Macros for Runners: Everything you need to know

Finn Melanson [00:00:13]: Hello, fellow runners. I'm your host, Finn Melanson, and this is the Run to the Top cast, podcast dedicated to making you a better runner with each and every episode. We are created and produced by the expert team of coaches at runners connect.net where you can find the best running information on the Internet as well as training plans to fit every runner and every budget. The importance of proper nutrition during Tense periods of training cannot be overlooked. While most runners spend most of their time focusing on their workouts, Recovering from these hard efforts is often more important than the training itself. The best way to do this is by supplying your body with the correct nutrients at the correct times Before, during, and after your training. And this all starts with understanding macronutrients, what they are, what each macronutrient is best at, and when to best include them in your diet. So today, we're gonna be talking with our very own coach, Jeff Goddette, about everything macronutrients.

Finn Melanson [00:01:17]: You're gonna learn The best times to include each macronutrient in your diet, the optimal macronutrient ratio for runners based on your goals, How to best hit your macronutrient targets plus much, much more. So without further delay, let's get into it. Don't let runner's knee keep you from your final weeks of training or your big race. An innovative new product called New Knee has been clinically proven to deliver immediate relief from runner's knee. Head to runnersconnect.net forward slash new knee to learn more and receive your 20% discount at checkout. If you're looking for the most effectively dosed electrolyte drink for runners, check out Element. It's loaded with everything you need to replenish your electrolyte balance, And you can get a free sample pack by going to drinklmnt.comforward/runnersconnect. Welcome back to the show, Jeff.

Finn Melanson [00:02:18]: So for those that may be hearing from you for the 1st time, give us a brief intro about yourself And your role at Runners Connect.

Jeff Gaudette [00:02:26]: So about little bit about me. Obviously, my name is Jeff Gaudette. I am the founder of Runners Connect. I started the Runners Connect Back in 2011 as a way to connect the runners that I was coaching and that the other coaches as part of our company were coaching so that they that way they could share their experiences with the races that they were doing and that kind of thing. I've always been interested in, particularly, well, training philosophy, but Exercise theology and particularly in the realm of looking at it from a scientific perspective and applying that scientific perspective and research in into training applications. And so, Kind of my first passion was really kind of like strength training. That's kind of where I really fell in love. Then probably a few years after that, kind of really started moving into the Kind of the form aspect of things and and looking at kind of biomechanics and those types of, elements of training.

Jeff Gaudette [00:03:12]: And over the last probably 2 or 3 years, I've been really, interested in the nutrition part part of things. And so that's kind of been my passion the last probably couple of years is is looking at nutrition. How can we how can we improve our performance? How can we improve our running, our training, lifestyle, body image, etcetera, through food, through nutrition? So That's kind of been what I've been up to, and and I'm happy to help and try to at least share some of the knowledge that I've learned.

Finn Melanson [00:03:37]: Alright. So Before we dive deep, can you define macronutrients for us so that we're all on the same page?

Jeff Gaudette [00:03:44]: Sure. Absolutely. So Macronutrients are basically the components of food that supply us with calories or, basically, energy. And there are 3 macronutrients, it's there's carbohydrates, there's proteins, and then there's fats. And each Type of macronutrient supplies energy in a different form and in a different way. And they, kind of, they they combine to help Fuel the type of different activities that we have or that we go through in our in our daily lives. And so, for example, we have carbohydrates, which are kind of like our faster acting energy source, and they provide us a lot of the energy that we need for running and and just kind of daily life. And they're Kind of the most efficient energy source that our body has.

Jeff Gaudette [00:04:28]: Then we have things like protein, which is a great energy source for our muscles that helps repair muscle damage. It helps repair muscle It helps us build muscle, helps us recover. So that's kind of I should also say that when as I'm talking about this, each Macronutrient itself isn't confined into a certain space. So I should say that, you know, carbohydrates only do this, and protein only does that, and fat only does this. Obviously, they They can inter the the body is very, very complicated in terms of how it uses different micronutrients, but these are obviously the basics of how, kind of, or what these macronutrients help us do and and kind of provide. So, again, with protein, really kinda helping with the repair and recovery process. And the fats Can also can be used as a source of energy, although it's not extremely efficient, but they're great for our hormonal systems, it's important for recovery, those types of things. So even though fats probably 10, 20 years ago kinda really had a bad rap, we're now realizing that the fats as a macronutrient can be extremely important.

Finn Melanson [00:05:28]: That's a fantastic breakdown. Obviously, you know, the amount of calories a runner consumes is important. But How important is the type of calorie or macronutrient when it comes to fueling, training, and and, you know, losing weight?

