withalong with my e-mail.
So I'm happy for for questions or anything like that to come
through there as well. Awesome.
And do you have any resources, anything you can grab to to get
some some tips or learn a bit more about you?
Yeah, absolutely. So if you yeah, I have a a
fueling guide that you can get access to.
(50:13):
And so I kind of breakdown like the basics of of nutrition is a
great option to to start I think.
Yeah, cool. OK.
We will link to that below as well.
Cool first. Well, thanks so much Stephanie.
It's been very, very interestingchat today and I hope for
whoever's listening, there were some light bulb moments and some
(50:36):
good takeaways because running is is fun and making sure that
we're feeling properly makes it even more fun.
So absolutely takeaways. All right.
Yes, thank you. That's a wrap for today's
episode. Thank you so much for listening
and being a part of our community here.
If the Gut Fit Nutrition podcastis giving you value, helped your
(50:57):
digestion and fitness, made you rethink how you approach your
gut health, consider leaving a review on Apple, Spotify, or
wherever you're getting your podcasts.
If you have questions for my listener Q&A episodes, you can
submit them as a comment on thisepisode or send me an e-mail at
lee@leemorado.com. For more digestible IBS gut
health and fitness tips, be sureto follow me on Instagram at Lee
(51:20):
Morado under score Rd. And to apply for coaching, shop
the Resource suite or grab a freebie, visit
getfitnutrition.com. Thanks for tuning in.
We'll be in touch. Soon.
Our guts can handle about 60 grams per hour of glucose and
about 30 grams per hour of fructose.
And these are averages, right? So some people can tolerate more
or less giving the scenario. And fructose in itself is also
can be very unique. So fructose has a higher
osmolality. So it can actually bring water
into the GI system quite quicklyand could also cause some GI
(00:23):
issues. So with the big, I think
popularization in trying to eat clean foods, so some people
would result on things like dates for fueling because the
primary sugar is going to be in there is fructose, it could
cause this sense of like bringing too much water into the
gut causing some GI distress. Welcome to the Gut Fit Nutrition
(00:44):
Podcast, the show where we dive deep into the world of gut
health, nutrition and fitness tohelp you unlock your best self
from the inside out. I'm your host Lee Morado, a
registered dietitian, gut healthexpert, long distance runner and
movement enthusiast on a missionto.
Empower you with science. Backed whole body strategies to
fuel your body, heal your gut, and thrive in your active life.
(01:05):
Whether you're here to finally break free from IBS and
digestive symptoms, optimize your fitness performance, or
learn how to support your gut health with natural strategies,
you're in the right place. Each week, we'll explore topics
like conquering digestive symptoms, building a gut
friendly lifestyle, enhancing endurance and strength
performance, and more. So grab a cup of your favorite
gut friendly tea and settle in because we're about to get gut
(01:28):
fit together. Today we're tackling a topic
that so many runners struggle with how to fuel properly to
prevent GI distress. Whether you've experienced mid
run stomach cramps, post run bloating, or the dreaded
emergency bathroom stop during an important race, you know how
much gut issues really can derail your performance.
(01:50):
So how can you fuel smarter and run stronger?
To help us break it all down andhave a really in depth
discussion with me and this is atopic I talk with.
A lot of. Clients About I'm super thrilled
to introduce our guest today, Stephanie Small.
Stephanie is a Toronto based sports dietitian, PhD student
and the owner of Stephanie Smallcoaching.
(02:12):
She specializes in helping athletes from marathon runners
and triathletes to MMA fighters and corporate professionals
optimize their performance through driven, realistic
nutrition strategies. With over 8 years of experience
and having worked with more than200 athletes, she knows exactly
how to make fueling plans that fit seamlessly into any
lifestyle. Not only does Stephanie bring
(02:34):
her expertise as a dietitian, but she's also a avid endurance
athlete herself. She's completed a 50K ultra
marathon, 3 full marathons, 3 half marathons, and is currently
training for an Iron Man in 2025.
Let's get into today's discussion.
All right. Hello.
Stephanie, welcome to the show. Yeah, thank you for having me.
(02:55):
I appreciate it. Yeah, awesome.
I think the first time we met actually was when you were doing
the talk on on carb loading at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
Yeah. So we'll connect to our topic
for today, which which I'm very excited to chat about.
Just to get started, I guess. Do you want to explain a little
(03:15):
bit about yourself, what what you do, where you're working
right now? And yeah, just share, share more
about yourself. Yeah.
Absolutely. I'm a registered dietitian.
I specialize kind of in the endurance nutrition realm.
Kind of fell in love into the, the sports side of it about, I
don't know, 7-8 years ago. And like the endurance space is
(03:37):
just a very unique space from a nutrition perspective.
So I think that's where I kind of hone in on it.
There are some other areas that I work with as well, such as
combat sports, which also again,have their unique challenges.
But on top of being a registereddietitian, I'm also in my PhD
right now at the University of Toronto in the kinesiology
program. So along with my love of
(03:59):
nutrition, I love to to researchit as well.
So part of my work is taking a look at nutritional intervention
in a clinical population, so specifically cardiovascular
disease and or survivors. Awesome.
OK. Yeah, when I I saw doing your
PhD private practice and then you're also training for a full.
(04:21):
Well, you're doing a half and then a full.
Iron, yeah. That you should write a do a
course on like time management as well cuz that's.
Gotta be. Tricky to like, balance and all.
Oh my Google Calendar is crazy but it is my life so.
Yeah, We'll have to do another episode on like training, how to
balance your training with working full time.
So actually on that notes, is this your, is that your first
(04:44):
like full Iron Man that you're training for or?
