PLANNING YOUR DIET Emmet Malone, despite weeks and miles of marathon training, is the same weight as when he started. As part of this series he talks to nutritionist Aoife Hearne about crucial dietary matters
There's clearly something psychological about knowing somebody is training for a marathon, because friends and colleagues haven't stopped congratulating me recently about the amount of weight I have lost. The reality is that I haven't shed an ounce.
At the start of the year I weighed around 84 kilos or about 13 stone five ounces and, despite having run the equivalent of Dublin to Cork and back again a couple of times in recent months, I still do.
Nor, I might add, do I think I look any different, so I can't really console myself with the idea, widely suggested in books and magazines, that a great deal of fat has been discarded and then replaced with leaner, heavier muscle.
As it happens, my own priority was originally to maintain a dietary regime that, while hardly outrageous by modern standards, would still dismay most healthcare professionals and probably finish off a few people with pre-existing conditions.
To my genuine surprise, however, I now find that the more effort I put into the running, the less I can help thinking about where all the necessary energy's coming from.
This may not be entirely unconnected to the fact that when I first started significantly increasing my mileage I could barely get myself out of the bed in the morning.
For others, it's often an important goal to lose a few pounds and if that's the case, then it's best to devise a fairly structured plan which combines better eating and smarter training - we'll be looking at the latter next week.
Even if it isn't, though, the bottom line is that the closer you get to the day when you ask the various bits of your body to haul you around 26.2 miles, the harder it is to be entirely flippant about what you fuel those components on. And, as just about everybody with experience of the field points out, there's more involved than filling the shopping trolley with pasta and energy drinks.
"The most important thing for people training for something like a marathon," says nutritionist Aoife Hearne, "is to get the balance right. How much they are going to have to change in order to do that depends on their starting point.
"Are they eating McDonald's three times a week or cooking fairly healthily for themselves already, for instance? There's no question, diet plays an enormous part in helping the body cope with what it's being put through when you embark on something as substantial as a marathon."
A former national 100-metres champion who studied the subject in the US while on an athletics scholarship, Hearne now runs a consultancy, Nutrition Solutions, in her native Waterford. A registered dietician, she has advised the Kerry senior football team and the Tipperary hurlers and has recently started working with Athletics Ireland, advising some of the association's promising young athletes.
A substantial part of her time, though, is spent helping rather more ordinary members of the population who come to her for a variety of reasons such as information on how they can benefit from a better diet.
"The thing about people who have decided to run a marathon is that doing it is usually something they have decided they really want to do and so they're prepared to make the effort. A lot of the most basic stuff involves a good deal of common sense. But what you are essentially looking to do is include more wholegrain carbohydrates, lean sources of protein as well as unsaturated fats.
"Including plenty of fruit and vegetables is important too as they help to boost the immune system which is vital," she says. "Apart from an injury, illness is one of the things that can very easily seriously disrupt your training or even prevent you running in the race itself and during the first half hour after a long run you're very susceptible to picking up something."
Prevention is an ongoing priority as is the need to keep topping up energy levels sensibly with Hearne recommending three meals and a couple of healthy snacks over the course of the day.
"It will vary a bit with people's individual schedules and when they do their running but it's important not to skip meals. Snacks at the right times are good too but certain things will suit some people better than others. For instance, for some a small pasta or rice dish with maybe some chicken and a light sauce will be good as a pre-run snack whereas others will do better with the likes of Jordan Crunch or Nature Valley bars. It's important not to play around with these sorts of options just before a race, though," she points out. "People should use their training runs to find out what's right for them."
Afterwards, she continues, "refuelling" in order to aid the body's recovery from strains of the run is of critical importance. Drinking plenty of water is a given but sports drinks are pretty much essential (she particularly recommends a new product, Provon Revive, which is currently only available direct from www.provonrevive.ie). Indeed, up to two bottles and a banana, she suggests, may be appropriate for an 80 kilo athlete after a strenuous session.
For the person in question to become, say, a 75 kilo athlete requires a bit of planning and should be done gradually so as not to leave the body overly exposed to illness or injury. The three main food groups to be considered when planning your diet are:
Carbohydrates Pretty much everybody talks about the importance of "carbs" when training to run long distances.
These are the foods that the body converts into energy.
In their most simple form, they can be converted very quickly but of much more benefit to runners are the "complex carbohydrates" contained in things like wholegrain foods.
Particularly strongly recommended sources of complex carbohydrates include brown or unrefined pasta, couscous and sweet potatoes.
Wholemeal bread, fruit and vegetables like broccoli and asparagus are also very good.
Proteins Meat is the most obvious source but it's important to keep as much as possible of it lean.
Chicken, fish or lean pork chops as well as soybean are amongst the preferred possibilities most
commonly mentioned by
dieticians.
Fats These need to be included in your diet but it's important that the bulk of those consumed are the right type. Unsaturated fats are both necessary and beneficial to the body with the likes of olive oil, fish and avocados all helping to provide the amount required.
Estimates as to what the ideal make up of your diet should be vary but, generally, it is reckoned that at least half of your daily food intake should take the form of carbohydrates. Some put the figure at 60 per cent, but others feel that this is really more appropriate for elite athletes. The generally recommended percentages for proteins vary from 15 per cent up to 25 per cent, while the figure for fats stretches from 20 per cent to 30 per cent.
Many sites provide methods for calculating what your daily calorie intake should be and, as mentioned, how best it should be achieved in terms of different food types. Several also recommend ways of combining diet and running to lose weight.
In my own case, the formulas provided put my calorie requirement at anything from 2,366 per day to 2,772, according to which formula was employed.
The difference between the two is almost the 500 calories per day that it is estimated you have to leave yourself short by in order to lose a pound in a week. Conversely, it is claimed that consuming 100 extra calories per day that go unused will result in a 10lb weight gain over the course of a year.
Ballpark estimates for the number of calories burned while running put the figure at between 100 and 130 per mile but the folks at Runners World, with admirable precision, suggest that an accurate figure can be obtained by using the formula: kilometres run x weight in kilograms x 1.036.
Aoife Hearne makes the point that all of these things can vary considerably from individual to individual in accordance with a number of factors.
To have your calorie requirement properly assessed or receive professional advice on your diet, she recommends that you consult a qualified dietician. They can be contacted through the website of their association at www.indi.ie
There is only space here to touch on the basics of this hugely researched and written about topic. Useful further reading on nutrition and/or weight loss for those involved in training for a marathon is available at:
serpentine.org.uk
time-to-run.com/ireland/nutrition
runrepublic.com
about.com (follow the links for health then jogging and running)
runnersworld.com
This last site contains a huge array of articles and information including hundreds of recipes.