Jeff Gaudette [00:05:42]: So that's a great question. And when it comes to and when it comes to macronutrients and how they can help your body and how they can help you improve. And I think that's probably the I think the one thing that beginner novices that are focusing on nutrition kinda get wrong is they they really calories becomes this, like, All encompassing goal, and that's kind of and that's all they really focus on. When macronutrients are just as not More important as the calorie totals in terms of how you're going to feel, how you're going to perform, and what you're how easy it is it is going to be to accomplish your goals. And so the reason that I say that is, like I said in the my intro about macronutrients, each macronutrient has kind of a a ideal purpose and inefficiency for how it accomplishes that purpose. So that's why we wanna match our macronutrient needs with what our training needs or daily life needs are. So, for example, when you're running, you are going through extreme amounts of energy, you're burning a lot of calories, runs depending on, you know, a short easy run may be 3 or 400 additional calories, and a long run could be something like 6 to 900 additional calories that you're consuming. And so Your calorie totals are going to be pretty high.

Jeff Gaudette [00:06:54]: And during those runs, primarily, your body is going to want to use carbohydrates as its fuel source because carbohydrates are the most efficient fuel source that your body can use. And so if you let's say that you had a calorie total and you just completely, You know, maybe you were really low on your carbohydrate. Let's say your carbohydrates were, like, 20% of your daily caloric intake, because you had heard that carbohydrates are bad and and you kind of eliminated them from your diet and your your calorie intakes were focused solely on protein and fat. Well, what's gonna happen is that your body's not gonna no longer have the carbohydrates, the most efficient source of fuel for your running, and so your runs are gonna go terribly. You're gonna be tired. You're gonna be lethargic. You're not gonna be able to hit your paces. All of those things are gonna combine so that training is become is going to become much more difficult than it needs to be.

Jeff Gaudette [00:07:45]: And this is obviously gonna have an impact on your race goals. And so that's why it's important. So even if you want to lose weight or if you wanna promote recovery by Calorie reduction or making sure that you have enough calories that you need to make sure that you have enough carbohydrates along with those calories because you could be trying to lose weight. And let's say that your caloric deficit means you need to take in 17, 1800 calories for the day and you're not getting enough carbohydrates, Your runs are gonna suffer. And while you may still lose some weight, your runs are gonna suffer to the point where you're no longer gonna be able to accomplish or achieve your running goals. And so you're kind of You're you're gonna be based in you're you're basically gonna be stuck from a running standpoint in in a pretty big rut. And it's also gonna potentially open you up for some injuries because you're just not recovering. So That's kind of one end, well, obviously, the carbohydrates.

Jeff Gaudette [00:08:33]: With the protein, this is something that runners really struggle with is getting in enough protein. Now we know that protein isn't really a good source of fuel in terms of in for endurance training. So why is protein important? Important is protein is important because, like I mentioned at the beginning, the protein is one of the basic the best macronutrients that our body uses in order to repair and rebuild and recover. So if you're not getting enough protein, what's going to end up happening is when you're doing your training, you're going to be breaking down your muscles and that's what training is all about. You go out, you run for an hour, 90 minutes, whatever it may be, do a hard workout, you're breaking your muscle fibers down, you're breaking down your body. And the way it gets better is by fueling it with protein, carbohydrate, fats, and then though that recovery helps build that muscle back in a better form, so it helps it build stronger, Bigger in endurance cases, allowing it to, to do more work and more efficiently. And so without protein, you're not able to recover and properly properly recover from your workouts. So, like, very sim similar to the idea of not having enough carbohydrates to fuel your training, You are going to find that if you don't have enough adequate protein intake, that your body's gonna break down a lot easier.

Jeff Gaudette [00:09:44]: And so you're gonna recover less Fast. So you it may take you 2 or 3 days, 4 or 5 days between workouts to feel good again. So you're gonna you can you're gonna have to reduce the frequency, or it's gonna lead to injury. Because if your body is not recovering, if those muscles that you're breaking down are not recovering and building back up by the time you try to run hard or run long again, that's going to open you up to injury. And now fats are another important aspect because without fats, the the really, the 2 biggest issues with fat are that your hormonal system gets really out of that balance, And it can actually help with recovery. It can help with sleep. It's it's kind of the macronutrient that really kind of helps us function in kind of a Healthy diet type of way or or healthy outside of of training. Now, I'm not going to get into this, but, obviously, there is the idea of The very high fat, low carbohydrate, moderate protein approach to endurance training or just a general lifestyle, and Tim Knowles talked a lot about that.

Jeff Gaudette [00:10:39]: That's a little bit of a separate thing. And if that's the type of training or the type of diet that really works for you, then that's totally fine. But you still you're still looking even if you're on that type of diet in terms of relating to my talk, the macronutrients are still critical. Because if you're in that type of diet, then measuring just getting a caloric caloric total is not gonna help you. You need to make sure that you're getting the appropriate fat levels, protein levels, and carbohydrate levels to live or to adhere to that training or to that nutritional philosophy. So macronutrients are extremely important. Calories are not the only thing. They're obviously a part of the equation, but they're not the only thing.

Jeff Gaudette [00:11:18]: Two more things that I want to say about macronutrients in terms of How they work. The first is that or how they relate to the calorie caloric consumption. So every macronutrient has a certain number of calories that it adds to the your caloric total. So and that's how you actually get your calories is that for every gram of protein, carbohydrate, and fat you eat, They all add up to each to total your calorie total. So that's so they kind of relate very similarly there. And just so you know, there are 4 calories in every gram of carbohydrate, There are 4 calories in every gram of protein and there are 9 calories in every gram of fat. And there is technically a 4th macronutrient, it's alcohol. Alcohol has 7 calories per gram, but alcohol is kind of a separate issue and not really kinda how we relate to fitness goals here.