Yeah, so I'm doing the Panama City Iron Man in November and
I've, I grew up watching it cuz that's where I'm from.
And working with endurance athletes, I've always been
inspired to do what I just neverfully committed.
I've done an ultra as kind of like the furthest I've gone, but
they had a client. He was like, he can't poke in
(05:06):
me. He's like, you can do it, you
should do it. So I kind of bit the bullet this
year and yeah, I'm having fun with it so far.
It's very exciting. Awesome.
Yeah. So you have a boat, I guess
still like seven months or so totrain.
And then I saw you're doing that.
Is it 1/2? Yeah, I'm doing the Muskoka
half, so it's a hilly course. So I was told that's like a
(05:26):
really good testament if like you can prepare yourself for a
fool. So I will say we'll see how that
one goes. But I I'm once I set a goal, I'm
pretty dead set. So I'm I'll likely still do the
Panama City one no matter what. Yeah, yeah.
Awesome. I'll actually be in Huntsville
that weekend. There's like a trail nice on the
Yeah yeah, the Limberlocks Challenge, which is really fun.
(05:49):
So last year we we watched on the Sunday because we did it
last year too. We watched the finisher.
So I'll try to get there around the time that you might be
finishing and maybe we can show you I.
Appreciate it. Yeah.
There's a nice like uphill at the end so you'll need that.
Yeah, I've heard. Yeah, Yeah.
(06:10):
I guess just, yeah, getting intoit a little bit more, I guess
what what got you interested in in like sports nutrition
specifically and then working with runners and endurance
athletes? Like is that just from being
endurance athlete yourself or what sort of got you into that?
Yeah, I I'm actually growing up,I was not a very athletic child.
(06:32):
Like when people asked if I did sports growing up.
No, I was, I was in the library studying.
That's where I was at. I did not like gym class was not
athletic, but kind of in the later of my high school years, I
did find running kind of like asan additional outlet and I found
that it made me feel good, thosesort of things.
I think at the time it was a little bit more misguided,
misrected for weight loss. And so there was that period.
(06:55):
But as I kind of transitioned into college, I, I wanted to do
something in healthcare, but I didn't want to be a physician.
And at the time when I entered college, I've never heard of a
dietitian. I grew up in a really small
town, so that wasn't even like something that crossed my mind.
And so I attended a intro to exercise science class, which is
kind of the program everyone enters into when they want to do
(07:17):
healthcare. And so we had a couple weeks
there where we had no chiros andphysios come in.
But then we had a double sessionwhere someone spoke about their
sports nutrition research pairedwith a sports dietitian, right?
And so that's kind of how I ended up in both worlds because
after that talk, I was like, their, their lives sound really
(07:38):
amazing. I, it sounds absolutely
fascinating. So I started volunteering at the
smoothie bar at the university Iwas at under the dietician.
And then I started volunteering in the research lab.
And so it kind of really took off from there.
I just, I'm fascinated at how wemetabolize energy, nutrient and
those sort of things. Yeah, and how, just how it can
(08:00):
affect. Performance.
And recovery. And also digestion.
Today's chat. Yeah.
So just to get into it, I guess,why don't you take us away with
sort of talking about why, why fueling for running is so
important. I know I talk about it a lot
with clients too. But for everyone listening,
(08:20):
let's just go through the basicsof like why it's important and
why you want to make sure that you're adequately feeling, I
guess, on a regular basis and then also feeling properly like
before your runs. And then we'll get into the
longer runs. Yeah, absolutely.
Well, if we separate your, your nutrition from day-to-day
nutrition was running versus kind of around workout
(08:42):
nutrition. So you have those two buckets
day-to-day nutrition, if you're not feeling adequately there,
you're not only hurting your runperformance, but you're also
hurting yourself the rest of theday.
So from a cognitive perspective,sleep depending on like the
severity of the fluoric deficit,it could be that hormonal
impact, those sort of things. So like the way you function on
(09:04):
a day-to-day basis is, is truly impacted about how often you're
feeling, what you're feeling with and all those great things.
And then on the other hand, in the other bucket, when it comes
around training, that's going tobe more so how you feel during
the actual run, you know, are you feeling strong?
Can you push forwards and when you feel good when you run,
those are likely when you're having the adaptation.
(09:26):
So it's also worthwhile to have an adaptation so that running
can feel good and how you can continue to progress.
And even if you're not racing, it minimizes the risk for injury
and keeps that enjoyment in place with running.
Yeah. And would you say that applies
to maybe like for someone who maybe goes out and runs like 2-3
(09:47):
times a week, but it's for to run 20 to 30 minutes, Is that
going to be as important for someone who is maybe running
like a really high mileage and they're training like 5-6 days a
week? Yeah.
I think, I think it's still going to be as important, but
the impact may not be as large, right.
So if you're expending a lot more, having higher mileage,
(10:07):
then obviously you're going to have it a little bit more focus
on that nutrition around your runs.
If you're just going out for a 20 and 30 minutes run jog or for
enjoyment, you still would benefit from the nutrition
around there. It just you may not have as
large of a degree of impact if you did, right, just because it
is a shorter duration. Yeah.
(10:29):
OK. And then getting into just like
the fueling and setting yourselfup for the run sort of what's
what sort of your like take away, I guess when you ask
someone feel properly before, before those sessions, whether
it's like a shorter run and thengetting into longer runs and
even like workouts or track sessions.
(10:50):
Yeah, at the base minimum is starting to practice having
something right before, whether you're working out at 5:00 AM or
6:00 PM, having some type of simple, easily digestible
carbohydrates kind of in that, you know, 15 to 30 minutes prior
to heading out the door can be extremely impact.
