10 miles or more, I take a gel before I leave the house. Less than 10 miles I'm ok w/o anything but a glass of water. As other say, it's an experiment of one.
I have a masters degree in physiology and coach a few athletes, and have had some of my athletes ask me similar questions. Overall, from my understanding of the general research consensus, well trained men can usually do easy effort "fasted" runs <2hrs with a fairly minimal influence on their physiology (hormones, ability to recover, etc). There isn't much of a benefit overall to using this as a training tool (if you're training hard, your body is already very good at metabolizing fat without even doing strategies such as fasting to improve it). Fwiw, I occasionally do morning runs fasted, but never force it (I'm a 24 yo male).
In terms of women, it's a somewhat different story. Women fasting on easy runs are at a higher risk of having negative consequences of being in a short term energy deficit, and developing symptoms of RED-S (at worse, things such as stress fractures and amenorrhea and the consequences associated with those). It also appears that fasting has a greater influence and risk on disrupting proper hormone balance in females. Also, even if you're getting enough calories throughout the day to be in a positive energy balance, there's been good research demonstrating that being in a negative energy balance for even a few hours a day could still be causing detrimental effects.
Since higher intensity exercise relies more heavily on carbohydrates, I would say there is no good argument for fasting before harder workouts.
Tl;dr: men can fast before easy runs, but women probably shouldn't. Nobody should fast before harder workouts.
Trent Stellingwerf, a very well respected Canadian researcher (and also a coach to some of the top Canadian runners) is the expert on this topic, if you want to dive into this a little bit more.
Came here to echo the above poster re the differences between fasting before a run between men and women. You can also listen to a very recent podcast with nutritionist Stacy Sims on I'll Have Another with Lindsey Hein which is on point on this topic.
I've found a Clif bar or a few servings of almond butter/ peanut butter pretzels before a run does wonders and eating just a bit before I step out of the door in the morning (within 30 minutes of getting up) is something I wish I had learned to do sooner. Nothing crazy. I won't eat on the run itself but I do think having a small morning snack is a easy and effective step women can take to reduce hormonal imbalance/ nutritional deficit (24 yr old female, 110-115 mi per week basically year round, 2:42 marathon).
I am an early morning runner - usually wake up at 5:30 and am running by 6. When I first started running and got into longer distances, I could manage up to 8 or 9 miles just on half a banana or a piece of fruit. I still eat similarly throughout the day, but now I notice that I feel if I don’t eat at least a honey stinger waffle or fast digesting protein bar before my run, even if it is an easy run, I feel faint and weak. I hear everyone talking aboit how you don’t need to eat before unless your running 10+ Miles or something but I just can’t, I’ll eat a honey stinger waffle before basically any run. Am I an anamoly here? 20 years old, female by the way.
Continue eating your honey stinger waffle before every run. They just did a study that showed that eating a honey stinger waffle before a morning run actually improves mitochondrial growth by 18% over the study period of 8 weeks.
I am an early morning runner - usually wake up at 5:30 and am running by 6. When I first started running and got into longer distances, I could manage up to 8 or 9 miles just on half a banana or a piece of fruit. I still eat similarly throughout the day, but now I notice that I feel if I don’t eat at least a honey stinger waffle or fast digesting protein bar before my run, even if it is an easy run, I feel faint and weak. I hear everyone talking aboit how you don’t need to eat before unless your running 10+ Miles or something but I just can’t, I’ll eat a honey stinger waffle before basically any run. Am I an anamoly here? 20 years old, female by the way.
Half a banana is just 50 calories, so you were certainly not managing 8 or 9 miles or nearly a 1000 calorie burn on half a banana nor was it making a significant difference except possibly at the very end of the run.
I’ve gone up to 20 miles first thing in the morning. Like you, I had to start running at like 5am to run and get to work on time. I never wanted to get up any earlier to eat and I can’t run after eating. I also figured out that if I started taking gels, old better be able to continue or I’d feel only. Never had an energy issue on no food though. But I have started taking a gel when I’m no more that 30 mins from finishing a long run and before cooling down from a workout to try and aid recovery.
I am an early morning runner - usually wake up at 5:30 and am running by 6. When I first started running and got into longer distances, I could manage up to 8 or 9 miles just on half a banana or a piece of fruit. I still eat similarly throughout the day, but now I notice that I feel if I don’t eat at least a honey stinger waffle or fast digesting protein bar before my run, even if it is an easy run, I feel faint and weak. I hear everyone talking aboit how you don’t need to eat before unless your running 10+ Miles or something but I just can’t, I’ll eat a honey stinger waffle before basically any run. Am I an anamoly here? 20 years old, female by the way.