Jeff Gaudette [00:12:05]: So I'll leave it out. And then lastly, when we talk about macronutrients, we kind of in in some ways, we we lump them all together. We we lump all All carbohydrates, protein, and fats together. But there are different types of macronutrients within those categories, and they are different. We call them good and bad, but in many cases, they are just different uses or different functions. And so, for example, we when we talk about carbohydrates, There are good carbs and then there are bad carbs. And I almost hesitate to to label it bad carbs, and I'll explain why in a second. So The good types of carbohydrates are gonna be those that are low on the glycemic index.

Jeff Gaudette [00:12:46]: Meaning, that when you ingest them, they take long a little bit longer time to ingest, and they don't stimulate a significant insulin response right away. And that's gonna be really important if you're diabetic. And, obviously, you had Camiller speak earlier about training as a diabetic, so if you are or concerned about your sugar levels, definitely check out that interview. But So so that's why they're they're and they generally are are longer lasting sources of energy. So you can eat those 2, 3 hours before your run and they're gonna fuel your run. They're gonna kinda stay in your stomach, stay in your system, and fuel your run for that longer period of time. And There are what we call fast acting type of of carbohydrates. And these are typically associated with candies, the bad type of carbohydrates.

Jeff Gaudette [00:13:29]: But, like I said, I've labeled that I hesitate to label them bad because they can be used strategically to help fuel your running. Now you don't want to be eating gummy bears all day long and that be your only source of carbohydrate. However, if you're training and you're And you're maybe 30 minutes from a workout and you're feeling a little bit tired or or kind of under fueled or you're obviously during the race itself and you need energy and you need fuel, Then these simple types of carbohydrates are gonna be your best and most effective source of energy. You don't wanna be there's no way you're gonna eat brown rice or oatmeal during a race and nor are they or is it gonna be effective. Because by the time that that that breaks down in the the carbohydrate and provides the energy, the race is gonna be over. So they are bad in the sense that that you don't want to be consuming them all the time in your daily lives. However, they can be used effectively and in your training and in your racing to help you improve. And, obviously, day 2 talked a lot about about this, so definitely check out those interviews as well for more in-depth.

Jeff Gaudette [00:14:31]: Same thing for fat. There are good fats and bad fats. So there are healthy fats, like omega threes, omega 6. Those are gonna be the ones, like, that are found in fish, Avocado, nuts. Those are gonna be those are the ones I talk about that help with absorbing nutrients, regulating hormones, etcetera. And then there are the bad types of fats, which are usually the saturated fats. Those are gonna be the types of fats that you find when you eat a hamburger or a pizza, grease, those types of things. I will call that that fat because I far as I know, there really there really is not a, effective or most efficient way for your body to use that fat.

Jeff Gaudette [00:15:04]: It's it's just not super healthy. So if you can avoid them, absolutely. With protein, I actually don't know that there's any, like, less quality sources of protein in the sense of the pure protein. Obviously, you can have a a fatty protein source. So, for example, you could have a a fatty steak or a fatty Hamburg versus, a lean chicken breast. But when we're talking about the protein source itself, there isn't kind of a good or a bad type of protein. There are different types of protein. There's whey.

Jeff Gaudette [00:15:29]: There's soy. There's casein. And those are where, again, if you want to get really specific and really, kind of, dialed in, then you can say, well, we're using different types of protein for different methods. So for example, whey protein is absorbed extremely rapidly by the body. And so it's really great for recovery because it's going to it's gonna distribute that protein to your muscles much more quickly. Casein, on the other hand, is a slower digesting protein. So it's actually really great to eat before you go to bed. Because when you go to bed, you're hopefully sleeping for 6 to 8 hours.

Jeff Gaudette [00:16:02]: And so that 6 to 8 hours is when you're not consuming any food. And that's when your body can go catabolic and start to kind of use energies like, use protein as an energy source because you're running out of carbohydrates. And so by having casein, which is a slower digesting protein, then you're able to kind of keep those protein levels higher throughout the night. And so It's not quite as important as like carbohydrate timing or carbohydrate type when it comes to fueling, but if you do want to get, really technical, You can even tweak the types of protein that you use in order to better meet your protein needs for your training and and just general lifestyle.

Finn Melanson [00:16:38]: Wow. That was an awesome in-depth look. And to follow-up a bit, what macronutrient ratio do you recommend for a runner trying to lose weight, in muscle or, you know, optimized training and recovery?

Jeff Gaudette [00:16:52]: So great question on the carbohydrate or the macronutrient percentages. That's something that I think is somewhat unique for runners. What we did is we we really had to look at so much of the data that runners were giving us about What their macronutrient percentages were. And what we found was that a balance of 57% carbohydrate, 25% protein and 18% fat was really ideal for the runner and here's why. 1st, runners really struggle to get their protein needs in. So what you'll see with a lot of traditional diets is they'll say 40% carb, 40% protein, 20% fat. And 20% protein for most runners is gonna be a lot more than they're used to in ingesting. And so one, that's a huge that's usually a big change to their diet.