And I know at the end of the day, we have research that
(11:11):
suggests that as long as your total carbohydrates are there
and you had a high carb meal within 3 to 4 hours, you're
likely still going to perform during that run.
But it's one thing to be able toperform, but also to feel good,
right? And a lot of my clients and
myself included, I find that when we run with something, you
know, on the stomach and, you know, fresh blood glucose in the
(11:32):
bloodstream, it just makes a difference on how you feel at
the end of the run. If you're able to kind of push,
if you had strides or intervals,then you're really able to
maximize those efforts there as well.
And then if anything, even if itwas a slow 20 to 30 minute jog,
you're already ahead of the gamenow for that post recovery
period because you had that feelbeforehand.
(11:55):
And by simple digestible carbohydrate, you know, we're
looking at, you know, fruits date part of the two biggest
one. But my client also used things
like honey and Maple syrup are pretty popular.
If you can stomach it, you know,some toast with maybe a light
spread of peanut butter or jam. So it's quite flexible.
(12:16):
I even have some athletes that use cereal and milk if they can
tolerate it. OK.
And then I guess in terms of like the amount of
carbohydrates, like the longer the run that you'll be doing
when we get into like long runs,maybe you're up to 90 minutes or
longer than obviously we're going to need more carbs and
probably have to start feeling abit earlier for those runs.
(12:39):
Yeah, I always have a general rule of thumb if you want, you
know, 15 to 30 grams of carbohydrates before the run per
hour. Again, there's some give or take
there, but if you're about to gofor a three hour run, you would
probably be better off if you fed yourself with a 1675g
carbohydrates, maybe pancakes and syrup style versus just an
applesauce, which could probablysuit well for something that's
(13:00):
30 to 45 minutes long. Yeah, so you don't recommend
fasting running? I do not.
Well, there there's research to say that, you know, fasting can
improve adaptation that's only done in the elite performances.
And when we talk about elite athletes, they really are the, I
(13:22):
guess unicorns per SE when we look at them metabolically, like
they they don't metabolize things the same.
Just because they're able to perform at such a high
cardiorespiratory capacity, we can't compare that to
recreational athletes. And so while your favorite
athlete or marathon rather may be doing some FAFSA workouts,
which actually your top ten don't do that necessarily, it
(13:45):
may not benefit you just becausethere's a difference in
metabolic function just from thea performance perspective.
Exactly. I guess even when it comes to
minimizing like digestive distress, I know specifically
faster training when you're getting into like efforts that
are more more intense like styleruns or getting into like your
(14:08):
longer running where you're justlike out there for longer,
faster training specifically cansure you can speak to this as
well. Yeah.
It's sort of like intestinal permeability cause sort of like
inflammatory reactions and then we get that like natural surge
of cortisol for those sessions to like fuel us help relief
(14:28):
release blood glucose. But if we do those sessions
fasted, it can cause like an amplified response of cortisol
and then we can actually get more of like those GI symptoms.
So especially for if someone were to maybe prioritize when
they're doing fasted run, maybe it's much less impactful if
they're doing, you know, a really short, easy run first
thing in the morning. But if they're doing further
(14:50):
sessions or long runs, then that's where we really don't
want to get into the fasted realm.
Is that doctor? Would you add anything?
No, I did. I think that was pretty small.
But it's funny, we actually see this in it's, it's mainly
studying like religious style fasting, but we see the
reintroduction of food even after about a 24 to 48 hour
fast. We see the influx of
(15:12):
inflammatory cytokines, increaseintestinal permeability and
those sort of things, which is interesting because you know, I
think fasting, it's this notion that it is very repair and
recovery, but the transition of reintroducing foods can still be
really harsh on the body. So when you're deciding to fast,
if you do fast religiously and most of the time they do
encourage like slow reintroductions of foods, but
(15:34):
doing purposeful fasting really doesn't seem to have any sort of
additional benefit. You know, as long as you're not
eating for chronically 16 hours of the day, fasting is not going
to have a long term health benefit per SE.
Yeah, yeah, a lot of like mixed.Yeah.
(15:55):
I generally recommend like an overnight fast.
Like I tell clients not not to eat too late into the night time
and allow like roughly like 12 hours overnight.
Just we've shown that helps sortof digestive cleansing activate.
You let your organs rest and repair and not focus on
digestion. And then sleep is better when
you're not, you know, your body's not focusing energy on
digestion, it's focusing on likerepair and recovery.
(16:17):
So but yeah, more is not better and especially for like elite or
people who have really high training volume, trying to yeah,
stuff all your food into like a small eating window is usually a
recipe for disaster. So.
Absolutely. And then that also can cause
problems in itself as well, right?
So. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, yeah. And then getting getting into
(16:38):
it, I guess let's talk a little bit about fueling for longer
run. So sort of walk us through when
someone might want to think about intra workout fueling or
taking in forms of calories during the runs or extended
sessions. Yeah, Typically when you're
starting to hit that 75 minute threshold mark is only really
(16:59):
want to start considering havingfuel and some people use the 90
mark. But let's say 75 to 90 minute
mark tends to be a really good rule of thumb of when you want
to start introducing those carbohydrates.
And that's primary because the the amount of carbohydrates that
you have stored in your muscle really only last about 90
minutes long. And if we start to see those
(17:20):
stored carbohydrates in the muscle go down, that's when we
start to see fatigue. So when someone is bonking in a
marathon or even some sort of long distance event, typically
we see a complete depletion of these carbohydrates stores in
the muscle tissue. And in order to spare that those
carbohydrates, we really want tostart to have fueling beforehand
(17:41):
just to kind of preserve that and use that when we absolutely
need it, but relying on those digestible, easy digestible
carbohydrates during the training as well.