Actually the effect of your early morning run will become better if you don't eat before it. Instead try a little energy drink( you can make your own mix) or a cup of coffee with little sugar/honey in it before or during the run to take away that faint feeling.Eat normal regularely during your day. You aren't any anamoly as you think. You just have to follow what this running guru tells you to do. Good luck!
- The Magic Wizard Coach J.S - 🧙♂️👍🧙♂️
Don't follow the advice of anyone calling themselves a guru. Especially when it's bad advice. Plenty of good suggestions on this thread for you, OP.
For marathon training morning runs, 8 - 12 miles, and long run days of 15 - 20, I have a banana and cuppa joe then I'm out the door. I'll take some apple slices with me on runs ten miles and up. The longest runs, a gel or two also.
Agreed. Most mornings I don't want to wake the family, even the 20 milers are quite doable on an empty stomach just grab a couple of gels for along the way.
Nothing unusual but like a lot of runners, your body is used to glucose spikes. I never eat before an AM run, why? Don't need it. Your liver continues to supply glucose when you're not eating, overnight and between meals. Called glycogenolysis.
If you are hungry in the morning just eat simple as that.
Basically it depends on the intensity you do. If you have a quality day, eat for sure. If you have a very easy unit, you do not need to eat before but you can. However, at any time you should be hydrated.
If i am on holiday and do a (very) easy early morning run , i refuse to eat before the run, as i have the breakfast afterwards anyway. But i drink a glass of water as soon as possible to be well hydrated.
Before any morning activity my preferred routine is to: - Immediately chug a half glass of water bedside upon waking up - have small carb-based pre-breakfast with a cup of tea. Homemade Oatmeal ChocChip Cookie, or Zucchini Bread are my favorite. Stinger Waffle, or half a BoBo bar are good as well. Maybe a few pieces of fruit too. - Poop. Then hit the road.
This usually has me out the door in 45min
The Poop is actually the most important component for me.
I only started eating before a run when I started training for marathons and I was going over 15M. Then I keep it very simple, some instant oatmeal and some gatorade about 30 min. before getting started.
But this is one of those running questions that really is up to each person. I know guys that can eat a burrito an hour before a track work out and do fine, others (like me) would barf during the warm up.
You've got a lot of good answers; at the end it is whatever works for you.
Personally, I have a hard time running faster than easy pace with anything on my stomach, so I would only eat before running if going out for an easy run. By trial and error I have found out that I need at least 3-4 hours after a very light breakfast not to feel like throwing up during a workout. On the other hand, I have done hundreds of races up to the half-marathon with no issues on an empty stomach. The tricky one is the marathon, where I need to eat otherwise will bonk badly, so I do it 4 hours before the race. That's what works for me.
This here describes me.
Then, my daughter, who was a scholarship runner, could eat a big meal and head out for a run at any pace she wanted.
I'd have a cup of coffee with cream and sugar and two pieces of toast with butter and jelly. From that, I would do a 10 - 15 mile run. After I work out I have to eat something within the first 30 minutes for sure.
I am a female as well and used to do early morning runs on an empty stomach out of necessity, took a while to adapt to it.
I think if you need to eat and do better that way then figure out how to make that work. I prefer to be able to have time to eat.
But a few years ago I didn't eat and what I noticed was that I could stomach gels on the run, that helped. Also what I ate the night before was crucial. It had to be enough and a good mix of macros - kind of like prepping for a race the next day. Also drank a big glass of water in the evening to stay hydrated, careful not too close to bed but not a huge problem and would rather err that way vs not enough. Also got sensitive to sugary desserts or alcohol the night before.
Wow, this is news to me (23F), and I wish I had known this earlier—especially the part about being in a negative energy balance even for a few hours. I've been in the habit of doing moderately intense fasted exercise in the morning (an ~hour of running) since high school...I've also struggled with binge eating throughout my entire adolescent and adult life. I wonder if it was partly hormonally related, as now that I am beginning to challenge the eating "rules" I had created for myself (not eating close to bed, not eating before a morning workout), I definitely feel more energetic and less prone to binging, even though I'm eating less calories than when I was binging.