Trail Running for Weight Loss: Choose Functional Nutrition Strategies for Sustainable Results
The New Year is rapidly approaching, which means one thing is on many people’s (trail runners and non-runners alike) minds:…
The New Year is rapidly approaching, which means one thing is on many people’s (trail runners and non-runners alike) minds: weight loss.
Many trail runners attempt to lose weight through the conventional “run more, eat less” approach. However, this rarely works out in the long run and can instead leave runners feeling tired, cold, moody, and unable to recover from their runs. In some cases, this approach can damage the body physically and mentally.
Clearly, going about weight loss the wrong way can do significant damage. However, unlike some dietitians and nutritionists, I don’t think it is a crime to want to lose weight, provided it is for the right reasons, and you approach it in a healthy, sustainable way!
Functional nutrition strategies can help you achieve your weight loss goals without deprivation, suffering, or sabotaging your running performance. Read on to discover how to change your nutrition to support a healthy body weight while also supporting your trail running performance.
Scientific research and my clinical experience have clarified that conventional weight loss strategies, including cutting calories or stripping carbs from your diet, don’t work for most people. Research on low-calorie diets for weight loss shows that between ⅓ and ⅔ of people regain more weight than they initially lost. (Source)
The theory is that cutting calories shifts the body into “survival” mode, making it even more thrifty at storing body fat.
Athletes, such as trail runners, who are trying to lose weight may be particularly at risk for the adverse health effects of low-calorie diets. Low energy availability (LEA), a state in which the body doesn’t have enough energy to support its normal functions, is part and parcel of a low-calorie weight loss diet. However, LEA in athletes is linked to poor mental health, compromised athletic performance, gastrointestinal issues, and hormone disruption, just to name a few consequences. (Source)
So, what should you do if you want to lose weight as a trail runner without sabotaging yourself with LEA? Well, trail running PLUS the proper nutrition strategy can help you achieve your desired healthy weight. Functional nutrition strategies are perfectly poised to step in and get you on track while supporting your trail running performance!
If you’re new to the concept of functional nutrition, please read my blog, 8 Ways Functional Nutrition Can Elevate Your Health and Performance as an Outdoor Athlete, for a comprehensive explanation. 🙂
Functional nutrition is a personalized approach to eating designed to support your long-term health. It can also be combined with sports nutrition strategies to support your trail running performance. Unlike conventional diets that focus solely on calorie counting and macronutrients (proteins, carbs, and fats), functional nutrition tailors your nutrition to your biology and unique needs, emphasizes nutrient-dense real foods, avoids restrictive diets, and emphasizes long-term sustainability.
Why does this matter for trail runners?
A functional nutrition plan developed by a functional nutritionist can help you, as a trail runner, achieve your performance goals AND any other health goals you have, whether that’s improving gut health, balancing your hormones, or achieving a healthy body weight.
A functional nutrition approach can help support your energy needs for trail running, prevent muscle loss during weight loss, promote recovery, and reduce injury risk while you work toward your body composition goals.
If you’re a trail runner striving to lose weight (reach a healthy weight) or improve your body composition, focus on the following functional nutrition strategies:
Ultra-processed foods are comprised of substances extracted from other foods, such as starches, oils, added sugars, and emulsifiers. They often bear little resemblance to the whole foods they originated from. Examples of ultra-processed foods include breakfast cereal, potato chips, candy, sugary drinks, and (yes) even vegan meat alternatives like “Beyond Meat”. These foods are often high in calories, low in nutrients, and can lead to weight gain if consumed in excess.
Ultra-processed foods hijack our brains’ ability to regulate food intake, causing us to eat a lot. If you eat more calories than your body needs for long enough, you will experience weight gain.
Swap out the ultra-processed food for minimally-processed whole foods, otherwise known as real food. 🙂 Real food refers to foods as close as possible to their natural state, with little to no industrial processing, additives, or artificial ingredients.
These foods are nutrient-dense and typically include fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and some types of dairy products. They are free from added sugars, refined oils, artificial flavors, and preservatives, making them a cornerstone of a healthy and balanced diet.
Protein is the most satiating macronutrient (macronutrients include protein, carbs, and fat). Eating enough protein helps self-regulate your appetite, making it easier to create a caloric deficit without your conscious awareness, which in turn can support weight loss.
But what does “optimizing” your protein intake look like? This process varies widely from one trail runner to another. However, one thing is for certain—the recommended dietary intake (RDI) for protein of 0.8 grams/kg body weight/day is too low for active people like trail runners, especially trail runners seeking to lose weight. Active people have higher protein needs than sedentary people due to increased protein turnover triggered by demanding exercise and the need to support tissue recovery.
Your protein needs can also vary based on pre-existing conditions such as prediabetes or PCOS.
I highly recommend consulint a functional nutritionist to determine your optimal protein intake. In the meantime, one tip that works well for many trail runners is to start the day with a robust serving of protein – I often suggest aiming for at least 30 grams of protein at breakfast. This could come in protein powder mixed into your steel-cut oats or blended into your smoothie, or a plate of eggs, veggies, and turkey sausage, just to name a few examples.
If you are one of those runners who constantly train in a fasted state in an attempt to lose weight, your habit may be working against your weight loss goals! I have not found fasted running to be helpful for weight loss in my trail runner clients.
This may be because fasted running primarily causes you to tap into intramuscular fat (fat residing inside your muscles) for fuel. Fasted exercise can tap into “peripheral fat,” i.e., subcutaneous fat or the fat you see in the mirror. However, the reliance on peripheral fat for energy during endurance exercise like running is likely to be less than the reliance on intramuscular fat.
