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Kelly Jones: Optimal Nutrition for Performance and Longevity

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Is there a perfect diet for runners? What about macros? What are the common mistakes made when switching to a plant-forward diet? Kelly Jones provides her thoughts on these topics as well as body size, glycogen depleted runs, intuitive eating, and more in this episode hosted by Coach Claire Bartholic.\xa0

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Kelly is a board certified specialist in sports dietetics, focusing on performance nutrition for endurance sports. She has consulted with high level organizations such as USA Swimming, the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Road Runners, and has been featured as an publications such as Runner\u2019s World, US News and World Report, Women\u2019s Running, and Women\u2019s Health.\xa0

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Her career began as an Associate Professor of Nutrition for nine-years in Pennsylvania and before that she was a Division I athlete in swimming.\xa0 Today, as a mom and business owner, Kelly continues to compete in road races and triathlons, and creates recipes and resources that offer practical solutions to optimize physical and mental performance.

Although Kelly works with many kinds of athletes, in this episode she focuses her expertise specifically on performance nutrition for runners. She delivers a positive message about fueling properly for running as well as for living your optimal life.\xa0

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Kelly uses an evidence-based nutrition approach, focusing on what she calls "plant forward performance nutrition." With so many of us quarantined right now, it\u2019s easy for us to neglect our nutrition. Especially with the potential disruptions to the meat industry, it\u2019s more important than ever for us to find ways to add plants to our diets in a way that optimizes performance.

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2:43 You specialize in performance nutrition for endurance sports.\xa0 Can you explain exactly what that means and how you work with athletes?

3:56 What is the best diet?

5:23 What\u2019s the difference between eating for performance vs. eating for longevity?

6:53 How do you feel about eating whole foods during training and races to avoid sugar?

9:04 What\u2019s your philosophy with macros (Carbs, Protein, Fat)?

11:59 Timing wise, when should you eat what?

14:25 What about glycogen depleted runs?

15:44 What is your experience with race-weight, performance, orthorexia, etc\u2026?

19:07 How do you find the balance between eating for fuel and eating just the right amount?

20:50 What do you mean \u2018plant forward nutrition approach\u2019?

22:28 What are the challenges with plant-based eating with nutrient deficiency and performance?

25:10 How do you help people to trust their body when it comes to eating?

27:26 Do you find that our bodies adapt easily to new eating habits?

28:52 What advice would you give yourself back when you started running?

29:55 What is the best gift running has given you?

30:29 How can people connect with you?

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\u201cFor anyone, I still would recommend inclusion of more plants no matter what you\u2019re trying to follow\u201d

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\u201cCould you still train and race with less carbohydrates than what might be recommended? Sure, but are you going to feel as energized physically and mentally as you should? Are you going to perform as well? That\u2019s the question.\u201d

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\u201cI\u2019m a big advocate for eating your energy before you need to use it.\u201d

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\u201cThe glycogen depleted runs, while there\u2019s a lot of people talking about them, there isn\u2019t a lot of research to support them. And what I try to help people understand too is that you might see there\u2019s one study on something, but that doesn\u2019t mean that the practice is what we call evidence based.\u201d

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\u201cI try to tell people too, if you have a run where you\u2019re not feeling energized, where it\u2019s mentally hard to get through, it\u2019s physically hard to get through, how is that going to help you get closer to your goal?\u201d

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\u201cWe don\u2019t really have good evidence that a smaller body size is actually going to benefit racing, but we do have a lot of evidence\u2026 that a smaller body size can actually impair your health in the short and long term, and may impair performance more in the long term.\u201d

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\u201cWhen you\u2019re not mentally healthy, it\u2019s really hard to have any other areas of your health work well too.\u201d

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\u201cYou might be trying to work towards racing optimally, but what about living the rest of your life in an optimal way too?\u201d

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\u201cIt takes work to eat intuitively, but then it\u2019s never something that you have to do again in the future.\u201d

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