Nutrition for Runners: The Boring Basics That Actually Work

If you spend any time online, you’ll be told that the secret to better running lies in a detox tea, a colour‑coded meal plan, or a diet named after a caveman, a Scandinavian, or someone’s auntie Barbara who once lost half a stone before a wedding by drinking her own piss twice a day (“It’s sterile and I like the taste”… Patches O'Houlihan, anyone?!). But the truth is far less dramatic. Good nutrition for running isn’t about restriction, rules, or reinventing your entire personality around a diet. It’s about fuelling your body so it can actually do the thing you’re asking it to do. No drama. No gimmicks. Just physiology.

Fad and restrictive diets are brilliant at one thing: Marketing. They promise speed, simplicity, and superiority, which is exactly what people want to hear. Let’s face it, everyone wants a shortcut or… lord, forgive me for writing this… a "hack"! But for runners, they come with a cost. Most of these diets under-fuel you, and running is an energy‑hungry sport.

When you slash calories, you increase your risk of injury, slow your recovery, disrupt your hormones, and make every run feel harder than it should. You can’t build a stronger engine by giving it less fuel. Restrictive diets also create fear around food, turning meals into moral decisions rather than sources of energy and enjoyment.

Perhaps most importantly, they’re unsustainable. If you can’t follow a diet during a busy week, a holiday, or a stressful day, it’s not a solution. It’s a trap (Admiral Ackbar, anyone?!). These diets also ignore the basics of sports nutrition. Your body doesn’t care about trends. It cares about energy availability, macronutrients, hydration, and recovery.

Macronutrients are the real foundation of running nutrition. Carbohydrates are your primary fuel source and not the devil! (Mama Boucher, anyone?!). They’re the petrol in your tank. When you run, your body relies heavily on glycogen, which comes from carbohydrates. Without enough carbs, your legs feel heavy, your pace drops, your perceived effort skyrockets, and you increase the risk of ‘hitting the wall’. Carbs power long runs, speed sessions, races, and recovery. If you want to train well, you need carbs. It's as simple as that.

Protein is your repair crew. Running creates micro‑damage in your muscles, and protein helps repair that tissue, build strength, support immune function, and maintain lean mass during training blocks. Most runners under‑eat protein, especially around training, which slows recovery and increases fatigue. Including a source of protein in every meal and snack can be a simple, effective habit.

Fats are your long‑burn energy source. They keep your hormones stable, your joints cushioned, and your energy levels steady. They support long‑duration, lower‑intensity running, vitamin absorption, brain function, and recovery. Cutting fats too low is a fast track to fatigue, irritability, and hormonal disruption. A balanced intake of fats is essential for both performance and overall wellbeing.

A balanced diet is essential for runners. It has such a heavy influence on performance, but for some reason, it is also the area which is often overlooked, over-abused and overly influenced but utter shite on the internet. The vast majority of us can get everything we need from our food in a well balanced diet.

Supplements are where the industry gets loud. Very loud. But for most runners, supplements are like buying carbon‑plate shoes before you’ve learned to tie your laces properly. Most supplements don’t fix the real issue, which is usually under‑fueling or inconsistent eating. If your diet is low in energy or unbalanced, no powder or pill will save you… Ecstasy… yeah, Ecstasy might help with the energy but I strongly don’t recommend it!! Don’t do drugs, mkay! (Mr Mackey, anyone?!) Many supplements are overpriced, under‑researched, poorly regulated, and marketed with fear or false promises. Only a handful have consistent evidence for runners (running performance specifically): caffeine, creatine for strength and sprint work, and vitamin D or iron if you’re medically deficient. There's a bit of evidence coming through regarding bi-carb and beetroot juice (nitrates) which may be fruitful in the future, but everything else is far more beneficial to the companies selling it than to the runners buying it (without a diagnosed deficiency).

So what actually works? The same thing that works in your training, your coaching, and your approach to wellbeing: consistency, balance, and sufficiency. Eat regular meals. Include carbs, protein, and fats. Fuel before and after training. Don’t fear food. Don’t chase shortcuts. Don’t starve yourself in the name of discipline. Running is hard enough. Your nutrition shouldn’t make it harder. This even includes you if you're a person running to lose weight! (I'll like write another nutrition post on weight loss further down the line)

You don’t need a perfect diet to be a strong runner. You need a supportive one. One that gives you energy. One that helps you recover. One that fits your life, not the other way around. One that shouldn’t require a spreadsheet to make decides on what you can and can’t eat. a personality transplant, or monk‑level discipline.

Things like MyFitnessPal, food diaries etc are great tools for creating awareness of what you’re consuming and their nutritional content, recording how your feel, helping inform better decisions to improve relationships with food. But they are still tools!! They should support you and not dictate to how you should be eating.

Nutrition isn’t about restriction; it’s about permission. Permission to fuel. Permission to enjoy food. Permission to support your training instead of sabotaging it. If you want to run well, eat well. Not less. Not trendier. Maybe, just maybe, a touch cleaner if your most used app is JustEat.

Until next time! And if you got all of those TV/Movie references... gold star and a bit of cake for you!