Jeff Gaudette [00:17:41]: And so when we look at whether it be weight loss, recovery, etcetera, like, what we wanna do is make sure that we're creating a eating style that fits around your lifestyle and or eating plan that fits around your lifestyle. And so if we're asking you to all of a sudden start consuming 200 grams, a 180 grams of protein when you're just not used to that, that's gonna be a big change and it's gonna be that's hard to stick to. The second reason is that as the needs of an endurance athlete, which hopefully you are watching this, are gonna be different than a sedentary person or somebody who's lifting a lot of weights. So your primary energy needs are gonna come in the form of carbohydrates Because you're doing all you're doing mostly endurance training, and endurance training is ideally fueled by, slow digesting carbohydrates. So the carb you gotta want your carbohydrate percentages a little bit higher. The third reason is that what ends up happening is when you are Training at a high level, you're gonna have extreme fluctuations in your diet that most either sedentary people or people that are lifting weights, like bodybuilders, just don't have. So, for example, if you're having a rest day, let's say your your TDEE, so your what we call thermodynamic effect Our energy effect is basically how many calories you need to survive plus, like, your daily life, so whether it be work, whatever you do for work, etcetera. Let's say that your tea is 2,000 calories.

Jeff Gaudette [00:19:05]: If you wanted to lose weight, we would recommend that you try to subtract anywhere from 3 to 500 calories from that total. So You would be at maybe about 1700 calories just as a a number here. So on, on a rest day, when you're not doing any running, Your caloric intake would be about 1700. Now what happens on your long run day when you go and do an 18 mile run? An 18 mile run might be an additional 900 to 1200 calories depending on how hard you're going, how far you're going, etcetera. But let's say it's 900 just for an easy number, That's going to actually take up your caloric intake to 26 100 calories. So if we did a 40 40 20 split At 1700 calories, 40% of 1700 I'm gonna have to do some quick math and because I'm really not good at, math on my head here. Luckily, I got my calculator. Is about 680 calories from protein divided by 4 for grams.

Jeff Gaudette [00:19:58]: That's about a 170 grams of protein. So That's already a significant total, so that kinda gets the idea of if we're talking 40%, a 170 grams of protein is a lot for a runner. I'm I'm sure Most of you here aren't consuming that much. Now, let's say that, again, on a long run day, you're at 26100. 26 100 calories times 40% Is 10 40 divided by 4 is 260 grams of protein. First of all, you don't need that much protein. Once you get over, like, 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight, your body just your body just can't absorb and process that much protein, so it's kind of useless anyway. Second, getting 260 grams of protein is, like, next to impossible.

Jeff Gaudette [00:20:39]: So cutting down that percentage for a runner is extremely important, so that way you can Stay within the ranges that are optimal for recovery without kind of going overboard. And so that's why we came up with those numbers. And, again, it's 57% carbohydrates, 25% protein and 18% fat. That's a great blend to allow for weight loss and recovery, and while also Taking into consideration your training needs and what those are going to be.

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Jeff Gaudette [00:23:34]: In terms of how if it's going to change based on what you're training for, whether it be a 5 k, 10 k half marathon, marathon ultra, the ratio isn't gonna really It it's not gonna change too much. You know, basically, when when you're talking about the training the type of training that you do for all of those types of race distances, It's going to be fairly similar. Obviously, there are some differences in that the five k, it's gonna be comprised of a lot more shorter intervals and less long runs, Whereas a marathon is gonna be longer, slower intervals, and more long runs. But that said, your energy needs are gonna be roughly the same. And so, you know, you're still gonna need a lot of, you know, carbohydrates to fuel, whether they're interval training or long workouts, you're still gonna need the protein to recover from both of those, Same thing with the marathon. Still gonna want, you know, adequate protein to make sure that you're recovering from the hard training sessions, and, obviously, making sure that we we get the right number of carbohydrates so that you're fueled for those training sessions, you're able to complete the workouts. So no. I don't think it necessarily train changes much based on, you know, what you what what race you're training for.

Finn Melanson [00:24:39]: What else factors into what macronutrient ratio is best for your goals, like, when you're thinking about things like gender, age, etcetera?

Jeff Gaudette [00:24:48]: In terms of what else fits or kind of what macro ratio would best suit you, females are going to tend to so let me let me say this that You wanna make sure that you're tweaking the macronutrient goals or macronutrient ratios to fit your lifestyle and to fit what works for you. Whether it be training, nutrition, strength training, whatever it may be, You have to remember that you are an individual. Your body works in its own unique individual way. So you may be somebody who needs a little bit more protein or just likes to eat a little bit more protein. Perhaps you're somebody that needs or a little bit more carbohydrates or likes that. You need to kind of tweak The diet to not only meet your what you understand about your body, but also meet your dietary needs. If you're just somebody that really hates protein, then You know, trying to get, you know, significant amounts of protein are, kind of, maybe, a little bit difficult. So in terms of Those type of things, you know, make sure that you're fitting it around your lifestyle, but still sticking close to those percentages that I give you.

