It’s Time to Stop Shaming Runners for Fueling Their Bodies

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: An influencer, wannabe coach, or random guy who races a lot posts about the virtues of running without energy gels or other fuel sources. They might even directly lecture a female athlete about it, if she dares to talk up how it’s benefited her training.

The details differ. Sometimes, the person claims the best gel for a half marathon is, well, absolutely none at all, or that no athlete needs calories during training. In other cases, they say only “slow” runners need fuel, or bemoan how “people have become rather obsessed with the snacks.”

But the line of thinking always seems to be the same: Much like raw-dogging a flight or taking a no-sleep challenge, going without fuel on long runs makes you a tougher or more superior human and athlete, they believe.

As a writer who’s covered the science of performance and health for nearly two decades and a 24-time marathon finisher, I’m here to tell you this is a bad take—and it’s hurting our sport.

I’m not alone in this view: “There is this movement in general around teaching ourselves we can be deprived, and trying to get something out of that, that I think is really unhealthy,” Stephanie Roth-Goldberg, LCSW, a New York City–based therapist specializing in sports psychology and eating disorder recovery, tells SELF. “I’m not sure what people are trying to prove to themselves—and I’m not sure they know what they’re trying to prove to themselves.”

Call it tough-guy syndrome, with an added heaping helping of diet culture. Whatever the motivation, we—those of us who gather and share accurate fitness information—would like a word about this approach. Or three, rather: Knock. It. Off.

For one, scientifically speaking, this sentiment is flat-out wrong. The latest research and the experience of record-setting runners show that taking fuel—in the form of energy gels or other fast-acting carbohydrates—during long-distance efforts has big benefits for performance.

Plus, shaming others for fueling is needlessly judgmental and dick-ish, driving people who might otherwise enjoy running away from the sport or into unhealthy habits that can have long-term repercussions.

There are a whole host of reasons you can (and should!) use energy gels while running—both for your performance and for your overall health. Everyday athletes can use fuel to run faster, feel better while they’re doing it, and bounce back more quickly afterward, sports dietitian Rebecca McConville, RD, CSSD, tells SELF. Not sure how to get started, or need further convincing that you should give it a try? Read on as we set the record straight on sports nutrition, exercise physiology—and the posters who think they’re somehow exempt from both.

What are running gels, and how do they work?

Whatever names they go by—sports gels, carbohydrate gels, and running gels are common ones—these super-dense packets of fast-acting carbs all supplement your body’s existing glucose stores during exercise. Popular brands include Gu, Maurten, Huma, and UCAN, each with unique formulas and a variety of flavors.

They serve a vital role: Despite the widespread demonization of sugar, glucose—yep, a type of sugar—is your body’s main energy source, sports dietitian Holley Samuel, RD, CSSD, tells SELF. When you hit the starting line or head out for your regular neighborhood loop, you already have some in your bloodstream and far more stored in your muscles and liver, in a form called glycogen. As you lope along, enzymes break down glycogen into glucose, which your body then uses to create a molecule called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. This powers both the muscle contractions and brain functions that carry you down the road or trail when you’re booking it.

Those storage spots typically contain enough glycogen to fuel 90 to 120 minutes of vigorous movement, such as running. But even before you’re completely depleted, you’ll begin to fade, McConville says; when your stores dwindle too low, you’ll feel sluggish and awful, what’s often called “hitting the wall” or “bonking.”

Using energy gels (and similar products) pre- and mid-run provides an accessible stream of carbs, mostly in the form of sugars and starches, that your body can convert into glucose and then ATP, keeping the bonk at bay. The latest research suggests runners, cyclists, and other endurance athletes benefit from getting anywhere from 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour for efforts lasting from an hour up to 2.5 hours, or as many as 90 to 120 grams for longer durations.

It’s true that your body can—and will—burn stored fat to make ATP if you don’t have enough carbs at the ready. But fat-burning happens at a much slower rate, Samuel says, making it a better fuel source for low-intensity effort and not ideal for optimal performance.

You might hear some of these no-fuel posters talk about being “fat-adapted.” Some elite athletes, especially those who run ultra-long distances, swear by a ketogenic or very low-carb diet to increase their fat-burning capacity and reduce their reliance on carbohydrates.

However, it’s a controversial approach that doesn’t work for everyone, notes a review in the Journal of Physiology. Plus, it requires a hyper-focus on tracking and removing foods from your diet, approaches that are tough to stick to and could contribute to underfueling or disordered eating. And it still doesn’t invalidate the reams of research on the benefits of carbs for most athletes.

When do you use running gels—and what’s the benefit?

The in-the-moment perks of mid-run fueling apply to any bout of about an hour or more, Samuel says—your body knows time, not mileage, and everyone’s pace is different. For many runners, that means taking in fuel on their weekly long run and sometimes other efforts (like, say, an intense interval session on the track that lasts 60 minutes or more). And it means fueling is likely to help you feel and perform better in any race that will take you an hour or more to complete, regardless of the distance—whether it’s a 10K or a full marathon.

That doesn’t mean waiting until the hour mark to take a gel, though. Unlike a car that runs just fine until it hits empty, your body tends to feel best when you stay on top of your energy needs. McConville and Samuel typically recommend taking the first gel—each contains roughly 20 to 30 grams of carbs—at 30 minutes, and then another every 30 minutes after that. So that way, you’re getting the 30 to 60 grams per hour sports dietitians recommend. You can also take one before you run, especially if it’s been a while since you last ate.

So sure, random social media dude, you can get through a 90-minute or two-hour run or race without gels—but you’ll likely finish with a mostly empty tank, not feeling anywhere near as strong or kickass as you could have.

