Runners tips : BEST nutrition for runners

Learn how to fuel your running performance with the right nutrition. In this video, I'll provide helpful tips and information on what to eat before, during, and after a run to optimize your energy levels and recovery. Get the expert guidance you need to take your running to the next level!
I take a deep dive into what I do for nutrition, and how it's helped me become an Olympian and 2.09 marathon runner.
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[@MappleDapple]

I can’t believe we live in a time where you can access the knowledge of world class athletes like Stephen. Thank you sir!

[@CaptainBrash]

It's certainly a blessed time to be into fitness and athletics, provided you don't get conned into some weird crap. If this had all been around when I was younger I might well have got into actually taking care of my health before 30!

[@chrism5433]

Normal advice lol

[@JeeperzYouCreeperz]

No channel shares more intimate knowledge on the sport and all that goes into it. This truly is my favorite channel.

[@mark6865]

I expected this to be like a Michael Phelps video where you have to eat 10 000 calories. As someone with ADHD, this was very helpful. I never understood why I would just keep eating and eating carbs and now realize it's because we need dopamine more than others and so that feeling is stronger. Being aware of that is like a lightbulb turning on for me.

[@techyb8614]

Although avocados and various nuts are lovely. They are definitely not hyper palatable. A Reese's peanut buttercup or a Snickers is like crack to an addict. So calories definitely do matter. But almost no one sits in front of 1000kcals of apples (roughly 10.5 of them) and salivates at the prospects of devouring all of them. But a family pack of chocolate hob nobs and a hot brew, however. Is as easy to consume as breathing air.

[@andrewcampbell6838]

Hi Stephen, I found you a week ago and I want to say thank you for these videos. I am at a point in my running where I am being competitive and your nutrition videos are absolutely brilliant. My diet is great for my running but I haven't been mindful of the day before so thanks for this advise 👍🏃

[@grigorijkovalenko6312]

After 10+ years of experimenting in terms of body fuelling at certain point I stopped counting calories as well. But it is only one little thing I came to. All in all the stuff on the the channel is awesome! Thank you!

[@ethierkevin]

I love the video and the channel in general Stephen, thank you for your contributions here. Your breakdown on nutrition needs for a high volume runner is excellent. Is there any chance you may do a video on what your final days / week leading up to a peak marathon may look like? I'm assuming it would be similar to how you eat the day before a quality session but over the few days leading up? Would be super interesting to hear the approach from someone at your racing level. Thank you again. 🙏

[@joeybendall1017]

This really helped me understand more about nutrition and also why I have been so fatigued in the past. Many thanks

[@JohnHuxleySavage]

Absolutely on the money with the dopamine / excitement / expectation effect of ultra-processed sweet/high-carb foods! Those foods are also engineered to be unfulfilling and to activate that dopamine response because they are not designed for nutrition whatsoever but rather for maximizing profits! Trying to sub in higher protein snacks like nuts, jerky, cheese etc. is honestly such a simple and effective way to eat healthier.

[@just_mls]

Watching this video for the 3rd time and I'm still learning ... one of the best videos I've seen so far!

[@richiem7716]

New sub. Irish lad livin in oz. Ran my first marathon on the gold coast at the age of 40. 4"20, pretty disrupted training but im all in now. Got an appetite for knowledge. Thanks for the content pal

[@jackiehammerton]

I’ve been running for years, but always as a way to meditate and de-stress if that makes sense. I’ve only run about 25k/week (5k/5days). Now I’m interested in upping my distance (I’m running now between 35-40k per week). I want to learn more about fueling my body and strength training to improve my running experience as I work in more kilometers. Thanks for the video!

[@mirser4912]

Love it! “Discipline is a skill!”👍

[@cks307]

Loved this video 🙌 very easy to listen to & informative 👌

[@ericchevalley]

Brilliant. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the topic.

[@jt.8144]

Your videos have given me the steps and foundation on how to begin and remain consistent.

