How to Feel Full

Audio Transcript

Coach Sinead: Hi everyone. Glad to be here on this latest episode of the podcast.

If you have a question you would like one of our coaches to answer in an upcoming episode, you can submit it at runnersconnect.net/daily.

We would love to help you out so please do submit whatever questions you have. Today we have a great question from T.

T: Hey, I’ve been a runner since I was 14 and I’m 45 now. I don’t ever feel like I get full. I can get full and be hungry 30 minutes later. My metabolism is still tight. I’m trying to get full. Do you have any tips?

Sinead: Again, this is a fantastic question T and one that a lot of our listeners can probably relate to. I think a lot of people struggle with feeling satiated throughout the day and a lot of it does come down to the ratio of macronutrients on your plate.

That’s the first thing I want to talk about.

I’m not sure what your diet consists of T, but something to keep in mind is that whenever you make a plate of food for yourself, you always want to have 50% devoted to carbs and the other 50% devoted to your proteins and fats.

For runners, this ratio not only gives you the vital protein that you need for recovery sake and just to build muscle, but it also helps your body to feel satiated longer.

How that works is; say instead you have a plate that is 100% carbs, your body burns through carbs so quickly that if you don’t couple your carbs with some protein and fat, you’re going to burn through it within an hour at most.

If you couple it with some protein and fat, it will slow down the process by which you burn those calories and thus keep you feeling satiated longer.

For instance, if you were to just have a big bowl of leafy greens, that’s going to fill your stomach up.

In terms of volume, you are going to feel full and satiated for a good half hour but once your body has burned through those calories, you’re going to be right back to square one.

You’re going to feel hungry again within another 30-60 minutes.

That’s where if you are going to have a big salad, you can throw in some protein, a little bit of fat, and that’s going to be a good way to give you more long-lasting energy and also just keep you feeling satiated longer.

I will say you want to eat about every 2 ½- 3 hours throughout the day.

It doesn’t have to be huge meal every 3 hours, but you want to get a little bit of something in your system every 2 ½- 3 hours. This helps to keep your energy up, keep your insulin from plummeting and then spiking once you get more food in your system.

It just helps you to keep your blood sugar levels nice and stable throughout the day and keep you feeling satiated throughout the day, never feeling starving or hungry as I sometimes get.

Just make sure that all of your meals and snacks are one part carb and one part protein or fat. For instance, you want to snack in the middle of the afternoon, get a banana and some peanut butter or you can also have an apple and some yogurt.

That is going to slow down the process by which you break those sugars down and just keep you feeling fuller and just more energized as well.

Another tip I’ll give you to help you feel fuller – and this helps with your digestion as well – is to incorporate foods with liquid in them and have a beverage as part of your meal.

Something I am personally bad about is drinking water alongside a meal. This really helps with your digestion and it can also make you feel fuller.

That’s not to say this is a trick to help you reduce your calorie intake. You still need to get all the calories you need and especially as a runner, you are burning through a lot of calories on your runs.

You need to make sure you are getting sufficient calories. Drinking some water or a beverage of some sort along with your meal, can help with digestion and just keep you fuller.

You can also incorporate foods with liquid in them.

Some examples would be things like soups, chilies, stews, those sorts of things. You can also consider eating more food like brown rice and oatmeal which absorb a lot of liquid and can help you feel fuller longer.

I hope that helps you.

In a nutshell, you just want to make sure you are eating at least every 2 ½- 3 hours just a little bit of something in your system.

You want to make sure that you always couple your carbs with some protein or fat just to give you more long-lasting energy and keep you feeling satiated.

Again, the Golden Rule at meal time is 50% carbs and 50% protein and fat. One more thing I’ll say is you want to make most of your carbs complex carbs. Simple carbs are just so easy for your body to burn through.

Try and gravitate more towards complex carbs just so that your body breaks those down slower and gives you more long-lasting energy and satiated.

Thank you so much again for submitting that one T. Really enjoyed answering that one for you Today.

For all of our other listeners, if you’ve got any questions at all please do submit those at runnersconnect.net/daily. We would love to answer any questions you guys. we look forward to hearing those.

Thank you so much again for joining in and I hope you had a fantastic day.