As part of our guide to preparing for a Spring marathon, here we look at the daily food requirements for marathon runners. Missed previous weeks' advice? Click here to go to the Spring Marathon Training Diet Plans Part 1.

Last week’s article looked at guidelines for nutrition and hydration for endurance runners and some possible approaches for monitoring food and drink intake in the early stages of marathon training.

This week Jane Nodder discusses how to calculate your personal nutrition needs to start putting an individualised nutrition plan together. 

Jump to section:

Defining Daily Energy Requirements

Carboydrate Requirements

Protein Requirements

Essential Fatty Acid Requirements

Daily Food Plan

Portion Sizes Guide

What You Can Do This Week


Defining daily energy requirements

You do not necessarily need to identify your energy requirements on a daily basis, as you’ll probably meet these just by responding to your hunger! However, some of you may wish to calculate your approximate daily energy/calorie requirement for supporting your running training, and if so, here are three steps to follow to work this out.


Step 1: calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). The easiest way to do this is using an on-line calculator e.g. BMI Calculator

Step 2: allow for the energy requirements of everyday living by applying a Physical Activity Multiplier (PAM) to your BMR. Again there are a number of different PAM tables. The following is taken from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Recommended dietary intakes for use in Australia. Part 4 Appendix II at www.nhmrc.gov.au.

Physical Activity Multipliers (PAM)

Activity Level Men Women
Bed Rest 1.2 1.2
Very Sedentary 1.3 1.3
Sedentary/Maintenance 1.4 1.4
Light 1.5 1.5
Light-Moderate 1.7 1.6
Moderate 1.8 1.7
Heavy 2.1 1.8
Very Heavy 2.3 2.0

 

Step 3: determine the energy cost of your running by multiplying distance covered (kilometres) to your body weight (kilograms) multiplied by a factor of 1.036.


Example:

Energy expenditure for a female runner aged 40, weighing 60kg, height 5’5” with a moderately active lifestyle

BMR: 1347 kcal   PAM = 1.7

Energy expenditure excluding running: 1347 (BMR) x 1.7 (PAM) = 2290 kcal

Energy needs for running 10k: 60 (weight in kg) x 10 (distance in kilometres) x 1.036 (multiplier) = 622

Total energy expenditure including running: 2290 (kcal) + 622 (kcal) = 2912


Once you’ve used this calculation to establish your energy needs for the running week, you can get a daily average by simply dividing the weekly figure by seven. But do remember, regardless of the method you use to calculate energy expenditure, all values are only estimates and are affected by the accuracy of recording activity, any databases used to calculate expenditure and any other calculations made.


Tracking your energy intake

In terms of tracking energy intake there are a number of on-line tools and phone apps that can be useful e.g. www.nutracheck.co.uk. However, for overall guidance it is probably better to rely on your hunger and energy levels and the portion information (see below) to determine how much to eat on a daily basis.


Carbohydrate requirements

Even if you don’t calculate your overall energy requirements, it probably is important to work out, and try to meet, your carbohydrate requirements. Last week we saw that the carbohydrate requirements for endurance athletes are:

Level of Intake Type of Training
5-7 grams per kilogram of bodyweight, per day General training needs (<1hr of exercise of low intensity)
7-10  grams per kilogram of bodyweight, per day Endurance training (1-3hr of moderate to high intensity exercise)

 

These figures can be broken down further as follows:

Estimated Carbohydrate Requirements

Hours of Running Carbohydrate needs:  grams per kilogram of bodyweight, per day 
3-5 per week 4-5g
5-7 per week 5-6g
1-2 hours per day 6-7g
2-4 hours per day 7-8g
4+ hours per day 8-10g


You can use this information to calculate your own carbohydrate requirements using your marathon training plan to calculate the number of hours of running you are doing per day or per week and the chart above. 

Later in this article, we’ll look at how to put an overall menu plan containing carbohydrates together and next week we’ll consider particular foods to include to meet your specific carbohydrate requirements.


Protein requirements

Guidelines for daily protein intake for endurance athletes range from 1.2 to 1.7 grams per kilogram of bodyweight, per day (g/kg BW/day) for those who eat meat, fish and dairy products, and 1.3 to 1.8g/kg BW/day for vegetarian athletes. Many runners probably do eat enough protein for their needs, although again it is worth calculating your individual requirements particularly if your energy or carbohydrate intake are low.

An easy way to manage your protein intake is to aim for 20g of protein at lunch and dinner and to include some protein foods at breakfast and with your mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks.


