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Logic would suggest that after a depleting and arduous activity like a long run or a challenging workout, we’d come home ravenous, ready to replenish our muscles and energy stores.
But many runners can attest that often, that’s not the case. It’s common to not feel hungry for hours after a run. For some, it’s not just a lack of hunger, but nausea or an upset stomach that makes them feel like they couldn’t possibly eat something directly after running.
And yet, the 60-minute window after a workout is when our bodies can best make use of carbohydrates and protein to optimize the work we just banked. Delay refueling too long, and we can miss out on those benefits, and also delay recovery.
Understanding that your body needs fuel after a run—even if your brain doesn’t want it—is the first step to creating a post-run fueling routine that one day becomes like clockwork. Here’s what dietitians recommend if eating after your run feels harder than the run itself.
Why You May Not Feel Hungry After Running
The fact that your body needs fuel after a run but that you often don’t feel like eating can largely be blamed on a sort of biological miscommunication between the body and the brain.
“When we exercise, especially after a long run or hard workout, it can suppress our hunger hormone, ghrelin,” says Kristy Baumann, RD, a marathoner based in Minnesota. Exercise can also elevate our glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and peptide YY, hormones that make us feel satiated.
The key, says Kelly Jones, RD, a sports dietician based in Philadelphia, is making the distinction between hunger (your body’s need for food and nutrients) and appetite (your desire to eat). “Your body might be hungry, and it needs food and nutrients, but your appetite just isn’t there due to that hormonal response,” says Jones. “There’s some speculation as to why exactly that’s happening, but the body is probably just more focused on the stress that just occurred rather than sending these hormonal signals that are making you think about food.”
It’s not just your most intense runs that can trigger this hormonal response, says Jones—even shorter and easier runs or cross-training have the potential to suppress your appetite.
Another possible culprit for your loss of appetite: when you exercise, blood moves away from your digestive tract and towards your muscles, says Baumann, making it more difficult to digest food.
And if it’s not just a lack of appetite but a feeling of nausea keeping you from eating, that could be due to a blood sugar response. “When we’re active, we’re mobilizing energy in our bloodstream,” Jones says. “Soon after that workout, we’re depleted and our blood sugar starts to drop, which makes some people feel nauseous.”
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Why Refueling is So Important
In general, runners should aim to eat around 45-60 grams of carbohydrates and 15-20 grams of protein 30-60 minutes after running (though the exact recommendation depends on your body weight, the length and intensity of your run, and how much you ate before).
“That’s a time when our body is able to very efficiently restock glycogen stores that have been depleted during exercise,” Baumann says.
If we wait just two hours after finishing a run to eat, the amount of carbs that can be stored as glycogen can be reduced by up to fifty percent, says Jones. “And the rest might be stored as fat or used for energy or be sent to the liver, rather than being stored as glycogen to help you get ready for your next run and support your recovery. So the longer we wait, the more we’re going to rely on the muscle itself as a fuel source. So it not only affects recovery, but your capacity for your next workout.”
How important it is that you replenish your glycogen stores in that hour after a run largely depends on how much you depleted those stores, says Jones. In other words: the harder and longer the effort, the more crucial it is that you’re refueling as soon as possible. (And it’s all relative. While a three-mile run may not be taxing for some runners, for others, it may feel like a hard effort and therefore should be treated like one in that hour afterward.)
In addition to refueling with carbs, we also need protein to stimulate and optimize muscle repair and rebuilding, says Jones. Plus, she adds, skipping that post-workout protein can make it nearly impossible for runners to meet their daily protein goal, considering they’ve likely had an easier-to-digest carb-focused meal or snack prior to their run.
Not refueling enough—or fast enough—can lead to increased muscle soreness, increased fatigue, weaker immune responses, and increased irritability, says Baumann. It can also mean hunger sneaks up on you with full force later in the day. “Then it’s harder to make a reasonable decision about what to eat, and people tend to be more likely to overeat,” says Jones. “Prioritizing nutrition in that period when appetite is low can really help to stabilize a more normal appetite later in the day, and the next day.”
Baumann emphasizes that while that hour-long period after a run is a uniquely important time to eat, the refueling shouldn’t end there. “We want to continue throughout the day to replenish those carbohydrates and protein, and fluids and electrolytes as well,” she says.
How to Eat After a Run, Even If You Don’t Want to
Make a plan.
Having to decide what to eat and then taking time to prepare it after a run when you’re probably tired can be another barrier to proper refueling. Set yourself up for success by deciding how you’re going to refuel prior to your run, and do whatever preparation you can. That could mean making your smoothie ahead of time and keeping it in the fridge, stashing a bar and a carby drink in your car, or even leaving your post-run fuel by your front door or in your mailbox so you can start the recovery process as soon as you get home.
Nail your on-the-run nutrition.
Not fueling enough during the run itself can make it even harder to refuel afterwards, says Baumann, because it could lead to that post-run blood sugar crash that sometimes comes with nausea, or dehydration, which can also cause nausea. Although everyone’s nutritional needs are different, it’s recommended that runners consume about 30-60 grams of carbs per hour for runs longer than 75 minutes.
Think of refueling as part of your run.
Runners are accustomed to doing things that feel difficult in the moment but satisfying later—like getting through that last 400-meter rep on tired legs or dragging themselves out of bed early to beat the heat. You can think of your post-run fueling the same way, says Baumann—you may not really want to do it, but it’s part of your routine, and your run isn’t complete without it.
Go for liquids.
“It’s a lot harder when you don’t have an appetite or you’re feeling nauseous to pick up a fork or a spoon and actually chew food and swallow it,” says Jones. Liquid nutrition—like a smoothie, a glass of milk, or a juice with some protein powder mixed in—can be an easier-to-stomach alternative, as long as it has that essential combo of carbs and protein. “There’s options like that that are going to give you maybe not an entire meal’s worth of calories and protein, but are something to at least stabilize your blood sugar, give you a little bit of energy, and help you not feel that intense hunger later,” says Jones. Plus, liquid options have the added benefit of also being hydrating.
Experiment to find what works for you.
Discovering your ideal post-run fuel may take some trial and error. Be open to exploring different options—whether solid or liquid, sweet or savory—to find something that you can get down and doesn’t upset your stomach. Landing on fuel that excites you and that you actually want to eat is a bonus—maybe that’s yogurt with a granola topping, a smoothie, or a milkshake.
Be intuitive—and logical.
Those who ascribe to intuitive eating may struggle with the idea that runners should ignore their lack of hunger cues and eat anyway. But Baumann says this points to a common misunderstanding about intuitive eating. “Part of it is that you have to use your brain and your nutrition knowledge,” she says. “In this scenario, even though you don’t feel hungry, you have to refuel. Same goes if you don’t feel hungry in the morning, we still know from a nutrition standpoint that you have to eat. So the same concept applies after a run.”