Jeff Gaudette [00:25:46]: So that that doesn't mean that you can do 10% protein of of your daily caloric calories and 60 per you know, and, like, 40% fat. Like, that's just not gonna that's just not gonna be healthy. That's not gonna provide. But let's say that you're 25% protein and you wanna take it down to 23%, Not a huge factor there if if that fits your lifestyle a little bit better. Now in terms of age and gender, as you get older, Protein, as you get older, protein does help a little bit more since you do need more protein to help recover. You tend to recover a little bit slower, so that's pretty helpful. With females, tend to need a little bit less protein than men. So, again, if you're a woman, you could potentially bring that macronutrient protein down a little bit percentage wise, But not something that we, like, recommend a lot.

Jeff Gaudette [00:26:32]: Generally, I find that the macronutrients fit well for both men and women, especially when it comes to running. Sedentary people and and people that are doing, like, bodybuilders, muscle composition, that kind of stuff, they tweak a little bit more for females just because The body is definitely a little bit different. But because the training, the the running itself is such a critical component to how your micro macronutrients are gonna be used. It, kind of, lessens the impact of being a female or being a little bit older, and it, kind of, Evens that out so that it's not necessarily so critical to to adjust for.

Finn Melanson [00:27:05]: Alright. Shifting gears a bit. Is it Okay to use supplements when you have difficulty getting in a sufficient amount of protein through food sources?

Jeff Gaudette [00:27:13]: Absolutely. So, obviously, I recommend eating whole foods as much as possible, but that can generally be pretty difficult and it, you know, could be depending on who you are, what your Family life is like, you know, for example, if you have children and they just don't wanna eat protein for some reason, obviously, they need to have their requirements, but, You know, if if cooking a separate chicken breast is is something that you're gonna have to do every night in order to meet your nutrition needs and that's a lot of hassle, Then using supplements or supplementation can be extremely helpful. And especially for, I find, new or people that are kind of just getting into the idea of Macronutrient tracking. Supplements can be extremely helpful until they start, kind of, adapting their diet to have more protein. And I'm specifically talking about protein here because that is almost the that is universally the the macronutrient that runners struggle with the most. So what I recommend for those athletes is Using a supplement until they can start to kind of fine tune and adapt their diet over time to allow for more protein. And I I'll say this about generally about kind of diet and starting a new diet. Ideally, what you wanna make sure that you do is not Make significance or drastic changes.

Jeff Gaudette [00:28:26]: So don't go from, you know, eating this one way and then all and then just try to eat all these foods that you're not used to, that you may not like yet, you don't know not cooked yet, etcetera. That is kind of a recipe for failure. That tends to be where, you know, you do it for a week or two, and then you're just like, I this stinks. I'm I'm going back. What I find is the most helpful is to slowly start changing things. So maybe start with breakfast, start instead of having a bowl of cereal, Have a bowl of oatmeal. So that's exchanging a kind of a low quality carbohydrate or a simple carbohydrate to a high quality long lasting carbohydrate. And then maybe adding some protein to it.

Jeff Gaudette [00:29:02]: So, like, how what I do in the mornings is I actually like to add I actually add whey protein to my oatmeal, so it's kind of a great balance. It's a great balance of carbohydrates and protein. So start maybe doing something like that. In the evenings, you know, maybe start switching out some of your maybe instead of having pasta, Have a chicken dinner instead, you know, kind of slowly introduce the different types of macronutrients and still you start kind of leveling out your percentages and needs to where they need to be. But, Again, I think and so where supplements fit into that is, I think, it's a great way to, kind of fit that in into your lifestyle without having to do a lot of work. So if you are really low on your protein needs, weight like a weight taking away protein, maybe after you run or during the day, Is a really simple, easy way that you can add protein. So, like, for example, a a scoop of whey protein is a 130 calories, and depending on what type you get, anywhere from 23 to 26 grams of protein. So and, like, maybe 3 or 4 carbohydrates.

Jeff Gaudette [00:29:58]: So and nowadays, like, it used to be back in, like, this nineties where most whey proteins taste like crap. Now most of them taste really good. And there are, like, dozens and dozens of flavors. There's peanut butter cup, Caramel, mocha, whatever thing you can think of. So, for example, one of my favorite things to do when I first started trying to tweak my macros was I would I I enjoy coffee drinks. And so I would actually just take some milk, some whey protein, and blend it with some ice, and it and it was cappuccino whey protein, it tasted just like a frozen cappuccino. So it's like this a great treat, 130 calories, 26 grams of protein. It was, like, What else? You know, that's awesome.