What’s more, especially if you don’t get a carb-rich snack or meal soon after a fuel-less run, you can keep digging a deeper hole, never fully replenishing your glycogen. You might start your next run already at a deficit and also have a greater risk of running low on fuel overall. That can lead to a condition called relative energy deficiency in sport or REDs, “a syndrome of every single body system that’s related to underfueling chronically,” Samuel says—and one that “can take a really long time to fix.”

On the flip side, midrun fueling helps you both during the run and after you hit “stop” on your watch. “You’re less depleted at the end of a run,” Heather Caplan, RD, a registered dietitian, running coach, and co-founder of the Lane 9 Project, tells SELF. That means you’ll also feel stronger the rest of your day, absorb more of the benefits of your training, and be recovered and ready for your next effort. “Part of the practice of fueling midrun is to make sure you’re continuing to give your body what it needs to build endurance and fitness, or maintain what you have,” she says.

Plus, the more you practice fueling on the move, the better your body will get at taking in carbohydrates during vigorous activity. Scientists designed gels to be easy to digest, but slurping them down can still take some getting used to, especially if you’re trying to run at a faster pace. “You need to train the gut just like you’re training your muscles,” McConville says; the more you practice, the less your risk of GI issues, whereas you might be hurting if you try them for the first time on race day.

Fueling during training—even on shorter runs, if you want to—can help you build the habit so you’re ready when you want to perform your best. And it provides the opportunity to experiment with the loads of different products out there, so you can find the one that works best for you, Samuel points out. In addition to copious brands and flavors of sports gels for runners, many brands make alternatives like energy chews, blocks, bars, and even jellybeans for those who prefer something a bit more solid.

Is there a benefit to using energy gels instead of actual food?

Yes, actually. You can—and some runners do—fuel their efforts with other sources of simple carbs, such as pretzels, bananas, or dates, Samuel says. But those aren’t always as portable, especially given how many you’d need to eat. Like we mentioned, energy gels have around 20 to 30 grams of carbs in one small packet, whereas a whole small banana might have about 23 grams.

So if you’re trying to go all-out in your half or full marathon, “carrying a bushel of bananas with you—because that’s how much you’ll need—is not going to make you very aerodynamic,” Samuel says. “They’re also going to be kind of hard to peel.”

Plus, running gels are optimized to give you as big of a boost as possible. Most contain more than one type of carb—for example, glucose, fructose, and maltodextrin. “That will help get energy in quicker and more efficiently,” McConville says, because you process each type via a slightly different pathway. Think about it like a stadium parking lot, Samuel says. You can get cars in a lot more quickly if you have three entrances versus only one; gels avoid energy traffic jams.

But isn’t “real” food always better for you than something ultraprocessed, as the keyboard warriors often assert? Not necessarily, especially during intense exercise like running, when you’re pretty much instantly torching everything you’re ingesting, Samuel says. “Sugar is a good thing for that instance, and if you don’t fuel, you’re going to run into more problems than if you take in the sugar,” she says.

Okay, running gels serve a really important purpose. So…why do people keep knocking them?

Great question, since people who brag about how far they can go fuel-free are probably leaving a lot of benefits on the table. (Even those with the somewhat logical-sounding idea that you should withhold carbs during training to get a bigger energy surge during racing aren’t aligned with the research—rather, that approach makes your body less efficient at using carbs when you need them, not to mention increasing your risk of underfueling overall, Samuel says.)

In fact, their constant need to puff up while shaming others may reveal more about their own food or running anxieties than anything else. “Typically, bullies are working something out in themselves that they feel really bad about, and they don’t have the capacity or the support or the means to work on themselves,” Roth-Goldberg says. So they decide to make others feel bad, too, and get algorithmic encouragement for doing so.

Honestly, that’s the worst part. These energy gatekeepers are creating a culture of shame, blame, and denial that drives people away from running, ushers in a feeling that they’re not tough enough to be an athlete, and makes it all so much harder than it needs to be. I’ll admit that, for all I’ve learned in my career, I’ve let these messages affect my own habits at times—and when I’ve skimped on fuel, I’ve paid the consequences, both with poor performances and injuries. As a journalist, I’ve seen underfueling derail careers, harm collegiate athletes, and contribute to long-lasting physical and mental health problems.

And for whatever reason—the tyranny of the “for you” feed, reinforcement by ill-informed coaches or running-group peers who are also into deprivation, or the underlying hum of carb-phobic messaging in the broader culture—anti-fueling messages are often more compelling than science-based information from nutrition professionals, Caplan says.

New runners—as well as those prone to disordered eating and eating disorders, both incredibly prevalent in the sport—suffer the most. “I feel concerned for the folks coming into this space who don’t know the best practices around fueling, see something like that, and then adopt it as truth and carry that into their training,” Caplan says. “They are not going to get the most out of their training or their race experience.” Not to mention, they’re going to feel like crap, physically and mentally.

So, let us say it loud and clear: Tackling long runs without fueling isn’t a mark of an accomplished runner. Want to know what’s actually impressive? Being smart enough to follow the science and confident enough to ignore the fuel-shaming crowd. Those gels in your belt, shorts, or bra pocket aren’t a sign of weakness. They’re proof you take your performance—and even more importantly, your health—seriously.

Related:

• 8 Ideas for Shutting Down an Annoying Mansplainer at the Gym, From Women Who’ve Done It
• 5 Sneaky Ways Diet Culture Might Still Be Messing With You
• How I Protect Myself From Eating Disorder Triggers as a Fitness Instructor

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