[@OmarDMarin]

Great video! Game changer for me. I need to lose weight so I’m going to start running in the morning instead of at night. Also, love the “don’t fuel the car every day when it’s sitting in the garage”! Sooo good!

[@dietcoke9536]

Great video! I really enjoyed it, and I'm actually following a similar diet and nutrition plan. I'd like to share an important insight, especially for new runners like myself: the journey is not always a straight line, and that's perfectly normal. It's essential to embrace the inevitable ups and downs, being kind to yourself throughout. Remember, even when you stumble, get back on track as soon as possible. By staying committed in the long run, your healthy lifestyle will become a true passion. Keep up the fantastic work!

[@aric2589]

Stephen Scullion is 👑, this is exactly the type of videos I've been looking for, ones make by professionals sharing the knowledge they learnt along the way to become one of the best! I'm training for a Sub 2min 800m (PB 2:01:17sec), this will help heeps!

[@adam_wetton]

Totally agree mate good luck with the sub 2

[@michaelbatterbee448]

Cheers pal very useful and informative

[@chrissteinbacher6552]

I write everything down in a journal from day to day. From what I eat to how I slept the night before. What was my mood. My energy levels. My resting pulse. What was the weather like? I'm fairly muscular at 190 lbs because I used to go to the gym rather than run. Now I don't go at all. Just running and calisthenics. I want to run my first marathon this year and just came back from a 10-mile run. I felt good and have been careful not to overstress my body but I wonder if I should start dropping weight to become a more efficient runner? I'm a lot like you when it comes to nutrition. More healthy fats and proteins and less carbs. It seems to keep my joints fluid and healthy. Just not sure on dropping too much weight.

[@shaner3723]

Probably the best video on nutrition ever, and i have seen a lot.

[@brunobiega]

This year I’ve experienced a huge transformation in my body. I thought gluten and lactose have been the root cause of my gut health problems for the last 4 years, whereas now I now understand it was mostly the over-carby diet. I used to have high blood sugar levels since I was a kid (like not over the red line but close to it), and problems with energy. This year something has changed and in spand of a few months I’ve gone from eating 5 meals a day to typically 2, more fat-protein based and it reduced my enormous gas production/bloating by like 80%. I can also skip breakfast and run without having eaten anything prior, whereas earlier I felt like passing out hadn’t I eaten anything within an hour of getting up in the morning. Im 18 btw

[@phillipsconan]

Cracking vid man! Thanks so much.

[@JB-wg7nd]

I’ve seen your channel grow from 5k subs to 100k subs. Not surprised at all. Thank you good sir for the knowledge and inspiration!

[@fitmechannel3078]

Thank u for sharing, this helps me a lot with my nutrition while training.

[@auricawolf]

I completely agree with everything you said about the snacking - ive only been running for just over a year but at the beginning I started eating more carbs as that's the thing everyone would say to eat to make sure you're fueling yourself properly for the high energy expenditure of running but I found that it was just causing me to massively overeat / binge eat and I would feel so rubbish and tired all the time. Then the past couple months I've been snacking on eggs, avocados, nuts or meat rather than carbs and instantly those cravings have vanished and I feel like I have so much more energy than before - and then when I do eat the carbs they actually satisfy me now and i don't have those cravings after

[@phonginternationaltourguid8570]

I love all your videos and subscribed your channel with the first video. Thank you for sharing is caring.❤❤❤❤

[@cavanstackpool]

Love the information. Nutrition is what I struggle the most with. I have never thought of decreasing/increasing carbs based on the run the next morning during my training block. Thanks!!

[@murraywanner4767]

Morning breakfast on easy days and rest days is low-fat Greek yogurt with a quarter cup of fresh fruit. Morning breakfast on longer days is a half cup of oats mixed with vanilla protein powder and a quarter cup of fresh fruit. Basically it's carb timing. I'd be eating omelettes instead of yogurt, if I didn't recently find out I had an intolerance to eggs. It's nice to see an Olympic athlete using similar fueling strategies. He has his nutrition dialed in.