Jeff Gaudette [00:30:35]: That's that's perfect. So so that's one thing that so supplementation is very important there. And then, likewise, I think One of the things that that you wanna look at is, like, how can you supplement and kinda hit your caloric totals? One of the so one of the things I think is sorry. Varying a little bit there. But the question that we often get is, especially on long run days, well, how do I meet my caloric needs and having to kind of change my diet so much. So, for example, the example we talked about, 1700, heck, 100 calories versus 26 100 calories. That's really difficult to meal plan for because, You know, you're you're talking about an extra 900 calories. Like, where does that have to come from? Like, that's a whole other almost 2 meals of eating.

Jeff Gaudette [00:31:16]: And so supplementation can really help there. And so, for example, you could do, like, a shake. So you could do, like, after you run, you could blend up some oatmeal, some whey protein, some fruit, some milk, some micronutrients in there, like some spinach or whatever. And that's gonna be that's gonna be a great way to get me 400, 500 calories And instantly, like, kind of within a shake as opposed to kind of figuring out where outside during the day are you gonna eat an extra 2 or 3 meals, to make up for that caloric deficit you're in because of the run that you did.

Finn Melanson [00:31:45]: So how should runners look to distribute their macro totals throughout the day, You know, to to best facilitate things like their training, recovery, etcetera?

Jeff Gaudette [00:31:55]: So that's a great question, and and it kinda ties along to kind of what I mentioned before. A little bit in terms of, like, the shake in terms of, you know, how can we kind of meet our caloric needs and macronutrient needs within our training. So One of the more difficult things to do so one of the more difficult things to do in training when training for weight loss, so running and trying to train for goal and also trying to lose weight, one of the most difficult things to do is to fuel for the runs. That and that's going to be the most important part of your day. So ideally, what you're gonna wanna do is you're going to want to maximize the amount of or maximize your redistribute your caloric and Macronutrient needs around your run. So you may wanna make sure that you are eating, a good quality carbohydrate source, And maybe the bulk of your carbohydrates are going to come, before your workout. So maybe an hour, hour and a half before your workout, that's going to be when you want to eat Your your maybe a good proportion, a good percentage of your carbohydrates. And then following your workouts, that's when you're gonna wanna have a little bit of carbohydrate as well as your protein.

Jeff Gaudette [00:32:59]: So that's when you can start to make sure that you're getting enough protein as well. And so by sandwiching your macronutrient totals around that run, You're gonna make sure that that run is quality, that it's fueled well, that you recover from it, and that it maximizes the time that you spent training. And that means, obviously, throughout the day, that's when you have to kinda maybe distribute a little less calories. So maybe it's, you know, not eating as big of a breakfast if you run-in the night, Or maybe it means not eating a a big dinner if you run-in the mornings. And one thing I will say is that there is no evidence and no research that shows that you have to eat that meal frequency matters. So whether you eat 3 meals a day or 6 or 7 meals a day, that has absolutely zero, no impact on your weight loss goals. That is a myth. That is something that doesn't matter.

Jeff Gaudette [00:33:46]: So let's kinda get that out of the way. There's no research, no scientific evidence that supports that. So that's why you want to kind of target your macronutrient goals around your training days or your training times. That said as well, I think one of the things that we have to do as as runners and as athletes is we have to start We have to kinda take ourselves out of the mindset of most of our calories come at night at dinner, breakfast is cereal, You know, carbohydrate type foods, like, it doesn't have to be like that. Like, that those are, like, almost, like, social constructs that we kinda fall into as as from children Or from, you know, our youth or whatever that we kinda get stuck in this idea, but it doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to eat a large dinner. Like, you can have a normal size or a smaller dinner or maybe even a snack if that's what kind of fits your macronutrient totals, and you can have a larger breakfast. And breakfast doesn't have to be pancakes, it doesn't have to be eggs, it doesn't have to be oatmeal, cereal, that kind of thing.

Jeff Gaudette [00:34:45]: That's a social construct. Breakfast can be anything that you want it to be. And so if you do your let let's say you do your training primarily in the mornings, then that's when you could have your biggest meal of the day, and it could be chicken, rice, and broccoli. Like, it doesn't have to be, you know, eggs or waffles or whatever. It can be, but it doesn't have to be. Same thing at night. So, I think that's an important thing to remember, along with the fact that I'm saying this again because I want to reiterate it, That meal frequency has no impact on weight loss. In terms of, like, kind of recovery, fueling for recovery, etcetera, kind of getting back to that idea of of, kind of, the shake.

Jeff Gaudette [00:35:22]: Basically, if you if your macronutrient goals or totals for a day are really high because you're doing a long run or extremely hard workout, then I find it the best way to do it is is post run because that's gonna be when you can use, you know, like shakes and recovery drinks, like in Durox, you know, those types of things where you can really Fine tune your your macronutrients within that window, and it doesn't necessarily screw up the rest of your your day. And that kinda gets back into, I guess, A little bit more of a lifestyle idea of macronutrients and eating and lifestyle changes, etcetera, is that what I find most helpful for me When I am trying to follow a meal plan is kind of being able to meal plan and roughly eat in the same structure. So for example, I always eat roughly the same size breakfast, same size lunch, same size dinner, like, kind of within those ranges. So if I need to supplement or fuel because of particular workout, if I need to add, then it's easier for me to just add, like, a shake or something high quality directly after my training Than it is to completely redistribute, my macronutrient totals throughout the rest of the day. For me, that it just makes it harder to calculate. It kind of throws my body off a little bit. So that's what works for me. On the other hand, it could completely work for you to redistribute your totals.

