Understanding calories in your marathon diet

Too cute

It is important to remember: Don’t try to train on your existing diet – unless you’re already eating too much – because the more exercise you do, the more fuel your body needs. It is actually OK and a good idea to increase food –namely carbohydrates (more on that below) -- intake when training because your body needs more fuel.
The more you exercise – the more miles you run – the more fuel (food) your body needs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends 2000 calories a day for an “average” person.“Average” in this blog means “sedentary,” “slothful,” and “couch-potatoey.” As a runner, your diet will need to adapt.

An unscientific, but pretty useful measurement of your caloric benchmark (I just made up this term) is to take your weight and multiply it by 13.

A runner of, say, 210 lbs. – and this is not to suggest I know anyone of such prodigious dimension – would need to consume 2,730 calories a day to maintain this weight.

* Note, I’m not suggesting that this is a healthy weight or that 2,730 calories a day is ideal It is a suggested training caloric intake.

210 lbs x 13 = 2,730 calories

A conservative estimate of the calories burned in one mile of running is 100 calories. The actual number of burned calories is adjusted depending on the speed at which the mile is run and how hefty is the runner. Therefore, a runner clocking five miles a day burns 500 calories. Arguably, the hypothetical runner would need to consume roughly 500 more calories a day.

Taking the USDA’s recommended caloric intake of 2000 calories, the preferred target for a 5-mile-a-day runner is 2,500 calories a day. Of course, the more miles one runs the greater the caloric demand.

All said, appreciate the fact that you are pushing your body harder. Accordingly, it will need more fuel.

Now, the question you should ask your inner runner is, can I stand to lose a few pounds? Do I really need to maintain the caloric intake that supports these love handles, chicken arms and double chin? Maybe the 2,500-ish range is appropriate for you anyway.