Essential fatty acids (EFAs)

We need to obtain the parent omega 3 and omega 6 EFAs from our daily diet as they cannot be made in the body. In order to get sufficient EFAs in your diet, be sure to eat:


  • Two portions of oily fish (salmon, fresh tuna, herring, anchovy, mackerel, sardines) per week (limit fresh tuna to one portion per week due to possible high pollution levels and check Government guidelines at www.food.gov.uk or www.nhs.uk types if you are pregnant, trying to get pregnant or breastfeeding) plus
  • 1-2 dessertspoons of mixed seeds (e.g. pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, linseed/flaxseed) per day. Either eat whole or grind in a coffee grinder and sprinkle on vegetables, soups, salads, cereals. Keep in the fridge for 2-3 days.
  • or 1-2 tbs of seed oil per day e.g. flaxseed, pumpkin or walnut oil and
  • 6-8 brazils, pecans or walnuts per day or 12-15 almonds.


Runners who don’t eat oily fish may need to pay particular attention to including daily sources of the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexanoic acid (DHA) in their diet by considering a supplement. We’ll look at this in more detail in week 9.


Daily food plan 

As a guide, the following checklist will be useful for putting your daily food plan together. For more detailed information about what to eat at breakfast, lunch, dinner and as a snack, see our Daily Meal Planner for Marathon Runners. On a daily basis, you should aim to include:

  • 5 portions of fruits and vegetables: 2 fresh fruit portions; one portion of salad or raw vegetables and two portions of cooked vegetables
  • 4 portions of grains/cereals: 2 portions of bread, 2 portions of complex carbohydrate such e.g. rice, quinoa, buckwheat, millet, corn, wheat, spelt, kamut
  • 3 portions of dairy or alternative products: cheese, yoghurt, cow’s, goat’s, sheep’s milk, oat, rice, nut milk, soy milk
  • 2 portions of poultry, meat, fish. eggs or vegetarian equivalent: chicken, turkey, beef, pork, lamb, tofu, beans
  • Daily serving of EFAs: from oily fish, nuts and seeds and their oils (see above) 
  • Fluids – 1.5-2 litres total fluids (including tea, coffee, water, milk, juice etc) per day plus 0.5 litre per hour of training (maximum) should be sufficient for your training period. Do not take on too much fluid. We’ll look at the topic of hydration in more depth in week 8).


Portion sizes*

For simple portion management, it’s a good idea to divide your plate into four quarters of 25% and organise it as follows:


  • 50% vegetables. Include a large bowl of mixed salad items once per day
  • 25% protein portion – meat, poultry, fish, beans etc. Portion: size and depth of the palm of your hand, or size and depth of a pack of playing cards, or four-five tablespoons of beans or pulses
  • 25% carbohydrates e.g. brown rice, millet, quinoa, spelt, buckwheat, barley or other grains, wholewheat or alternative pastas (50g dried weight), 3-4 small boiled potatoes in their jackets, medium-large sweet or baked potato, root vegetables such as swede, carrots, parsnips, turnips, sweet corn, peas. 
  • Plus your daily portion of essential fatty acids (see above).


*Men should generally eat portions from the upper end of the given range or increase the standard portion by about 25%.


What can I do this week


  • Over the next three weeks we’ll consider each macronutrient in turn to identify good sources and easy meals and snacks to add to your diet. So if you’ve not already started recording your personal food and drink intake you could start this week.
  • If you are already keeping a diary, you can start to check it against the overall guidelines and portion sizes discussed above. It’s also a good idea to focus on including more variety in your diet as it’s easy to eat the same foods most weeks especially when you’re really busy. Including a wide range of foods in your diet can help ensure you get all the vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals that you need to keep healthy and train well. Some ideas for increasing variety include:
  • Count the number of different foods you have recorded in your diary and look to increase this by one new food every week or every three days
  • Add one new recipe a month to your repertoire – collect your recipes in a new folder so that they’re always to hand. There are lots of good sources of recipes on-line including the websites of all the major supermarkets and TV food programmes
  • Visit a new section of your local supermarket each week and buy something you wouldn’t usually consider to ring the changes.
  • Calculate your personal requirements for carbohydrate and protein using the guidelines given above.
  • And finally, make sure that you are including a daily source of essential fatty acids again by using the guidelines above.


Next week

Next week’s topic is From Guidelines to Your Plate!


About Jane Nodder and Nutriworks

Jane Nodder works as a nutrition lecturer and clinic tutor on the MSc and BSc (Hons) Nutritional Therapy programmes at the University of Westminster, London. A qualified UK Athletics Leader in Running Fitness, Jane started running in 1986. As a club runner she runs track, cross-country, road, trail and endurance events and has completed eleven marathons, taking her PB from 4h21 to 3h37. Through her business, Nutriworks, Jane coaches groups and individuals in running and in translating general sports nutrition guidelines into practical, individualised nutrition programmes.

In 2010, Jane was awarded the Complementary & Alternative Medicine (CAM) Award for Individual Excellence in Nutritional Knowledge, and in December 2011 she gained the Yakult Prize for Outstanding Student of the Year for the MSc Nutritional Medicine at the University of Surrey.

For more information about running and nutrition coaching services from Nutriworks, including details of an introductory seminar ‘Nutrition for Marathon Runners’ on 18 February 2012, visit www.nutriworks.co.uk or contact Jane directly on 07850 705848 or email info@nutriworks.co.uk

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