Can you recommend nutrition and supplements pre-, during and post-workout?

Hi Anita,

He could probably add a whey protein shake just before breakfast and just after training, as he is getting a better protein intake than many runners I've advised but still probably not an ideal amount. Also, the morning is a time when insulin function is better and testosterone levels are higher, so morning protein may go to better use and his morning protein intake is below ideal.

It looks like he's getting enough carbs (although I would need serving sizes to say for sure). It is very difficult to advise people who are trying to improve performance and lose weight at the same time without working with them closely because you have to find the ideal balance between an amount of carbs that will fuel their exercise adequately and an amount that will still allow them to drop the weight.

So the only way forward is trial and error. However, here are some tips...

With endurance athletes or guys who do a lot of activity and have to maintain performance, a greater emphasis on removing excess fat (but not too much) from the diet is often justified, although your client already seems to have a fairly low fat intake.

Carbs - Generally, an average sized runner doing an average pace burns about 600 calories per hour. So for every hour of running he does, add about 75 to 100 grams of carbs to his baseline diet (baseline is the amount that will keep his weight stable). This will give a 200 - 300 calorie deficit for every hour of running he does.

So if you calculate his calorie needs as 10 calories per pound of body weight as an amount that will cause a desirable amount of weight loss in a guy who trains moderately 3 hours per week. Then you give him a gram of protein (at 4 calories per gram) for every pound of his body weight (so subtract that from his calorie allowance). Figure out his present fat intake (and I would add 2 fish oil capsules per day - 9 calories per gram for the fat...subtract that from his calorie allowance again). Then the remaining calories should come from carbs. Of course, he is training more like 10 hours per week and if all of that is running, then that's 7 extra hours per week = 1 extra hour per day...so 75 to 100 extra grams of carbs on top of his calorie allowance.

Hope that makes sense. If not, just send me a new question and I'll try and explain it differently.

Oh ya and he should not drink coffee within 5 hours of a run and on 3 runs per week, he should have about 200mg of caffeine (or 150mg plus a cup of green tea), 30 minutes before his run. Coffee eliminates the performance-enhancing effects of caffeine and the more coffee he drinks during the day, the less performance benefit he will get when he uses it before runs!