[@jpod]

Just dropping so many gems

[@micah1754]

The whole idea that carbs make you gain fat is a bit unhelpful tbh. Think it’s important to be careful how this is framed, plenty of people managing REDS or EDs with fears about this

[@ivanmanzur1197]

Thanks for this information; could you make a video talking about how do you use your glucose meter?

[@j.g.120]

😎👍 I like your videos very much! 🤗 I enjoy listening to you and learning a lot of new things! 👍Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience! With sporty greetings from the Eifel / Germany 😁

[@andreeaolariu183]

Great information! Thank you so much ❤.

[@isaacarulcheyan2905]

Ive started the butter coffee, amazing... now i can run with just that in the morning!

[@JarredDaw]

Good to hear that above all you just eat a balanced diet. I'm not a big fan of completely cutting carbs or fat out of your diet. Everything in moderation and being mindful of what you're eating based on how much you're going to rev your engine.

[@CaptainBrash]

This is interesting stuff. I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of nutrition, coming from a bodybuilding background but there is definitely a slightly different mindset to nutrition for performance. It's a lot more fun for sure! I like buying those super cheap cereal bars that are like 6 for £1 either to eat during long runs or just so i have something in my stomach if I'm doing early morning intervals or a rice cake and some peanut butter. With my lifestyle (baby, toddler, full time job) I can't get up 3 hours before a morning interval session to eat and digest so just having something in my stomach stops me feeling nauseous on those hard intervals. If I'm lucky i can do them at lunchtime or after work but often before work is the best time for me.

[@duraace2053]

I wonder how fast his marathon time is.... just kidding, if I was that fast I would remind people on the daily too. Great content, my new favourite running youtuber.

[@padmabharani6122]

Wow lots of great info. Thank you so much

[@mailelement1100]

Thank you for sharing. Calories do matter, though. In fact, on take away for me from this video is about how you time you macronutrient intake to support your training load. When we acknowledge that food is fuel, we accept that calories are important. We need to remind ourselves to look at calories are the energy value of our food, that fuel that we need to support our training. The disconnect in talk about 'nutrition' is that we focus so much on calorie counting in terms of weight and fat loss and management. it seems that the true definition of calories has been overlooked. When we re-visit the idea of calorie as a measurement of energy, we are reminded that we need enough of them to give us energy to live, train, move, breathe and do everything else we do. Calories absolutely matter but we can focus less on counting them when we focus on getting them from good quality food which happens when we look at choosing more high nutrient quality foods. Less processing in the food we eat means less garbage we have to filter out and more micronutrients attached to the fuel we take in. Better food, better fuel. Having said that, I will continue to eat plenty of cookies and ice cream.

[@stephenscullion262]

I wonder if we drank 2500 calories of beer vs 3000 calories of a healthy balanced diet what would be the outcome. Empty calories I’ve found have add lard and not been useful. Times in life when I’ve ate the healthy calories that help training then my weight / body fat has stayed much more balanced. Of course that’s an extreme, but that’s kind of what I mean by calories nonsense..

[@allanahmet]

Thank you! ❤️🙏❤️

[@Mr.McIntyre]

Excellent. Thank you so much

[@Ryan-ud8tx]

Great stuff, thank you!

[@debbiefourie2362]

I am ADHD diagnosed this is an amazing video especially the speel section I struggle with sleep.

[@paganShane77]

Do you use Celtic sea salt or Himalayan pink salt in conjunction with drinking water for absorption? Also I've been mixing bicarbonate of soda with water as a pre workout and find it works, have you tried it?

[@BLuRZzHDGaming]

Durianrider will love this one

[@pixel-fudger]

Great info. Do you have an opinion on meal replacement drinks like Huel as a lunch option?

