How training for a half Ironman challenged everything I thought I knew about nutrition

How training for a half Ironman challenged everything I thought I knew about nutrition

Every now and then I start my run on an empty stomach. Sometimes I'm awake before my stomach can even eat, and I often dream about the breakfast that will revive me afterwards. Or maybe I'll try to save a few calories by simply skipping a meal.

I know this is harmful Diet culture-adjacent mindset. But while training for a recent half Ironman triathlon (which consists of a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride, and 13.1-mile run), I had a nutritional calculation that completely negated everything diet culture had taught me about fueling my body.

Fresh off a pelvic bone stress fracture, I knew I had to be intentional about meeting my nutritional needs. Finally, research shows that nutrition can not only affect your performance during your training cycle, but it can also prevent stress fractures and hormonal imbalances. To perform at my best and stay injury-free, I would have to focus on my diet - and abandon the ubiquitous nutritional rules that plague endurance athletes, such as: B. avoiding entire food groups or trying to achieve a daily calorie deficit.

Before starting my exercise program, I decided to contact a nutritionist. Here's what I learned (and unlearned) about race nutrition and diet culture while training for a half Ironman.

Why nutrition is so important in triathlon

ICYDK, newbies and casual athletes can expect to complete a half Ironman triathlon within five to seven hours. During these 70.3 miles and before and after the race, you'll need to load up on carbs, eat white bread, Pop-Tarts, pasta, and even pure glucose gels. These easily digestible sources of carbohydrates aren't always appetizing, but they provide the readily available energy you need to keep going.

In fact, carbohydrates are the only macronutrient that can be broken down quickly enough to provide energy (in this case in the form of glucose) during high-intensity exercise. And if you don't consume enough carbohydrates to fully replenish your muscles' glycogen stores after exercise, your performance can suffer—especially if you regularly engage in strenuous exercise, according to research published in Nutrition Today. No matter the distance, "one of the most important things an athlete should maintain is proper nutrition throughout the training cycle and on race day," says Starla Garcia, a registered dietitian and elite runner.

The problem: Some athletes feel the need to stick to a low-carb diet in hopes of reducing carbohydrate availability and training muscles to more easily use fat for energy, according to Nutrition Today research. Sure, this carb avoidance may be done in the name of improving performance—but it can also be seen as a clear manifestation of diet culture, which posits that the nutrient causes sugar crashes and "weight gain," among other things. Ideas. And that couldn't be further from the truth.

The Diet Culture Myths I Busted During Training

As I prepared my body and mind for my Half Ironman, I had to unlearn many of the myths about diet culture that had been burned into my mind over the years - and most of them were related to my previous association between weight loss and health, which is in contrast to the Health at Every Size movement.

The Health at Every Size approach to health aims to end weight stigma

According to Debbie Newman Kassekert, a triathlon swimming coach, potential weight loss can attract people to triathlons or change their motivation. “I often see athletes using their training to lose weight,” she explains. "While exercise typically results in healthy weight loss, skipping snacks and meals results in inadequate calorie and nutrient intake, which can severely impact performance and recovery."

Here are three of the biggest eye-openers I've had regarding nutrition, diet culture, and triathlon training.

Eating fewer calories is neither healthy nor sustainable.

All my life, I've had a habit of cutting corners to lose a few pounds, which means skipping the butter, scooping the middle out of bagels, and avoiding what's "bad" for me, even if that takes the fun out of food. Little did I know that this could have serious health consequences: research shows that adequate calorie and calcium intake keeps you at peak bone mass and prevents bone fractures. So my low-calorie diet might explain why I suffered a pelvic stress fracture midway through a marathon training cycle in early 2022.

Additionally, a calorie deficit saps your energy and prevents proper recovery. Protein, carbohydrates, antioxidants and sometimes supplements show effectiveness in supporting muscle recovery, research shows. If you don't get enough protein while sticking to a muscle-stressing exercise program, you may actually lose muscle tissue, according to the International Sports Sciences Association.

Athlete or not, under-fueling can also increase your hunger levels to the point where you eat past the point of satiety, which can leave you feeling sluggish for the next day's workout. Training for a triathlon gave me permission to snack after breakfast or dinner, even if I had a solid meal. Eating became fun again as refueling allowed me to be more creative with my food choices.

How to have a healthy relationship with food that lasts

“Healthy” food is not always the right choice.

Instead of blindly reaching for what diet culture had taught me was the "healthy" choice (think low-calorie rice cakes), I had to start thinking strategically about what I eat and when I eat my meals. Because let's be honest: We all have that friend (or is that friend) who needs a bathroom break halfway through a run due to a poorly timed stir-fry or high-fiber meal. Fiber is promoted for supporting healthy digestion, but it's also linked to intestinal cramps and can promote the urge to poop (hello, runner's diarrhea), research shows. TL;DR: You don't want *active digestion* (i.e. potty breaks) when you're trying to do a long run.

Before a long workout, Garcia suggests avoiding high-fiber foods that are advertised as "good for you," like cauliflower or broccoli. This rule of thumb can save athletes from the hard-to-digest fiber number two, which also causes gastrointestinal problems during training. Simple carbohydrates rather than whole grains are preferred, and rice, plantains, or tortillas are also options.

After training or racing, athletes need carbohydrates (think banana toast, quinoa bowls) along with muscle-building protein to replenish energy, says Garcia. "A runner needs energy to...help them recover faster," and that energy comes from the sugars broken down from carbohydrates, she says. In particular, eating carbohydrates after exercise aids recovery by helping to replenish your body's carbohydrate stores that were depleted during exercise, as Shape previously reported. Skipping the refueling process is simply not an option.

You'll probably need more than just plain water.

Newbie triathletes like me often go about hydration incorrectly. “I usually start talking about hydration when I see a lot of clients come to workout without a water bottle,” explains Newman Kassekert.

But aside from forgetting a water bottle, many training triathletes malign sports drinks and the added sugar and calories they provide. But that's not strategic for long endurance sports, says Garcia. ICYDK, electrolytes, including potassium and sodium, strengthen your heart and prevent muscle cramps. Electrolytes provide electrical signals necessary for cells to function, as Shape previously reported. However, someone with a diet culture mentality might feel against sports drinks to avoid extra calories or carbohydrates. (Gatorade Endurance Thirst Quencher, for example, contains 90 calories and 22 grams of carbohydrates, 13 of which come from added sugars, per 12-ounce serving.) But while a calorie deficit can help you lose weight, that's not the goal of training for an endurance race, and avoiding the calories in sports drinks doesn't lead to athletic success. For athletes who are really averse to sweet flavors, Garcia recommends lemon-flavored drinks or pure electrolyte drinks.

The takeaway on nutrition, diet culture and triathlon training

If you're unsure about whether you're fueling properly or whether diet culture is influencing your decisions, consider hiring a triathlon coach or anti-diet nutritionist who can guide you to make smart, strategic decisions in training. Not only that, but give yourself grace as you navigate this intentional change in eating and drinking. With race day nutrition out of the way, all you have to worry about is whether you'll be able to change apartments and whether you'll be able to pee while sitting on the bike.