You can read more about fasted running in my blog, The Pros and Cons of Running Fasted: A Comprehensive Guide.
Instead of running fasted for weight loss, fuel your body right by eating a pre-run meal or snack that combines some protein (such as whey protein or a hard boiled egg) and whole-food carbs (such as a banana or rolled oats).
In addition, eat within 30-60 minutes after finishing your workout to initiate glycogen replenishment and muscle repair.
We humans are notoriously inaccurate at gauging how much we are eating. Some people overestimate how much they eat, but many underestimate it, which may sabotage their weight loss goals. (Source)
Tracking your food for a limited period of time in an app such as Cronometer can give you a wake-up call about how much you’re eating and help you decide where to adjust your diet to support weight loss.
Over time, the goal is to learn how to listen to your body and what it needs to eat, rather than tracking. This process is referred to as “intuitive eating.”
I have found that intuitive eating works best for athletes once they are eating enough protein and have reduced their intake of ultra-processed foods, because under-eating protein and consuming ultra-processed foods can hijack your body’s hunger and satiety cues, making it difficult to understand what your body actually needs.
Please note that food tracking is not appropriate for anybody with an active eating disorder and may be inappropriate for people with a history of an eating disorder or disordered eating.
Most sports nutrition products, such as gels and sports drinks, are full of simple sugars. While these products have a time and place, over-consuming them may contribute to weight gain. This is why it is so important to periodize your nutrition, only use sports nutrition products when you really need them, and focus on whole, real foods the rest of the time.
In my practice, I’ve observed that weight loss resistance is common. There are many potential reasons for weight loss resistance, including:
Chronic inflammation promotes weight gain. (Source) It is something that many people experience but few are aware of.
Acute inflammation is a short-lived protective response by the body intended to deal with immediate threats such as infection or injury.
On the other hand, chronic inflammation is a prolonged and persistent state of inflammation in the body where the immune system stays activated over time, even without an immediate threat like an infection or injury. Chronic inflammation can damage the body and is linked to various health conditions, including autoimmune conditions and heart disease.
What drives chronic inflammation? Gut imbalances, including dysbiosis or a lack of beneficial gut bacteria, commonly cause chronic inflammation. (Source) I’ve observed that many of my clients with weight loss resistance have significant gastrointestinal symptoms, suggesting that gut imbalances are playing a role in their inability to achieve a healthy weight. If you are struggling with digestive symptoms (constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating, or food sensitivities) and weight loss resistance, work with a functional nutritionist to access the appropriate functional gut testing so you can get to the bottom of your gut issues.
Blood sugar imbalances, including significant blood sugar fluctuations after eating, elevated fasting blood sugar, and elevated insulin, are linked to difficulty accessing fat stores for energy (Source). This problem may make it difficult to achieve weight loss.
Blood sugar labs (fasting glucose, hemoglobin A1c, and fasting insulin) and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) can help you get to the bottom of blood sugar imbalances and on the road to reaching a healthy weight.
Cortisol, often misunderstood as the stress hormone, is actually a crucial hormone for the healthy function of the entire body. However, prolonged overproduction of cortisol or a dysregulated cortisol rhythm in response to poor diet or lifestyle patterns can lead to health issues such as fatigue, low mood, weight gain, and weight loss resistance.
I use the DUTCH Complete test to assess for cortisol dysregulation (as well as patterns of other hormones, including estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone) in my clients and build nutrition, lifestyle, and supplement plans to improve their cortisol regulation. The DUTCH Complete is a functional hormone panel that provides powerful insights into hormone balance that you simply can’t get from a single measurement of cortisol in a blood sample from your conventional doctor.
If you have a history of over-restricting your calories for extended periods and/or yo-yo dieting (the repeated cycle of losing weight through dieting and then regaining it), you may be more likely to experience weight loss resistance with future weight loss attempts.
In this scenario, especially if a client comes to me already eating too few calories, I suggest a “reverse dieting” approach. This approach can help you break through a weight loss plateau by gradually increasing your calorie intake and then going through short periods of caloric deficit. I use this approach frequently with clients in my nutrition practice.
Trail running and functional nutrition strategies can work synergistically to help you achieve a healthy weight in a sustainable manner without the downsides of caloric restriction and low energy availability. With a healthy trail running training schedule AND a wholesome diet in place, you can fuel your body for performance and long-term health!
If you need personalized nutrition guidance to support your trail running training, I would love to help! Schedule your complimentary discovery call to discover how I can help you!
The content provided on this nutrition blog is intended for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you have read on this blog.
The information and recommendations presented here are based on general nutrition principles and may not be suitable for everyone. Individual dietary needs and health concerns vary, and what works for one person may not be appropriate for another.
I make every effort to provide accurate and up-to-date information, but the field of nutrition is constantly evolving, and new research may impact dietary recommendations. Therefore, I cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information presented on this blog.
If you have specific dietary or health concerns, please consult a qualified nutritionist or another healthcare professional for personalized guidance.
I empower others through nutrition to conquer their mountain adventures, drawing from my own experiences.
With a background in Biomedical Science and an M.S. in Human Nutrition, I’m a Certified Nutrition Specialist and Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist. My journey in functional medicine has equipped me to work alongside athletes and tackle complex health cases. As a passionate trail runner, backcountry skier, and backpacker, I strive to support others on their paths to peak performance and well-being.
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