Runners, athletes, people who exercise just about daily - what do you eat?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My week consists of 3 days of T25 DVDs, and 2-3 classes of ballet or hot yoga (90 minutes each). Meals are home-cooked and vegetarian unless I'm eating out.
Typical breakfast is steel cut oats, banana, glass of skim milk.
Lunch is leftovers (bean soup, chickpea salad)
Snack is a piece of fruit
Typical dinners: black beans and rice, lentil soup, bean burrito, with multiple veggies.
Dessert few times a week.
Eat out on weekends

This is somewhat similar to my eating habits except that I have 2 breakfasts any morning that I run, and I also have a daily beer or glass of wine + dessert. I'm a longtime vegetarian and prefer home cooked meals whenever possible. I run 5 days/week but no long distances anymore due to injury (25 miles or less per week), live a primarily pedestrian- and bike-oriented lifestyle (work, school, groceries), and play soccer or tennis and bike longer distances (20+ miles) at least weekly. I can pretty much eat whatever I want, which is not why I exercise but it an awfully nice side benefit. I thought this would diminish with age, but I am inching closer to 50 and still going strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My week consists of 3 days of T25 DVDs, and 2-3 classes of ballet or hot yoga (90 minutes each). Meals are home-cooked and vegetarian unless I'm eating out.
Typical breakfast is steel cut oats, banana, glass of skim milk.
Lunch is leftovers (bean soup, chickpea salad)
Snack is a piece of fruit
Typical dinners: black beans and rice, lentil soup, bean burrito, with multiple veggies.
Dessert few times a week.
Eat out on weekends

This is somewhat similar to my eating habits except that I have 2 breakfasts any morning that I run, and I also have a daily beer or glass of wine + dessert. I'm a longtime vegetarian and prefer home cooked meals whenever possible. I run 5 days/week but no long distances anymore due to injury (25 miles or less per week), live a primarily pedestrian- and bike-oriented lifestyle (work, school, groceries), and play soccer or tennis and bike longer distances (20+ miles) at least weekly. I can pretty much eat whatever I want, which is not why I exercise but it an awfully nice side benefit. I thought this would diminish with age, but I am inching closer to 50 and still going strong.

Agree. PP who was training for a triathlon here. It's not that I don't eat healthily. It's just that I don't worry about eating an occasional donut or imbibing a beer when the opportunity arises. Here's my typical day:

Quia seeds and Kefir with tea and milk for breakfast
leftovers for lunch. Or a salad with protein and a side of bread.
snack of dried fruit or fresh fruit.
Dinner is whatever the kids are eating. Usually a protein, some sort of fruit or veg, and a starch.

When I'm training, I don't stop myself from having a bowl of chips or a couple pieces of chocolate while I'm watching TV at night. When I'm not, I try to resist or have air popped popcorn or carrots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My week consists of 3 days of T25 DVDs, and 2-3 classes of ballet or hot yoga (90 minutes each). Meals are home-cooked and vegetarian unless I'm eating out.
Typical breakfast is steel cut oats, banana, glass of skim milk.
Lunch is leftovers (bean soup, chickpea salad)
Snack is a piece of fruit
Typical dinners: black beans and rice, lentil soup, bean burrito, with multiple veggies.
Dessert few times a week.
Eat out on weekends

This is somewhat similar to my eating habits except that I have 2 breakfasts any morning that I run, and I also have a daily beer or glass of wine + dessert. I'm a longtime vegetarian and prefer home cooked meals whenever possible. I run 5 days/week but no long distances anymore due to injury (25 miles or less per week), live a primarily pedestrian- and bike-oriented lifestyle (work, school, groceries), and play soccer or tennis and bike longer distances (20+ miles) at least weekly. I can pretty much eat whatever I want, which is not why I exercise but it an awfully nice side benefit. I thought this would diminish with age, but I am inching closer to 50 and still going strong.

I bet you're not a big simple carbs eater. I'm 49, and the bread and pasta and rice kill me.

[Anonymous]

I am a lifelong runner so I have a naturally lean, but not overly muscular build (similar to the Athleta women in the catalog, but A size boobs, thanks post bfing). Because of decades of daily anerobic/aerobic running, I eat whatever bc i burn it off that day or the next or bc my metabolism just runs fast.
I prefer healthier food simply bc i have a healthy exercise regime going, but I definitely have a sweet tooth and eat junk food when I feel like it.

