Eating for training and not for hunger

[ellesan]

I'm having a hard time with this. After losing a lot of weight, I have my eating plan that works for me. I start eating when I'm hungry and then space out my meals every 3-4 hours (based on hunger). This has worked really good for me up until this point (with my other types of exercise), but now that I'm training for triathlon I'm finding that I need to fuel my body differently and eat when I'm not hungry. Nothing sounds good/tastes good at that point, but I know to get the most out of my longer/harder workouts I need to do it.

Any advice? or Just do it? Also I think part of my mental block is that I think of it more as "gels, and electrolyte drinks, etc. are for real athletes doing tons of training, not me and my less than ironman workouts..."

 

[Gayle]

Sandra - Have you just started to ramp up your training? I would think that if your training is getting harder, your body is going to be screaming for more food anyway.

How much extra do you think you're going to need? You might try increasing your intake slowly and see how it goes, rather than just all of a sudden eating a lot more food.

 

[ellesan]

Hi Gayle, thanks for the reply. Yes, I've ramped up my training but it's not really about eating more food (not worried about working that out), it's more about timing and actually not feeling like eating before working out but knowing I need to fuel my body for the increased intensity.

 

[banslug]

Sandra, I totally get what you're saying. I'm currently training for 2 half marathons and am finding that my 'normal' meal schedule works FOR THE MOST PART, but it's WHAT I eat that has to change to fuel my body for the increased mileage...not only throughout the DAY but throughout the WEEK! You have to listen to your body and be comfy with what you're eating and when. Who is telling you when to eat? How do you FEEL with your current meal plan? Are your workouts suffering with your current meal plan? I'd suggest making minor tweaks here and there as you find it necessary to do so.....if you make major changes suddenly, you may suffer in your training.

Personally, I've found that adding 'simple clean calories', as I like to call them, helps with the extra calorie need WITHOUT adding tons of bulk to my food. For instance, on my LARGE organic salad I'll use 1T EVOO; with my banana or apple I'll have 1 or 2T organic natural almond butter; in my egg white pancake I'll toss in a scoop of protein powder or extra cottage cheese. Little additions like that add the HEALTHY calories without putting too much food into your belly for your workouts.

Hope that helps some!

 

[mspina]

Hi Gayle, thanks for the reply. Yes, I've ramped up my training but it's not really about eating more food (not worried about working that out), it's more about timing and actually not feeling like eating before working out but knowing I need to fuel my body for the increased intensity.

You are training for a sprint, right? How long are your workouts? Have you actually noticed that the quality of your workout is effected if you don't eat before, or are you going by something you read? If the latter, don't eat something just because you feel like you are supposed to - if the workouts are short (under 60 minutes), you really don't need to do anything special, nutrition-wise, unless you are feeling like you are struggling during the workout. Gels and such are GREAT convenience fuel for long duration workouts - when you are out on a 2-3 hour run, or 3-5 hour bike ride, they are invaluable. But they certainly aren't necessary otherwise. I always have an early morning workout on my schedule and will usually not take in any calories beforehand unless it's longer than an hour, even if it's a very challenging workout - I just don't need anything. Before an early evening workout I will need something, but I discovered that by trial and error.

 

[ellesan]

Hi Guys, I appreciate your thougths and responses!

My first race in May is an 800 meter open swim, 30K bike and 5K run, but I'm also considering an olympic distance later in the year, and will be doing longer (2-4 hour workouts).

My normal routine is to NOT eat anything before working out--not because I think there's some great weightloss/calorie burn benefit, but because I'm just not hungry and generally don't feel good with something in my stomach before I exercise. My work schedule is really variable (work 7pm to 7am, 3-4 days a weekm so some days I'm up at 9am and some days that's when I'm going to bed) and my body gets confused what day/time it is...which is why I basically went to a "eat only when hungry" plan a few years ago.

No, no one is telling me to eat/nothing I read...I'm just going by my last few workouts and how I feel. I've either felt a energy crash or feeling icky right afterwards, which is new for me. I've definitely worked out for more than an hour and been fine before.

Examples: Ater my second swim, I got out of the water and felt nauseous the entire day. I drank water before/after the workout but didn't eat anything beforehand. After talking with people, I decided to eat a banana beforehand and makes sure I drank water during the swim, which helped a lot (only felt slightly dizzy for 10-15 minutes after and no nausea). I've swam twice since then (both for one hour) and done the same thing, which seems to have solved the problem. (but I definitely feel hungrier in general after I swim)

Yeserday I went for an hour bike ride, with nothing to eat beforehand. I felt ok during the ride, but I had to fight a lot of wind on the way home and was pretty tired--I had wanted to ride for another hour but it started raining and I'm a wimp. After being home 15 minutes I had a big energy crash and felt terrible.

I'm just thinking that if I would have eaten beforehand/had a gel on the bike maybe I would have felt better and able to ride longer.

My general nutrition is really good and I have no problem eating really balanced and healthy meals during the day.

I guess like everything else, I'm finding that it's trial and error and we're all different. Thanks again for the ideas/input.

 

[cindi1]

I just read a book called racing weight by Matt Fitzgerald. He does a good job of talking about how to eat for your sport based on when you workout and how many hours a week you workout. I'm training for a marathon and found his advice really helpful.

One thing that helps me is Accelerade instead of water during my workouts. It's 4 parts carb/1 part protein. 120 calories a serving. You mix it with water and drink that during your workout. Keeps my energy level throughout. A gel I really like is called Chocolate Number 9 - it's just agave nectar and cocoa powder. Really tasty and you don't get a spike/drop in blood sugar.

Good luck!