So roughly 7590 minutes or longer, we want to think about
fueling. I know that yeah, the resources
online is kind of a mixed recommendation, but I guess for
most, most athletes, you can kind of see like, you know how
(18:04):
hard you're working. I think if you're.
Maybe. Work out within a long run then
you may stick to the quarter end.
If it's really slow and easy then maybe you can get away with
the 90 minutes. And then you said, did you,
sorry, did you touch on the grams of carbs per hour or
generally how much you? Recommend.
Yeah, I did not. So the general recommendation
(18:25):
for up to 4 hours is going to bethat 30 to 60 grams if you're
going beyond four hours. And that's where we start to see
the recommendations jump to 60 to 90 grams per hour.
And in certain populations, depending on intensities, we see
some of your elite cyclists going up to 120 grams per hour.
But again, they're typically cycling for you know, 678 hours
(18:47):
of the day. Now I will say like when we do
start to get into those events that are longer than four hours,
ultra event and whatnot, it can get a little bit more tricky.
I would the introduction of fat and just when total calories is
a concern. But if we're focusing on mainly
running in at the half to full marathon distance, 30 to 60
(19:10):
grams per hour. If you are running at a higher
pace in intensity, I encouraged a favor closer to that 60, even
tracking up to 75 depending on the type of athlete that I'm
working with and what they can tolerate.
This is true. I guess as your heart rate
climbs and you're working at like a higher heart rate, your
body is burning through more. Yeah.
(19:32):
So if you're really racing a hard marathon, you do actually
need more cars going out. Yeah, a little bit of a slower
effort. I was actually, well, maybe it
was like a year ago I went into,it was like a popular running
store in Toronto and we were looking at like different gel
products and I didn't yeah, the sales associate there was like
(19:55):
asking us what we were looking for and we just said we were
looking for it to try different gels.
I wanted to like, I like experimenting.
Yeah, of course nutrition products just like so I can talk
about them with clients, but looking at different gels and I
remember him asking and I didn'tdisclose that I was a dietitian,
but he. He asked like how long we were
running for and I said, you know, long runs were about an
(20:17):
hour and a half to two hours. And he actually said like you
don't, you probably don't need to be taking in anything during
that because your body's like burning fat for fuel.
So you really don't need to be taking in anything if you're
running like slowly. So I had some things to say
that, but I'd wonder what you what would your response be if
(20:37):
you encountered someone? Like that, yeah, I think that's
a good question. And I do the same.
I don't typically disclose I'm adietitian when I'm in stores
sometimes. You know, I think we it's kind
of brought to the notion that utilizing fat as fuel is this
like magic superpower. But in reality that's not the
(20:58):
case. So Doctor Louise Burke has done
a phenomenal series of studies on fat adapted athletes or
having a higher fat intake when it comes to more of these
endurance style sports. And so when we start to
metabolize faster, that is our primary energy source because
that's what's most available. And that's what would happen in
this scenario. If you're going to that 2 hour
(21:19):
mark and not having anything in your run, it requires more
oxygen to metabolize your fat sources.
So when we see this utilization of fat sources, OK, it requires
more oxygen. So now the heart is having to
hump faster to get some more oxygen to the to the muscle
tissue. And so when we have the heart
beating faster with them, we also have our lungs breathing
(21:41):
faster because it's got to keep up with that exchange of oxygen.
So we see a higher heart rate, ahigher perceived effort.
So it feels harder even though the effort may not be harder.
And we we see an increased rate to fatigue.
So people are typically not ableto run as long at a certain
intensity when they are relying mostly on fat for their primary
(22:03):
energy source. So it's, it is not necessarily
superpower. If anything, it's going to maybe
be more harmful to your runs andit could potentially slow
adaptation, right. So even kind of in that post
workout in recovery phase, your body, I guess Simply put, it's
like, OK, I use fat, we're goingto create the enzyme so that we
(22:26):
could metabolize fat. But that, again, is still not
the most efficient way to do so.If we were to fuel
carbohydrates, your body's goingto be really efficient at
utilizing carbohydrates, which we know turned out to be better.
Physiologically, that keeps the heart rate lower, perception of
fatigue is lower, breathing rateis lower.
So physiologically, it just it makes sense to fuel with
(22:50):
carbohydrates and not as I rely on those, Yeah.
Exactly. Or even as we went to before,
not not doing it fasted because you can then contribute to the
risk for GI issues. I guess even like for a lot of
runners too, maybe like leaner. And then we also want to try to
preserve our muscle mass becauserun faster.
(23:12):
So if we're, you know, not taking in fuel, any fuel during
the long runs, then our body's going to draw on some fat
stores, but also like our muscletissues going to make us lose
more muscle, which most of us don't want.
Right, exactly do. Everything we get, yes, I had
that response, but you feel the same.
(23:37):
And I guess when it comes to thinking about like GI issues, I
know I've had a lot of like runners say when they do take in
fuel during long runs and then even, you know, maybe when
they're actually racing their half marathon or marathon, they
experienced GI issues. So stool cramping, nausea,
vomiting. So what would you say or maybe
(23:57):
like some of the the key mistakes people make when it
comes to fueling like those extended runs in the context of
like sort of setting them up formaybe more digestive issues or
how can they avoid GI issues? Yeah, absolutely.
I do tend to have a common view.I will say I do find most of my
patients either fall in the bucket of like they can eat a
(24:19):
full pizza before they run and they're OK and then sensitive
stomach, right? I would say one of the number
one things is brushing the process too fast, right?