[@stephenscullion262]

Haven’t tried them, just check salt and sugar content.

[@Starchaser63]

For me a carbohydrate dominant diet works best and the fat and protein take care of themselves without any over analysis. Also I mainly do hill running or intense sprint training with longer runs around every 6 weeks. Only on training days and the following day do I up my protein and Amino Acid intake then the following 2 or 3 days resting its mainly carbohydrates...this works for me, its all about what works for the individual. There are many factors involved in training and diet such as - are you 21 or 51, are you in good health or excellent health, do you have a full time job or part time, do you have a stressful life or relationship, do you work nights or days, are you in a happy productive relationship or going through a divorce, do you have a good support network or live alone with no family etc etc ...

[@Kernoe]

finally someone thinks about nutrition that feels very similar to how i feel and think. I have the same problem with starting to eat sth sweet and get cravings and eat more and more. I actually started to avoid carbs for weight loss, so i lost the weight and by a big surprise did not need my asthma inhaler anymore after 34 years of inhaling at least 2 a day. Then i started running because i felt more often like let's get out and run. Day after day, i eat cheese, nuts, sausages and meat from oxen living outside the whole year, liver sausage, milk, greek yoghurt, berries, lots of hering in any kind of form and vegetables of course, non starchy ones. So i am even more strict because i love to run without asthma, which never was possible for me. I totally get though that as a pro athlete one has to bring more carbohydrates in. I try to compensate by going keto from time to time. Feels a little more grounded than being too low on carbs and too low on ketone bodies.

[@massi888]

thank you for sharing, interesting thoughts. Make your bed in the morning :) discipline is a muscle, more you train stronger it gets

[@robertnakoneczny6609]

Eat what your body needs ,not what /when you want. Discipline, constancy, balance. Tip for good sleep: lavender oil(smell only 😁) Prep meals every day myself and never eat anything made by someone else. Drink only water a lot of water. You good man sharing your experience and knowledge to help others ,hopefully someone will use it.

[@stephenscullion262]

Yes I read a great thing recently, give your body what it physically needs and start looking after the body physically. Rather than always playing to the emotions.. they often ask for things that aren’t good for the physical self

[@douglascarrphotography]

Hi Stephan just came across you in my search for nutrition for weight loss as a runner. Now I was on the Carnivore diet up to ow and been doing a lot of fasted runs of about km15 but haven't seen the fat coming of as fast as I would of liked and then just yesterday I bought a Polar Pacer running watch for 2 reasons one to see my running heart rate zone and what I burn for energy and although I thought I was running in zone 2 as I could comfortably talk it turned out I was mostly in zone 4 and my watch showed 63% energy coming from carbs and 6% from protein and the rest fat. So that probably explain why the fats not coming of as my body was converting protein through Gluconeogenesis into carbs but I guess if you eat a lot of carbs for dinner you'll still have carbs for your morning run, but going forward I'm changing my diet/macros to make sure I eat enough carbs to have them to be used for energy

[@Sagargurjar10k]

Thanks you sir

[@jt.8144]

Thank you!

[@OnYourLefty]

Great video, thank you

[@tracywatson3122]

Healthspan have stopped making the night time protein blend, any other ideas for a replacement?

[@MichaelQ975]

I love the green fleece. Any link on buying that 😄

[@buttsniffa7469]

Great video. Very good info

[@TimeoCrescence]

I love all of tour videos

[@markvickers9677]

Thank God, thought it was only me that got the munchies after eating one piece of chocolate. I get my training done, eat well all the way to the evening and one piece of chocolate the nutrition suffers. Thanks for all the great information.

[@jasonblack1085]

UNC heck yeah! I live in Burlington, NC

[@karltschonki6560]

Im training for Olympia 2024, thanks for your tips I'll need it. 😅

[@LKJONES0406]

Highly nutritional foods 🥰 love it..