[Anonymous]

I love this thread!

I work out daily, a typical week includes three runs with the double BOB (5-6 miles, about 9' pace), two 60 minute yoga sessions (one at home, one at Down Dog, so hot power), two days of 20' elliptical and 30' HIIT at home, and one "easy" day of just 45'on the elliptical. I've been running for 24 years (am 37), and rowed competitively in college, so have done years of doubles, power lifting, etc.

I make sure to eat lots of lean protein, veggies, and minimize my sugar. Not many processed foods. I have a weakness for red wine and chocolate, so have a bit of both each day. I've found that if I go too low on the starchy carbs (whole grain bread, pasta, etc.) my running suffers, but I don't over do it, either. I like to eat healthy because it keeps my energy up, but I'm also not going to deprive myself, either. I eat out typically one meal/week (usually Saturday dinner), otherwise cook and eat leftovers at work.

I naturally have fairly high muscle mass and put on muscle like crazy when I lift. I feel best when I run and do yoga--keeps me lean and strong, especially now running with the double jogger. I also try to walk as much as possible, which I think helps, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are 3 steps for me to ensure that I eat quality foods in my meals.

1. Eat nutritionally dense foods.



2. I run 42 miles a week so I ensure that I get enough slow release carbs for my workouts and runs.



3. I eat enough complete proteins so that I maintain healthy tissue replacement.



Stop eating processed crap.

I bet you are a really boring person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet you are a really boring person.

I bet you are prone to jumping to conclusions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet you are a really boring person.

I bet you are prone to jumping to conclusions.

Maybe, but I used to be this person and completely alienated friends and family because of it. After I came out of the fog and matured, I realized what a bore I was and how much time was wasted leading this life. I was just venturing a guess based on personal experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet you are a really boring person.

I bet you are prone to jumping to conclusions.

Maybe, but I used to be this person and completely alienated friends and family because of it. After I came out of the fog and matured, I realized what a bore I was and how much time was wasted leading this life. I was just venturing a guess based on personal experience.

+1

It's one thing to provide yummy healthy recipes with delicious, enticing photos, and another to be so... mechanical about diet. I know someone like this, and they too alienated people and completely turned them off. It's obnoxious. I think it does more harm than good.

If you're active, the best and most realistic diet is to have everything in moderation. Don't cont stuff - calories, protein, whatever. Eat some of this, some of that, and move as much as you can. Pretty simple - no charts needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet you are a really boring person.

I bet you are prone to jumping to conclusions.

Maybe, but I used to be this person and completely alienated friends and family because of it. After I came out of the fog and matured, I realized what a bore I was and how much time was wasted leading this life. I was just venturing a guess based on personal experience.

I competed at the national level. I have plenty of friends all over the country, many from my days competing. I trained hard and ate the best way I could. Those habits remain, I'd say about 80-90%. I tried to make it a family thing as much as possible, but everybody has different interests. I don't push my interests on my family. Just asked my wife sitting next to me if my training and competition alienated my family and she said no. I don't understand the need to project your personal experiences on me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

think if you train for 2 marathons a year, you can eat whatever you want. I think she was being honest, not a troll.

I'm 40, 5'1" and 115 lbs. This summer, when I was training for a triathlon, I ate whatever I wanted. It was great! Now the flip side to that was that I either swam, ran, or biked 6 days a week and 2 of those days, I tried to do both, usually a 15 mi bike ride followed by a 5 K run. It was hard to fit all that exercise into my day and I'm glad to be done with it, but I miss being able to eat a bowl of chips and salsa at 10 PM with no repercussions

I run an average of 40 miles a week, and I cannot eat whatever I want. Most active people eat a very healthy diet that sustains that level of activity, rather than downing beer, pasta, fast food, and brownies !