So we hear the recommendation of30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates
per hour. And so most of the time I do see
individuals are like, oh, I wantto take in 60 grams of
carbohydrates per hour. And without, yes, if your, your
(24:44):
stomach's not used to it becauseit's not that you're just taking
in food, but you're now taking in food and you have almost this
jostling sense going around because you're running.
And it could just be, I guess, arecipe for disaster.
So it can sometimes result in dumping, which is when food is
in the stomach and goes into theintestines too fast.
And then that can cause crampingor runners trots and those sort
(25:07):
of things. So bumping up too fast tends to
be something I see often. And then the type of
carbohydrate can be impactful aswell.
So we have trying not to put tootoo much of my sciency brain on,
but we have different types of carbohydrates.
(25:29):
So most prominently we see glucose and fructose.
Fructose we're going to see a lot more in some of our natural
sugar sources such as fruits andthose sort of things.
Glucose is going to be what we find in most sugar based
products. It's the base component of table
sugar. As far as our gut, our guts can
handle about 60 grams per hour of glucose and about 30 grams
(25:51):
per hour of fructose. And these are averages, right?
So some people can tolerate moreor less giving the scenario.
And fructose in itself is also can be very unique.
So fructose has a higher osmolality, so it can actually
bring water into the GI system quite quickly and could also
cause some GI issues. So with the big, I think
(26:13):
popularization in trying to eat clean foods, so some people
would result on things like dates for fueling because the
primary sugar is going to be in there is fructose.
It could cause this sense of like bringing too much water
into the gut causing some GI distress.
So types of carbohydrates I findtend to be another area of
(26:34):
concern. And then the last one I would
say would be electrolytes. I think electrolytes have been
really hyped up over the past few years and I have my personal
opinions about electrolytes. I don't think we need to be
replenishing them at the rate that we are seeing some
athletes. I saw triathlete, elite
(26:55):
triathlete, he had posted that he was consuming like 3000
milligrams of sodium an hour because that's what his sweat
rate test said he lost per hour.And I'm just like, that's a
recipe for disaster for like forheart problems for one.
But too many electrolytes can also cause GI distress.
And I'm actually seeing that more and more because there is
(27:15):
this big push for electrolyte. And then also electrolytes are
in a lot of the gels that we seeas well.
So you're having the liquid electrolyte plus them in the gel
and it's just again, too much for the GI system to handle?
Yeah, and even with electrolytes, we do forget that
we can get them from food as well.
(27:36):
Putting a little salt on your meals and then eating magnesium
and potassium we get from a lot of plant based foods, fruits,
vegetables, full grain. So I mean being mindful of like
those foods around you're running, but you know, getting
on a daily basis, we can, you know, replace them and we don't
have to be taking and not everyone has to be taking an
electrolyte supplement, but that's another topic for another
(27:59):
day. Yeah, back to the carb feeling.
So you said that range of like 30 to 60 grams per hour up to
hours, like 4 events or if you're running 4 events 4 hours
or longer, sorry, and then trying to stick to the lower end
when you're just getting used tothat.
So that gets into the like gut training.
So we talk about training like our mind and then our physical
(28:23):
body for, you know, marathon or half half marathon, which is
quite a big fee. But we also want to make sure
that we're training our gut to take in those carbohydrates.
Because I believe the science isthat we only have so many
carbohydrate transporters in ourgut.
But by practicing taking in carbs during like our our
training sessions, we can actually increase those number
(28:46):
of carbohydrate receptors and then be able to tolerate more
generally. So I guess do you like have a
number of sort of long runs you recommend clients like train
with you know at the the 30 grand mark before working up or
what sort of your way to get them to to increase?
(29:06):
I think it depends on the sensitivity of the athlete.
Most of the time individuals know if they have a sensitive
stomach or not. So you know, if someone's like
never really had a problem, theycan eat something, go out for a
run, then we may go ahead and start off like, hey, have a gel
at the 20 to 30 minute mark, seehow you feel and go for it
again. That's kind of Beijing the
athlete if they can well tolerate it.
(29:27):
Now, if you have a lot more sensitive gut, what we do is we
start off by having a very smallbolus of carbohydrates kind of
as you're walking out the door, right?
This could be 1/2 a gel, it could be an applesauce, maybe
even like a single bite of a banana as a strategy I had to
use with a client that was extremely sensitive, right?
So starting in that really smallrange.
And so once you can tolerate something kind of as you're
(29:50):
heading out the door, it's like,OK, now can we translate this
during the run? So as you're running, you start
to slowly reduce how much blood flow you have to the gut.
So early on in the run, you havea lot more blood flow.
But as we're kind of progressingin our run, that blood flow
starts to reduce and that's where we can start to see an
increased risk of GI symptoms. So we may play around with
(30:11):
having a little bit more food earlier on.
So again, closer to that 20 to 30 minute mark is when I like to
start fueling rather than sometimes you see, I know in the
gel packets they will recommend at the 45 minute mark.
And in my opinion, that's a little bit too late because we
do want to reserve that carbohydrates in the muscle as
much as possible. So in order to do that, we need
to feel a little bit earlier. And then from there, we can
(30:33):
start working our way up. And so again, depending on the
sensitivity of the gut, we may do increases of about 10 grams
per hour or it could be a littlebit more aggressive of 1520 or
30 grams per hour. But the goal is each run, you're
building up to that threshold you want to meet for your race.
And so if the goal is 60 grams per hour, because you do plan on
(30:58):
maybe, let's say, running out ofBoston qualifying time, then you
would likely want to give yourself probably a good six to
eight runs to practice and trialthings out.
And that gives some room for error.
You may not need all 6 to 8 longruns to test it out, but it's a
really good start. Yeah, for.
Sure, you don't want to just be trying that all out.