[@GlasDevGuy]

Hi Stephen, as an endurance runner do you get regular blood checks to look for anything that may indicate overtraining, marker checks for low free testosterone, high SHBG thyroid and cortisol and if so is AST and ALT slightly raised ?

[@religionofrunning253]

I learned very much

[@bui340]

Is lactate a good source of fuel? Can lactate be beneficial in any other way? Can it be like a supplement for later runs. I have played football and exercised a lot. A few years back I did a spirumetric test which showed I exhaled like a smoker. Could this "poor" ability to exhale been an adaptation for handling the fyshical demand? Lots of questions, feel free to elaborate in coming videos!

[@rubarb1275]

Really like this, good and simple advice to incorporate into a daily routine.

[@owayeow5131]

Stephen Scullion, no introduction needed tbh

[@JJ85J]

Which moisturizing tablet do you recommend?

[@vanilla_pigdog]

"Calories are a load of nonsense" I agree completely. In our house we call them tasty points 😋

[@2spoons]

Stephen this is a very interesting broadcast.... Nutrition, ADHD and Diabetes .... a member of my family is a type 1 diabetic and I've often thought about my sweet gels that I take and my non stop appetite.... do you know of gel alternatives for diabetic runners ? Currently I'm in Xterra Snowdonia Trail ULTRA this summer and last year I took 'tailwind' powder with all my drinks (and it's like adding 2kg of sugar to every thing).... I need alternatives and when I ask others they laugh saying all gels contain sugar..... I'm sure the don't!

[@CaptainBrash]

That Fage yoghurt is incredible. It's expensive but way worth it, I go through like 2-3 tubs a week. 😅

[@jasonf1797]

I have a protein / carb shake and then within 1-3 hours after the shake a big meal. Is that ok? Or should I skip the shake and have a big meal

[@rwosborne2]

This was brilliant, thanks so much for all of your videos. You mentioned the body being able to hold on to about 400 calories of extra carbs the night before a long run. Is this the case for everyone or just your body? I'm quite a bit bigger than you (6'3" 200lbs) and just wondered if I might need to eat a bit more?

[@stefan_4070]

I think he either means total ~400 g (~1600 kcal) glycogen in muscles and liver or just the liver with a storage of ~100 g (~400 kcal).

[@buttsniffa7469]

Yoh weight 200lb. The last thing you need is to eat more

[@AugherAndy]

You should do a what I eat in a day

[@kathryn9374]

I have trouble keeping my pelvic aligned. Any advice is welcome!

[@erwangaillard1637]

15:19 I have to disagree. As a vegetarian I started to eat a lot of nuts to reach my protein/ day target. I had a few extra kilos then. This year I switched to still eat some nuts but in a much lower quantity and I eat natural protein yogurt which is basically the same %protein / 100g but has 3x less calories/ 100g. Too much nuts = too much fat (even if it's good) = also too much calories.

[@JImportante]

You sound like LCHF or keto athlete 🙂 i've done my 10k PB (34:59) being on keto, very low carb intake (50g per day). I'm total amatour 🤗

[@richardmiddleton7770]

Muscle glycogen can also be replenished by protein and fat, just slower. If you were to try that 10k the next day, you might struggle. Having said that you are unlikely to use all stored glycogen in 35 minutes.

[@micah1754]

He’s not keto at all? Plenty of carbs in there

[@davidculliton2615]

Excellent 👌

[@bogusaw1665]

helpful video. Now your words haunt me, but that's okay. today, waiting for my daughter, I walked around the city and I was tempted for a kebab. my body didn't need it but my brain convinced me that tomorrow i'll burn it running so i'm not doing anything wrong. he is really smart. but I have remorse so your video works 💪👍

[@joyridaz]

Question: are processed carbs the better choice vs fruits etc right before a hard workout to get the energy flowing?