Jeff Gaudette [00:36:39]: Know, again, that's where kind of getting into what worked for you is going to is gonna be best.

Finn Melanson [00:36:45]: Wow. Super helpful. You have gone really in-depth here, Jeff, so I guess I'll leave you with this to finish off the episode. Are there any other tips that you wanna share About macronutrients?

Jeff Gaudette [00:36:59]: Okay. Let's see. Any other tips on macros? I guess I have a couple. The first is, I think the challenge when when I think whenever you first bring up, you need to calculate your macros, you need to calculate your calories, I think the first thing that comes up is people say, oh, that's too hard, Or that's a lot of work. Yes. It is some work, but anything in life that's worth doing requires work. If it was easy, Everybody would do it. Everybody would have look like a rock star.

Jeff Gaudette [00:37:26]: Everybody would be on point with their macros and nutrients all the time. They would always feel great for the runs. Just because it's hard does not mean it's not worth doing. If anything, it makes it worth doing more. So I think that's the first step is realizing that, yes, it's some work, But work pays off and it's worth it in the end. The second thing is it's much easier to do nowadays than it's ever has been. There are so many tools online that you can use to track your caloric and macronutrient goals. So it used to be, obviously, extremely difficult.

Jeff Gaudette [00:37:57]: Well, how do I find out how many grams of protein are in chicken breast or how many grams are in this meal that I ate out and ate at a restaurant? Most of most restaurants these days post their nutrition nutrition guides online, if it's a chain restaurant. If it's not a chain, it's pretty easy to estimate. Likewise, it takes a quick Google search of calories, chicken breast, 6 ounces. It's right there. It's it's really easy to do. And then there are the tracking apps. MyFitnessPal is my favorite, but there are different ones. On TheRegimen makes a really good one.

Jeff Gaudette [00:38:29]: And but, basically, these These trackers make it super easy. The the foods are already listed in their database. So you literally just go in and say, today, chicken breast. Well, how much did you eat? I ate 6 ounces. Bam. That's it Automatically puts all the caloric macronutrient totals in your daily, list. That's what I ate. This is what you have left to hit your your goals.

Jeff Gaudette [00:38:48]: So it's Apps and stuff make it much, much easier. 2nd or I should say 3rd, there's a couple of tools that you can use. 1, to me, a scale, was life changing for me. They are very cheap. You can get them on Amazon for, like, $11 or something like maybe it's 15, but it's super cheap. They're not big, they're, you know, they're really small, but they are life changing in terms of being able to better under Better understand the quantity of food that you're eating. So, obviously, just in this couple of minutes, I've talked about 6 ounces of chicken breast a couple of times. It's really hard to estimate 6 ounces of chicken breast.

Jeff Gaudette [00:39:26]: But have your scale on your counter, really easy to plop the plate on there, Press power and then put chicken breast on it and cut it until you get 6 ounces. It's that easy. And then Over time, you start to learn and start to understand. And this is where estimating macros when you're out to eat, etcetera, becomes easy because I can look at a piece of chicken and say, I know that's roughly about 6 ounces. I know that's roughly about 8 ounces. So when I go out to eat and I order a chicken, I can say I can look at it and say, oh, that's a big piece of chicken. That's probably, like, 9 ounces of or it's pretty small. It's probably like 4.

Jeff Gaudette [00:39:57]: And it really helps you calculate your macronutrient totals without having to actually measure everything. And 4th or yeah. So 4th, make it a game. That's what's that's what made it fun for me is I always kinda made it a challenge. I had a I I love spreadsheets, so I had a spreadsheet, and it was, like, these are the calories I need, these are the macronutrient goals I need today, how close can I come to hitting them? And it was fun for me to actually check the foods, check the labels, those types of things, going to the grocery store, checking the labels, like, oh, how is this gonna fit with my Macronutrient needs. To me, it was it was a fun game. Maybe that's because, like, when I was a kid, I played, like, RPGs with, you know, how much mana do you have and all that kind of stuff, and now I'm probably Nerding myself a lot out a little bit there, but I I love making it a game. I love making it that that thing.

Jeff Gaudette [00:40:40]: Most runners are very data heavy. I mean, often do you record everything that comes out of your GPS, Stride, Garmin device? Like, are you you know, most artists write everything down. So it's the same thing with your macronutrients, just kind of get in that headset or that mindset that writing down those macronutrient totals that you're eating for the day is a game that you're playing or something that you're tracking that you like to do. And finally, I find that, you know, once you kind of get a so let's say that all of those things don't hurt. You don't you don't like making the game, You're bad at estimating. You you don't like taking the time. You hate it, etcetera, whatever. You know, you don't have to do this for the rest of your life.