(31:21):
No, you know, I get sometimes the influx of clients like right
before like the Toronto Marathonor something, and they're like,
hey, like I need to feel for my race.
I'm like, oh, we're two weeks out.
Cool. That's funny.
Yeah, I guess going back going back to the minimizing the GI
issues and like the carb types because I I see a lot of clients
(31:43):
with IBS or IBS type symptoms and then quite a few of them are
like runners or endurance athletes.
So they do have very sensitive guts.
So I tend to use like the concept of, you know, even for
some of them that are not not doing like the low FODMAP
elimination, but I tend to use low FODMAP carbs around runs and
(32:03):
then for inter workout feeling. I guess is that something that
you use at all in your practice like the concept of of low
FODMAP? I think it's becoming a little
bit more like used in the endurance sports nutrition
space. But what are your thoughts?
On that, yeah, I think it, it depends on the severity and kind
of like how much work I've done with the client beforehand.
(32:24):
So if someone does have yeah issues I my approach to Fodmaps
tend to be a little bit more modified so I won't typically do
a full FODMAP diet. And I actually saw that was in a
was it AGI position statement, whose position statement was
they are less and less recommending like a full
elimination diet of Fodmaps, butrather trying to find which
(32:46):
Fodmaps are kind of the issue. So if we're able to identify
those beforehand, then absolutely we would try to
minimize those around kind of that those running periods just
to minimize any sort of any sortof potential risk.
A lot of times that does put a client at ease as well because
no one wants to have GI issues while they run.
You know, there's sometimes nervousness.
(33:07):
I've also had clients that had accidents during runs as well.
So we can minimize that risk. Sometimes we will produce any
sort of potential sugar foods around those running periods.
Yeah. So it sort of depends on what
their history is. And I think this fall, yeah, I
had some with quite like severe events during runs.
(33:29):
So it tends to be. A little, yeah.
I think for severe IBS or GI conditions I tend to refer out.
The whole whole thing can be quite complex and then yeah, you
mentioned being cautious around like I guess the real foods
(33:49):
during running. I know like because gels can be
expensive like they do does add up.
I I personally do sometimes recommend like you can try doing
like real foods like dates or even pitted dates are actually
lower FODMAP in certain quantities.
Banana. I have a couple clients that
(34:10):
make their own like oat based carby bars, really low fat, low
protein. And then sort of mix that in
with gels just for more like I guess a budget friendly
perspective too. Is that something that you
recommend or do you have clientsjust stick with gels or?
What do you no, I, I love the combination of both.
I'm, I think I'm on board like the, the cost of gels I think
(34:31):
has rapidly increased with the increase in runners and just
the, the culture in itself. I will call out more teams.
I think their gels are like $5 agel or something crazy and
that's a good much. So if you're doing a long run
and you need 4 gels, that's $20 like that's a bit much.
So, you know, I, I always ask the client like, you know, do
(34:55):
you have a preference? I do have some clients that are
just like, hey, I just want to carry my gel.
They don't really want to have Whole Foods.
So there, some others are, are open to it and they, they want
to have Whole Foods anyway. So I always put the clients
preferences first and there's noright or wrong.
So we can get away with Whole Foods and Whole Foods can be
just as functional. I think when it comes to
(35:16):
carbohydrate gel, two things come to mind.
One, they're just easier to carry and have on hand.
And then 2 is that most of your gels nowadays are formulated to
kind of have a nice ratio of fructose and glucose for
digestibility, right? So there are pros to to that.
But again, cons would be that cost, cost effectiveness of
(35:40):
gels. So I do use also things like
honey and Maple syrup. They also make reusable pouches
now, which I think is phenomenalthat you can buy so that you can
make your own gels at home. Oh.
That's cool. Yeah, you can buy them on
Amazon. I first saw them at Endurance
Tap. So they're a Maple syrup gel
company. They kind of have it where you
(36:02):
can buy like a a bulk container of their gel and just refill the
container. So it's a little bit cost saving
and you also they did it for notusing so much waste for the
plastic pieces. But then I also I started to see
some now on Amazon, which are just like little plastic
containers that you can reuse and refill.
Interesting. OK.
(36:22):
Yeah, yeah, Maple syrup is another one.
I, I tend to stick away from honey.
I my understanding was that it was more fructose based just
because I work with the low fod,but so honey becomes high
fructose like above a teaspoon. So I'm a little cautious around
that. But Maple syrup is more glucose
dominance. I think that one's yeah and
(36:42):
yeah, that one, it's easy. I mean, Maple syrup is you get
good quality. It's a little more expensive,
but it'll last a while if you'remaking your own gels and stuff
compared to buying the gel. So that's good.
I'll have to look at homemade. Yeah, just find some recipes
too. And then let's talk about carb
loading. So yeah, why don't you explain
(37:06):
what carb loading is? Is it beneficial for every
runner? And then what would sort of be
the the general guidelines that you would recommend?
Yeah, absolutely. I love carb loading.
I think it's a fantastic concept.
And when we take a look at the research, we can see anywhere
between a 7 to 14% improvement in performance, even in kind of
like that elite athlete population where you know 2%
(37:28):
performance is like fantastic. So the degree of impact that we
see from carb loading is so beneficial, right?
And carb loading is going to make sure those carbohydrate
source in the muscle are kind ofat their maximum capacity.
So if we kind of think about someone's training routine, most
(37:48):
of the time marathon runners arerunning anywhere between four to
seven times per week. So they're really the, the
capacity to run at full glycogenor stored carbohydrate is really
hard to do unless you're eating a lot of food on a very regular
consistent basis, specifically carbohydrates.
It's just physiologically just very hard to, to keep really
(38:10):
100% stored carbohydrates at their capacity in the muscle.
