[Sportsandrec] Intro and Sports Nutrition Related Question

[Kelly Thornbury]

Hi Ryan and welcome. 

Probably one of the best sites and apps is www.myfitnesspal.com
I've found it pretty accessible, has one of the largest food calorie informations online, and you can put in your meals, fluid consumption, and exercise and get all sort of useful statistics. 

While calorie counting is important for elite runners, don't get stuck on the daily intake. If you are at an ideal weight now, check your weight about once a week or so (at the same time of day, wearing approximately the same clothing, and properly hydrated), if you notice a weight loss trend, you aren't eating enough; if you are gaining weight, you are eating too much. Coaches try to make it complicated and confusing, but it truly is as simple as that. Body weight is simply calories in vs calories out, if your weight is steady, you've reached a balance. 

Good luck.
Kelly 

On Jan 29, 2015, at 7:00 PM, Ryan Carsey via Sportsandrec wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> My name is Ryan. I thought I would introduce myself, and follow up
> with a question about sports nutrition.
> 
> Since the age of 16, I have been big in to distance running. I haven't
> run in a race over a 5K yet, but I am currently training to run in a
> Marathon. I have plenty of milage under my belt, and plan to run in
> races of various distances to build up to the Marathon. Some day, I
> hope to run in the Boston Marathon, and perhaps participate in
> ultra-distance races, which are races over the 26.2 mile distance of
> the Marathon. I love seeing how far I can go.
> 
> More recently, I have made an effort to make better nutritional
> habits, and the results are astounding. I used to think it didn't
> matter what I ate, because being an endurance athlete meant I would
> burn off whatever I ate anyway. Now that I eat more whole grain foods,
> fruits, vegetables, less red meat, etc., as well as making more of an
> effort to stay hydrated throughout the day, I have so much more energy
> before, during and after my runs. I've found I don't usually feel
> exhausted for very long after high interval speed workouts, thus I can
> push myself a lot harder than I used to.
> 
> My question isn't about what foods are good to eat or when, but more
> specifically, how I can tell how many calories I am taking in. I have
> read some books in regards to sports nutrition, and they don't seem to
> tell you how you know this. At least one or two encourage the reader
> to look at food labels to obtain this information, which as of now I
> can't do, because I don't have any bar code reader or scanner. Just
> about all of these books strongly encourage distance runners to keep
> track of the calories they eat. So, to those of you coaches,
> experienced runners and endurance athletes, or anyone who has a
> background with sports nutrition, what advice do you have? Is there a
> formula that applies to each food group? Or, is there a book(s) that
> you know of that can be of help?
> 
> Thanks in advance, and I'm looking forward to becoming more involved
> with this group.
> 
> Ryan
> 
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