Agreed. I workout hard every day of the week -- no days off at all -- for a minimum of an hour. 3-4 days I workout an extra hour. I do lots of Tabata/HIIT workouts, lots of heavy lifting, lots of kickboxing and higher intensity dance workouts. I cannot and never have been able to eat whatever I want, not even the year I trained for and ran 2 marathons and a handful of halfs and 10 milers. If I ate like the PP who was noshing on the brownie, I'd gain a ton of weight. I eat 1500 calories max on days I workout an hour as long as I get a lot of physical activity during the day as well. If I don't move around throughout the day as much I try to say closer to 1200. If it's a day where I workout for 2 hours (usually weekends), I will allow myself 1500-1800 calories. I am NOT skinny. I'm not overweight, but I'm exactly in the middle of the weight range for my height for a healthy BMI, albeit with pretty low body fat (about 13-15%). The PP who eats whatever she wants clearly works hard, but she's still blessed with a great metabolism. I know lots of people who eat like that and don't exercise too much at all, and they are still very thin. I also know people who seem to eat less than me but are larger than I am. I don't think there is necessarily a formula that works for everyone. You kind of have to figure out what works for you and go with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious about the diet/appetite of people who exercise very regularly (say, at least 4 days a week).

What kinds of exercises do you do?
How many hours of (non-walking, higher intensity) exercise do you do in a week?
Can you give an example of what you eat/consume in a typical, entire day?

1. Mainly in the gym, but I do some outside as well. I do mainly compound exercises and do a lot of weights, but in a very HIIT way.
2. 7 hours
3. I eat horrible! Today has been an OK day so far: Omelet, rice cakes with Hummus, pistachios, cottage cheese, green salad with grilled chicken and ranch dressing, 2 chocolate chip cookies, and 2 pieces of coffee cake. I need to work on my diet, but I've been riding good metabolism that is starting to catch up to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

think if you train for 2 marathons a year, you can eat whatever you want. I think she was being honest, not a troll.

I'm 40, 5'1" and 115 lbs. This summer, when I was training for a triathlon, I ate whatever I wanted. It was great! Now the flip side to that was that I either swam, ran, or biked 6 days a week and 2 of those days, I tried to do both, usually a 15 mi bike ride followed by a 5 K run. It was hard to fit all that exercise into my day and I'm glad to be done with it, but I miss being able to eat a bowl of chips and salsa at 10 PM with no repercussions

I run an average of 40 miles a week, and I cannot eat whatever I want. Most active people eat a very healthy diet that sustains that level of activity, rather than downing beer, pasta, fast food, and brownies !

Agreed. I workout hard every day of the week -- no days off at all -- for a minimum of an hour. 3-4 days I workout an extra hour. I do lots of Tabata/HIIT workouts, lots of heavy lifting, lots of kickboxing and higher intensity dance workouts. I cannot and never have been able to eat whatever I want, not even the year I trained for and ran 2 marathons and a handful of halfs and 10 milers. If I ate like the PP who was noshing on the brownie, I'd gain a ton of weight. I eat 1500 calories max on days I workout an hour as long as I get a lot of physical activity during the day as well. If I don't move around throughout the day as much I try to say closer to 1200. If it's a day where I workout for 2 hours (usually weekends), I will allow myself 1500-1800 calories. I am NOT skinny. I'm not overweight, but I'm exactly in the middle of the weight range for my height for a healthy BMI, albeit with pretty low body fat (about 13-15%). The PP who eats whatever she wants clearly works hard, but she's still blessed with a great metabolism. I know lots of people who eat like that and don't exercise too much at all, and they are still very thin. I also know people who seem to eat less than me but are larger than I am. I don't think there is necessarily a formula that works for everyone. You kind of have to figure out what works for you and go with it.

Do you have kids? Do you work full time? Do you have a social life other than working out with friends?

[Anonymous]

I don't mean this in a rude way: but are those of you who are exercising 6-7 days a week for an hour every day-- do you 1) work FT 2) have more than one child? I work out about 5-6 days a week just using videos bc I have to be at work early and I can't do it after work bc I need to be with my fam, cook etc. just wondering---

[Anonymous]

I exercised 6 days a week when training for a training for 2 tris this summer and it was very very tough. I work 32 hours a week and have three elem school aged kids. I would wake up at 6:30 and either do a run or an hour bike ride. Sometimes I would do an early-morning swim (the pool in my neighborhood opened from 7-8 in the summer for masters swims). On swimming days, I could also do it after dinner/homework. Or I'd shove in a run after work. Although I felt a real sense of accomplishment at the end of the Tri season, and it was super nice literally being able to eat whatever I wanted, I was so glad to be done with it. Training (and worrying about training) was taking over my life. I'm back down to 3x a week doing whatever exercise and my life is much more sane. Although I've got to say i immediately gained 5 pounds and am now watching what I eat again :\