Jeff Gaudette [00:41:17]: Like, do it for 3, 4 weeks. And, like I said, what you're gonna do is you're gonna start developing a feel. A, you're gonna start you're gonna Start putting together generalizations of what your day looks like. So, generally, most people eat roughly the same things every day. Like, nobody's, like, drastically changing Everything they eat every day. Like, most of the people eat roughly the same thing every day or combination of foods. And second, it's gonna give you an extreme awareness Of how many calories are in certain foods, how many proteins, carbohydrates, etcetera. My example of that that that Kind of kicked it home for me was granola.

Jeff Gaudette [00:41:52]: Right? We always see granola as this, like, super healthy food, or it's kind of marketed as It's like very healthy food. But go to the grocery store and look at a macro granola package and look at how many calories it has per, like, quarter cup. Usually, it's a quarter cup is their servings, quarter cup. And then, how many calories it has and then how many grams of sugar. And then again, that kinda gets into looking at the macros. So you look at it and you're like, wow. This cup quarter cup of of, you know, granola, which is supposed to be healthy, has 320 grams so that's 320 calories perhaps and, you know, like, 26 grams of sugar. Like, that's insane.

Jeff Gaudette [00:42:31]: Like, that's gonna, like, Crush. I mean, that that makes it very difficult to stay within your caloric and macronutrient totals if that's the case. So pay attention to that. That so anyway, getting back Looping around off off my tangent. You don't have to do it forever. Do it for 3 to 4 weeks and it's gonna open your eyes to the caloric density of foods and the the type of macronutrients are in their foods. And so once you do that for a while, then, yeah, you can probably back off and you're gonna be pretty close if if accurate tracking is not kind of something that you like to do. But, again, it's it's definitely worth it, and anything worth doing is usually difficult in in life in general.

Jeff Gaudette [00:43:08]: Couple other tips, I guess, along the same lines. One of the things that I found most enlightening, again, kind of going back to my granola example, is Tracking nutrition stuff, like, looking at nutrition packaging and looking at how these companies try to trick us with our with serving sizes. So maybe you get something and it's a it's a small bag of something and then you look at it, like, you look at the calories, like, oh, cool, like, 180 calories, like, You know, below whatever grams of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and then you're, like, oh, that's a good little snack. And then you look closer, serving size, 2. Serving size or I'm sorry. Servings per container, like, 2, 3. And you're, like, servings per container? The container's, like, 3 ounces. Like, how am I supposed to break that into, like, Number of servings.

Jeff Gaudette [00:43:51]: So that that's something that, like, totally opened my eyes to, like, just the marketing and the kind of sometimes Maybe miss misrepresentation is too harsh of a word, but that companies do to try to make their products seem healthier. So Definitely something that kinda opened my eyes to that world and something I think will hope hopefully, will for you when you start looking at when you start paying better attention to your macronutrient totals, etcetera. And finally, I think this was a talk earlier, but I think meal planning is is super helpful. You know, being able like, I For me, Sunday evenings, like afternoons, is when I cook. I cook all my chicken. I cook everything that kind of takes a long time to cook, like rice, etcetera, baked potatoes. I cooked those all on Sunday, and then I don't even necessarily pre proportion them, which some people do, which I think is awesome, especially if you, Like, wanna bring it to work, like, having it already ready to go. You just gotta grab it out of the fridge.

Jeff Gaudette [00:44:42]: That makes such a big difference. Because, again, it gets back to that, know, you don't have to drastically, like, change or record everything. Like, if you roughly have the same dinner, lunch, or maybe it's just maybe if it's just breakfast and lunch, like, if you just have the same Breakfast and lunch are roughly the same, then you already know those totals. It's really simple. Again, MyFitnessPal, like, you can have saved meals. So let's say you had 3 different types of breakfasts you like to eat and 3 different lunches. Those are easy to meal prep. You can prep those all in one day.

Jeff Gaudette [00:45:11]: Put them all in different containers so they're measured correctly. You only have to do it once. Boom. Take out for breakfast. Take it out for lunch. Eat it. Now the only thing you have to and you can easily my fitness pal, I had breakfast 2 today. My friends, I have lunch 3 today.

Jeff Gaudette [00:45:24]: Now all you need to worry about is like dinner and your run, like we're calculating those macro nutrients. So it makes it so much easier. And so those are, I think, probably my favorite tips for for the macros. So, yeah, thank you so much. I really enjoyed this. I I love talking about this. Like I said, this has been kind of my passion over the last couple years. And so I hope, some of the, the Data that I gave you and some of the, examples and stuff really helped.

Jeff Gaudette [00:45:48]: And thank you so much for watching. Really appreciate it.

Finn Melanson [00:46:06]: Thanks for listening the Run to the Top podcast. I'm your host, Finn Melanson. As always, our mission here is to help you become a better runner with every episode. Please Consider connecting with me on Instagram at Wasatch Finn and the rest of our team at Runners Connect. Also consider supporting our show for free with a rating on the Spotify and Apple Podcast Cast players. And lastly, if you love the show and want bonus content, behind the scenes experiences with our guests, and premier access to contests giveaways and subscribe to our newsletter by going to runnersconnect.netback/podcast. Until next time, happy trading.