[@Spudsmachenzie1]

I’d be very surprised if any one said “processed carbs are better”…for anything. Oatmeal, whole grains, rice cakes, honey , etc. are the way to go. Fruit great too. There are always folks that say fruit is bad for you and yes it of course it has (natural) sugar. But have you ever seen a larger person that got that way from fruit…no way.

[@RealMattKiefer]

I LOVE THIS CHANNEL!!!!!!!!!!!😅

[@flawlessturmeric]

If you leave at 8am for a 30-40km run, are you getting up at 5am just to eat? Is it okay just to eat as you go?

[@ric_garbin]

Hi Stephen, can you do a video on weight, according to your own experience and the elite runners you trained with how do they balance their wright, I can see you are getting tinner now, when you start preparation for a specific race do you also plan weight goals per week based on the final weight you wanna run at.

[@stephenscullion262]

I will soon, there’s a full lecture on race weight in the Masterclass

[@ric_garbin]

Thanks

[@Kim-spiration-UltraRunner]

I love salty, sour, and spicy! 🧂🍋🌶 Is this because i lack it? Always have chose these over sweet, fatty, or carb foods. 🤷‍♀️

[@michaellavelle7163]

New to the channel. Great stuff. The fats have 2x the calories than carbs so you are spot on

[@redmanneale5306]

Full day of eating would b great to see.

[@Rogerfvieira]

I take two servings of equip grass-fed beef isolate at night, insane recovery benefits.

[@bakerstreet7050]

what do you think about creatine as endurance athlete?

[@stephenscullion262]

I don’t take any, and don’t have any experience sorry

[@danielcanter187]

It’s better for more explosive sports but it would definitely benefit running as you’re muscles will be able to last longer in a run

[@barrick4807]

For some reason on days that I’m running under 1:30 I feel better if I don’t eat at all before. So sometimes if I don’t run till 2pm I won’t eat at all till then.

[@pagoldenglove]

I love your content I find that your content is the most useful unfortunately for this particular content it’s just like everyone else’s they tell you you need fats, protein and calories. They never show what I’m not the smartest person in the world so I don’t know exactly what kind of calories are the best fats are the best proteins are the best I could only be in three nuts and I think that’s the best so please elaborate on what exactly you eat, so I could be like that. Thank you.

[@yeahhhhh9209]

Interesting thanks man.. you could have a real quick espresso instead of that watery coffee cup. though . :)

[@HS99876]

Good video 👍🏻🏃🏽‍♂️☕️🥚☀️🫀

[@mrrastapopoulous3403]

“Calories are nonsense” I’m so glad someone else has finally said this. It’s the quality and type of food that matters rather that the calorie count.

[@stephenscullion262]

Yeah I think it would be very hard to gain weight if you picked healthy choices, but very easy to gain weight if you make the wrong choices.

[@Smoothie5463]

Yeah because it‘s easy to overeat on calories with low quality foods. It‘s literally all about calories guys

[@st14]

If you overeat carbs, they do turn into fat. If you overeat protein and fat, they also turn into fat. The point that it is easy to overeat on carbs is a good one though.

[@mrrastapopoulous3403]

@@st14 Too much of anything when it comes to eating is not good for you, the thing with protiens and natural fat's is its harder to over eat them as they are more satiating. However if you are not exercicing appropriately and putting your nutrition to use, then yes it will turn into fat.

[@user-nk2ub1hd2p]

Calories matter because if you eat 1200 while running 10 miles daily you’re gonna bonk!

[@levinoswarts827]

So glad i'm not the only one that gets up to late for breakfast before a run lol

[@MichaelLoweAttorney]

22:20 100%

[@KeepMovingForwardAlways983]

What’s name of this beat or song 🎧?

[@I_Am_Adrien]

how many calories do you eat a day?

[@felippeprado566]

Once you have ideia is almost impossible to remove it.. that’s true .. inception …

[@clandry138]

I’m 3 1/2 minutes in and haven’t learned a thing yet. Start from the end.