Never run a marathon on an empty stomach! It is best to eat this breakfast 2 hours before running

It is the season when a lot of road running events are held. During these months every year, there are many road running events that attract people who love sports to participate. Whether you are a marathon beginner or an experienced marathon enthusiast, you need to know one thing, that is, what should you eat before road running? According to the recommendations of the American health information website "Active", eating like this can make your road running performance more effective!

Running on an empty stomach is a big NG! Glycogen is one of the keys to maintaining physical strength

Whether you are running 6K, 10K, half marathon or 42K full marathon, as long as it is a long-distance road race, there are things you must pay attention to, in addition to warming up, the next thing is diet. For long-distance running, the body must have adequate calorie supply. The main purpose is to allow enough glycogen in the liver to maintain physical energy. Therefore, never start running on an empty stomach. If your blood sugar is too low, you may collapse before you finish the run!

Glycogen can be divided into "muscle glycogen" and "liver glycogen":

• Muscle glycogen: The glycogen stored in human muscles is called muscle glycogen, which can only provide muscle energy but cannot increase blood sugar concentration. Generally speaking, each kilogram of muscle contains about 15 grams of muscle glycogen.

• Glycogen: The sugar stored in the human liver is called glycogen, which can be broken down into glucose, regulate blood sugar concentration, and supply energy to the whole body.

Low blood sugar levels caused by insufficient glycogen reserves in the body are one of the causes of fatigue, reduced athletic performance, and inability to sustain exercise. The human body has about 200 to 500 grams of glycogen, which is equivalent to 800 to 2,000 calories. If you don't eat, it will be exhausted in about 18 hours. Prolonged exercise leads to the depletion of glycogen, and you will feel noticeably weak and tired. Generally speaking, 50% of the glycogen in our body has been consumed when we wake up. Therefore, if we run a marathon on an empty stomach, we will easily become exhausted.

Did you participate in the marathon as well? Never go on an empty stomach before road running to avoid low blood sugar causing health crisis.

It is usually recommended to enjoy a good breakfast about 4 hours before running to allow enough buffer time for food to be digested; but friends who have participated in road running know that the starting time is 99% around 5~6 in the morning. It is impossible to ask everyone to eat breakfast at 2 in the morning! Considering that getting enough sleep is also very important, sacrificing sleep for breakfast is undoubtedly putting the cart before the horse. Therefore, a compromise is to eat breakfast 2 hours before road running .

"How much should I eat for breakfast to replenish nutrition without overeating?" This depends on the distance of the road run; the calories required by runners running 6K and 21K are of course different. If you can eat breakfast 4 hours before the game, it is recommended to consume about 1,000 calories of breakfast. If you eat it 2 hours before, you can only supplement with 300 to 400 calories of breakfast.

Breakfast nutrition ratio, follow the 8 to 2 principle

Bagels with low-fat cheese jam are a great light breakfast before a marathon.

8:2 means 80% carbohydrates, and the remaining nutrients such as protein and fat account for about 20%. Carbohydrates can be quickly converted into glucose and absorbed and utilized by the human body. On the contrary, proteins and fats are less efficiently absorbed. In addition, foods that easily produce gas should be avoided to prevent bloating.

Carbohydrates have different GI values ​​(glycemic index). Foods with higher GI values ​​are more likely to raise blood sugar in a short period of time. Blood sugar levels will rise within about 30 minutes, which is not conducive to long-term exercise. Therefore, it is usually recommended to consume low-GI carbohydrates before exercise. For example, many professional athletes are accustomed to eating cereal and bananas before running.

Oatmeal is also a well-digested carbohydrate-rich food.

However, since everyone's physique and gastrointestinal absorption capacity are different, the best way is to try different types of breakfast when practicing before the official marathon, and check what impact it has on your running performance. Once you have found the breakfast diet that suits you best, you can follow this menu in the future.

Here are some breakfast suggestions for marathon beginners:

[Bagel] Bagels are a starchy staple food that has not undergone complicated processing and is easy to digest. If it is too boring to eat alone, you can spread some low-fat cheese jam on it.

[Banana] Every 100 grams of bananas contains an average of about 30 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of protein and almost no fat, making it the perfect fruit for the sports world! In addition, bananas contain nearly 400 mg of potassium ions, which can help prevent cramps during exercise and sweating, and quickly balance the electrolytes lost in the body. More importantly, bananas are easy to eat, carry and eat, so they are a must-have when running!

[Energy Bar] Energy bars contain carbohydrates, a small amount of dietary fiber, fat, and protein, which can quickly provide the body with energy. Some energy bars also contain sodium, potassium, vitamins C and E, and magnesium ions, which account for 35% of the daily requirement of the human body.

[Oatmeal] Like bananas, oatmeal is almost entirely composed of carbohydrates and is easily absorbed. However, since oatmeal is not as easy to carry as bread and toast and needs to be heated or brewed, it is more suitable for consumption at home. If you are going to participate in a marathon somewhere else, you will have to consider the venue and your own needs!