Why Nutrition for Optimal Performance May Contradict Nutrition for Optimal Health
Run to the Top Podcast | The Ultimate Guide to Running
RunnersConnect: Coaching Community, Running Experts, Inspiring Runners, No Fluff Blog
4.5 • 936 Ratings
🗓️ 17 November 2021
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When your race fueling and prep calls for sugary drinks and gels, how do you balance optimal nutrition for your running performance with what's best for your optimal health?
To get answers, we turned to Dr Krista Scott-Dixon, the curriculum designer at Precision Nutrition, one of the top nutrition certification and coaching programs in the world.
In this episode, we discuss…
- Eating for top performance vs optimal health.
- The tricky subjects of weight loss and metabolism change.
- Why nutrition is more complicated than just calories in and calories out
- And how we can have a more holistic approach to fueling our bodies.
Krista's more holistic approach to nutrition is so refreshing and I think we all can take a step back and think about what is best for our goals right now, and for the long term to be sure that we are runners for a long, long, life.
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This week's show brought to you by:
LMNT
When coaching endurance runners of all levels to be their best, I always emphasize the need for proper hydration with the right balance of electrolytes. Most athletes I've coached are surprised to learn that their sodium needs are actually much higher than they expected and it's been hurting their performance.
Part of the reason athletes need much more sodium than they think is not just because they lose electrolytes through their sweat, but also because athletes tend to eat very healthy diets. They've been told that salt is a bad thing in food and frequently don't get enough for their lifestyle.
Much of the science of sodium is based on people who eat highly processed diets which also are very low in potassium. It could actually be the low potassium levels causing the issues that sodium has been blamed for!
What is clear is that both sodium and potassium at the proper levels are essential for high performance (and for life in general!).
That's why we partnered with LMNT to offer a free sample pack of their electrolyte mix.
Head to drinklmnt.com/runnersconnect to get yours now. The Sample Pack includes 8 packets of LMNT (2 citrus, 2 raspberry, 2 orange, and 2 raw unflavored).
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Krista Scott Dixon, and you're listening to the Run to the Top |
| 0:10.9 | podcast. the Run to the Top Podcast. Hi there, my running friend, this is Coach Claire Bartholic, the Planted Runner, |
| 0:22.0 | and this is the Run to the Top Podcast, one of the first and only |
| 0:25.6 | running podcast dedicated to making you a better runner with each and every episode. |
| 0:30.8 | We are created and produced by the expert team of running coaches at runnersconnect.net where you can find the best running information on the internet as well as running coaching plans to fit every runner and every budget. |
| 0:44.0 | Nutrition for optimal health and nutrition for optimum performance are not always the same thing. |
| 0:55.0 | I'm sure every runner has wondered about whether those sugary gels or that |
| 0:59.4 | extra salty electrolyte drink is actually good for us or not. |
| 1:03.4 | I mean, no health professional would ever recommend |
| 1:06.2 | slurping hundreds of calories of sticky goos |
| 1:09.4 | and salty drinks while sitting on the couch |
| 1:11.5 | for a few hours. Yet that is precisely the advice we give to marathoners. |
| 1:16.3 | And to be fair, no health professional would state that in order to be healthy we need to run |
| 1:20.3 | marathons either. It is simply far more exercise than anyone needs to be healthy. |
| 1:27.2 | We run marathons for reasons that go beyond health. Maybe we run to challenge ourselves |
| 1:32.0 | or to feel accomplished or to be inspired to stay out. Maybe we run as a runner who does hard things. |
| 1:43.0 | And to run all those miles, we need to fuel our runs |
| 1:46.2 | and promote our recovery in ways that are very different |
| 1:49.2 | from less active people. |
| 1:51.4 | If we are running at the edge of the |
| 1:55.0 | actual people, if we are running at the edge of the limits of our ability, trying to squeeze out every last drop out of our performance, |
| 1:58.0 | then ideal fueling for performance becomes even more critical. |
... |
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