So when we're kind of heading into that paper week or right
before a race, volume tends to be low, you know, you may go for
a shakeout run very low volume. This is a really good time to
make sure that we're maximizing those carbohydrate source.
And then So what you'll start tosee is I, I suppose commonly
(38:32):
we'll do a 2 day. So you need at least 24 hours.
So it takes about 24 hours for that whole process of like
taking in carbohydrate digestingand putting it into the muscle
tissue. But two days is what we
typically need for the amount ofcarbohydrates to maximize the
muscle glycogen or or carbohydrates.
(38:52):
Some people need upwards of three if they have a lot of
muscle, right. So kind of will depend on the
person's body size at that point.
But then we focus on increasing carbohydrates for those two to
three days leading up into the race.
When I say increase in carbohydrates, I always like to
emphasize this is not cookies and pizzas and things like that,
(39:13):
but it's, you know, what we callnaked carbohydrate.
So those carbohydrates that don't necessarily have a fat
component added to them. So we're thinking of white rice,
pretzels, fruits, granola bars, noodles, you know, it's very
simple carbohydrate where we canadd fats and proteins to them.
But we don't want to over consume fats and proteins kind
(39:34):
of in those days leading up to the race and.
Would that apply for like? Do you have the same
recommendations for 1/2 marathonversus a marathon or?
Yes. So our general recommendation
for carb loading is 8 to 12g perkilogram of body weight per day
for those two, maybe upwards of three days for 1/2, because the
(39:59):
duration is shorter, we don't necessarily need as many stored
carbohydrates. So you could actually just get
away with probably increasing your carbohydrate intake closer
to that. Kids to 8G per kilogram mark,
because if we think about it, a marathon or half marathons
lasting between some people who are super fast, 90 minutes
(40:22):
upwards to, you know, 2 1/2 three hours.
And again, if we're taking in some feeling kind of around that
race or that running period, then we tend to do a pretty good
job. Now, if you want to maximize it,
increasing those carbohydrate sources would be beneficial.
But now when we head into that marathon distance, so if you
plan to run at a very high intensity or if you plan to run
(40:43):
it even in three to four hours, that kind of goes into an
extended period of time where weneed to make sure those glycogen
or sort of carbohydrates in the muscle are at their peak so that
you don't hit a wall, which we commonly see, you know, between
mile 18 and 22. Or that bonking.
Yeah, yeah. OK.
And when it comes to, I guess preventing like digestive
(41:07):
issues, I know there's been, youknow, complaints of feeling
bloated, nauseous, maybe, you know, not feeling great during
that carb load. What What tips do you usually
suggest to help prevent that? Yeah.
I think first thing to to kind of comprehend is that when we
are in our training period, we likely should be eating 6 to 8g
(41:29):
per kilogram per day of carbohydrate anyways.
And I do find day-to-day nutrition, most people are not
quite hitting that or more kind of practice that to certain
extent. So I think Step 1 is that when
you are in your half the full marathon prep, you are starting
to kind of increase that carbohydrate intake there so
that your gut can get used to that volume of carbohydrate,
(41:51):
right. But as we're heading into the
actual carbohydrate loading piece, we want to keep foods
consistent. So anything that you typically
have on a regular basis, I want you to introduce those here as
well. We don't want to try new foods
because that's where we can increase the risk of GI upset,
keeping fiber lower. So again, this is a time where
(42:15):
you don't want to have a high fiber diet.
You don't want to opt for those whole grain because we want to
keep it simple. So again, white rice, white
potatoes, rice noodles are one of my favorites.
I think they're fantastic and really easy digestible.
And some people do well, you know, because of the volume of
carbohydrates is so much, there is likely to be some distinction
of the stomach. And we associate that with
(42:38):
floating. And I'd like to explain to my
clients that that's not necessarily bad, right?
We're having an increased volumeof food into the stomach.
So it is going to be natural. We're going to have a little bit
more distinction of the stomach.So what's going to be really key
here is that making sure you're having enough hydration in the
process, right? So in order for us to take those
(42:58):
carbohydrates and put them in the muscle, it really it
requires a certain amount of water.
I think it's like 3 grams of water per gram of carbohydrates
you store. So if you're not having enough
fluid, we can kind of see maybe some stagnation in the digestion
process and not putting the carbohydrates where they need to
necessarily. So making sure you're well
(43:19):
hydrated throughout this processis also a mistake I see quite
often. And then I guess even thinking
about the electrolytes as, as wedo need those to absorb fluids.
I think it's also why it's important to remember, like if
you are, you know, maybe have done carb loading on your own or
intra workout feeling and, you know, struggled with these
(43:41):
issues, it can be helpful to work with a dietitian because it
can be personalized. There are like a lot of
different recommendations online.
I think even in the like, you know, sports nutrition papers,
there's differences in like recommendation.
So it, it can be like important to have it tailored to you.
I know I see like for clients who maybe habitually they eat a
little bit lower carb intake, you know, going up to that 8 to
(44:04):
12 range would just be too much for the carb load.
And they can still keep 2 withinthe 6 to 8G ratio for their
marathon and still feel really good and perform well.
Just they usually adapt too. And then even for the fiber
intake, like if someone is used to eating a very high fiber
diet, we don't want to drop it so low close to the race because
(44:25):
then that can result in Constipation.
So it's fine tuning sort of based on what you usually do,
how you usually fuel your body, your size, that can impact that
too. So yeah, yeah, here we chat.
To it, it's always the yeah, like the nuances of like
recommendation versus application, right?
I always explain that people like, Oh yes, we have these
(44:47):
guidelines and I think these guidelines tell us like what's
typically best, but doesn't meanyou absolutely have to to meet
that. I think a really great example
of that is, you know, if if you have a client that has extra
adiposity or extra fat tissue, you may not want to also do the
8 to 12g per kilogram. You know, I think the, the
(45:08):
running culture has been fantastic.
It's welcoming for everyone of all different fitness levels.
So if you are coming in and you're doing 1/2 or full
marathon, for example, I had a client, you know, she was at a
higher body fat percentage. And so when we do the math on
that, the grams of carbohydrates, that's a lot of
carbohydrate. But if we recall, our goal is to
(45:30):
maximize the carbohydrates in our muscle tissue, right?
And so if you can make adjustment based off of muscle
tissue rather than total body weight, that's also a really
good consideration as well. Yeah, that's fine too.
Even plays a role in like protein recommendation that are
really high body weight. Yeah, gets a little messy for
(45:51):
using grams per kilogram becauseit can be.
Yeah, Yeah, that's a good point,I guess just yeah.
Final, final thoughts here. What advice would you have for
someone training either for their first half or full
marathon around pop refueling and card loaning?
I guess just like your key takeaways.
(46:11):
Yeah, I'm, I'm a real big proponent of simplicity.
Like I know we talked about, youknow, these numbers and grams
per hour and things like that. So just keep it simple for
yourself. So because we say these numbers,
these recommendations doesn't mean you have to track or count
anything, but rather, you know, think about are you eating
(46:33):
something before you're run, right?
Are you eating something after you're run?
How's the rest of your nutritionlooking like, right?
So starting in these small, again, little buckets where you
can make a a big impact without overwhelming yourself, I think
is one of the really biggest thing because there's a lot of
nutrition information online, even just running information as
you're starting to get into it. So keep it simple as much as
(46:56):
possible just to ease the mind abit throughout this process.
And it can be helpful to find that balance, like part of it.
It's good to have those externalguidelines and maybe objective
data, you know, try tracking, just seeing how much you're
getting. But it's also important to you
to listen to how your body's feeling.
How are you feeling during your runs?
Are you recovering well? Are you are you not getting sick
(47:19):
all the time? Are you able to increase your
mileage? Are you getting injured?
All of those things are important too, to kind of look
at and give you a picture or properly feeling like on a daily
basis. If you said and then also, you
know, properly setting yourself up for your runs and and feeling
well during them. Yeah, absolutely.
One last thing here, I guess, would you say it's, is it normal
(47:41):
or is it a myth to or yeah, whatwould you say to someone who
says they have to take like a nap or they crash after a long
run? Is that is that a normal thing
or something we want to be awareof?
I I put it more so in the bucketof not being a normal thing,
especially if it is coming at such an intensity where you
(48:02):
can't go through the rest of your day unless you have that
nap. I think there are certain
exceptions of very high volume, but athlete that, you know, if
they're hitting, you know, 80 miles per week that take a nap,
right. But you know, if you are hitting
20 to 25 slowly increase where you, you've needed to, then
having that nap right afterwardsis probably a good sign that
(48:24):
you're not having enough fuel. And it's not that you're not
even having enough fuel during that long run, but also how
prepared were you before that run?
So kind of going back to that day-to-day nutrition, which can
be hugely impactful because I'vehad clients that they their pre
and post workout nutrition was beautiful, but kind of outside
of that they were under eating or under fueling kind of
(48:47):
resulting in this chronic or day-to-day style deficit that
resulted in low energy levels. Yeah, that makes sense.
Yeah. So, yeah, for, I guess runners
training really high mileage then they need, you know,
benefit from a nap just to get abit of extra hours of yeah,
rebut those, those of us more around that moderate level,
(49:08):
like, yeah, may not be, may not be a good thing that you're
needing. Good sign.
Yeah. Cool.
Yeah. Any final thoughts or anything
else like to add or or share thecontext of this discussion or
did we cover, cover it all? I think covered covered the
(49:31):
bases. Yeah.
Yeah. OK, cool.
Well for anyone watching, if youdid have any questions, I guess
you can post them below and we can get back to you.
And how can people find you, contact you, get in touch with
you? Yeah, I've, I've tried the
social media thing with a littlebit of a challenge.
You can reach me through social media of Instagram or I have a
(49:53):
contact space on my website withalong with my e-mail.
So I'm happy for for questions or anything like that to come
through there as well. Awesome.
And do you have any resources, anything you can grab to to get
some some tips or learn a bit more about you?
Yeah, absolutely. So if you yeah, I have a a
fueling guide that you can get access to.
(50:13):
And so I kind of breakdown like the basics of of nutrition is a
great option to to start I think.
Yeah, cool. OK.
We will link to that below as well.
Cool first. Well, thanks so much Stephanie.
It's been very, very interestingchat today and I hope for
whoever's listening, there were some light bulb moments and some
(50:36):
good takeaways because running is is fun and making sure that
we're feeling properly makes it even more fun.
So absolutely takeaways. All right.
Yes, thank you. That's a wrap for today's
episode. Thank you so much for listening
and being a part of our community here.
If the Gut Fit Nutrition podcastis giving you value, helped your
(50:57):
digestion and fitness, made you rethink how you approach your
gut health, consider leaving a review on Apple, Spotify, or
wherever you're getting your podcasts.
If you have questions for my listener Q&A episodes, you can
submit them as a comment on thisepisode or send me an e-mail at
lee@leemorado.com. For more digestible IBS gut
health and fitness tips, be sureto follow me on Instagram at Lee
(51:20):
Morado under score Rd. And to apply for coaching, shop
the Resource suite or grab a freebie, visit
getfitnutrition.com. Thanks for tuning in.
We'll be in touch. Soon.
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