6 Best Snacks for Endurance Athletes

  • By Performance Lab
  • 9 minute read
6 Best Snacks for Endurance Athletes

Athletes need to be fueling with the best of the best to keep their bodies in optimal training shape and maximize their performance—we all know that.

And while three meals a day may cut it for some athletes, sometimes we need a little something to tide us through to the next meal and give us a little energy kick, especially if we’re training a double.

So, if you’re between meals and getting the munchies, your body is probably signaling to you it needs some more sustenance.

Instead of reaching for the typical energy bars that some fitness experts recommend, you want to go for something clean, delicious, and nutrient-dense to supply your body with the nutrients it needs to maximize performance.

Here’s what you need to know about choosing snacks—what to look for, what to avoid, and our top picks for endurance athletes.

What To Look For In A Snack

Because endurance activities can be rather exhaustive, both for the body and mind, refueling with a good mix of protein and carbs is the best way to replenish glycogen stores, boost energy, and accelerate muscle recovery so you can be back at it the next day.

Carbohydrates

If you’ve ever tried to do an intense workout in a carb-depleted state, you probably figured out pretty quickly that it’s difficult. While there’s a lot of research coming out on the benefits of low-carb and keto for athletes, it may not be the best option for endurance athletes.

Carbs are your body’s first and preferred source of fuel. They’re stored in both the liver and skeletal muscles, and when your body needs quick energy, it draws upon these stores.

By changing levels of muscle glycogen stores, however, athletes working around a 70-80% VO2max level can either enhance or reduce their endurance performance; low glycogen supply reduces performance, while high glycogen supply boosts it.

Research suggests that the absorption rate of glucose into the bloodstream can influence exercise intensity and duration 1, an essential consideration for endurance athletes.

They suggest that quick-digesting carbs with a higher glycemic score are better at providing working muscles with the energy needed to sustain exercise and maintain performance.

As a general rule, experts recommend around 9g/kg/day for carb consumption to replenish glycogen stores in endurance athletes 2, meaning that if you need a snack after a training session, healthy carbs are a good choice.

Protein

Protein is essential for all athletes (and realistically anyone regardless of athletic level), but for endurance athletes whose muscles work overtime, consuming the amino acids required for muscle protein synthesis and repair is critical to proper recovery and growth.

According to some researchers, endurance athletes’ protein requirements are greater compared with non-exercising individuals 3.

The daily recommended protein intake for non-exercising individuals is 0.8 g/kg/day, whereas endurance-trained athletes have a recommended intake of 1.2–1.4 g protein/kg/day; that’s roughly 50-75% more than the average recommendations.

Endurance exercise has been shown to enhance the breakdown of skeletal muscle proteins during exercise 4, as well as stimulate muscle protein synthesis for up to 24 hours post-exercise, which means that dietary intake of protein is critical to maintaining muscle mass and stimulating MPS, repairing muscle damage, and maintaining performance level 5.

What To Avoid

Before we dive into the best snacks you should be eating, we want to quickly cover two things you should always avoid in snacks:

  1. High sugar snacks—Many fitness experts will tell you that consuming foods high in sugar will help to sustain energy through long races or training (i.e., energy gels). In reality, all sugar does is provide you with a short-lived burst of energy followed by a crash. And if you’re not putting that sugar to immediate use, you risk storing it as fat. Stay clear of things like artificial sweeteners, maltodextrin, dextrose, and other “disguised sugars.”
  2. Processed and refined foods—A lot of packaged food is labeled as healthy, but it’s anything but. Refined carbs and processed foods trigger an inflammatory cascade in the body, which is not only the root of many chronic diseases and health conditions, it also seriously impedes your performance and recovery.

The 6 Best Snacks To Fuel Endurance Athletes

Bananas

Bananas are touted as one of the best workout foods around, either pre- or post-workout, as well as between.

Wrapped in their own perfect grab-and-go packaging, they’re loaded with nutritional goodness that will sustain energy levels for cyclists, runners, and other endurance athletes alike.

Bananas are a great source of carbs, potassium (goodbye muscle cramps), antioxidants, fiber, B vitamins, and manganese. Unlike most sports drinks available, they contain a healthier blend of sugars that provide more balanced, sustained energy.

Interestingly, one study compared the acute effects of bananas versus a 6% carbohydrate drink on 75-km cycling performance and post-exercise inflammation, oxidative stress, and innate immune function in trained cyclists 6.

Results showed similar patterns between the groups ingesting the sports drink versus the banana; cyclists experienced similar performance, blood glucose levels, inflammation, oxidative stress, and innate immune levels, suggesting that a whole-food could be just as beneficial to performance as a sports drink.

Dates

Dates are a staple on vegan diets because they provide a massive nutritional delivery. Despite being loaded with sugars, the sugar in dates provides slow-release, sustained energy that will rev your engines and power you through even the most challenging workouts or races.

Per 100g of Medjool dates, you’re getting nearly 75g of energy-boosting carbs, in addition to 700mg of potassium, magnesium, manganese, copper, and vitamin B6 7; potassium and magnesium are two key electrolytes involved in nervous system function, fluid regulation, blood volume, and muscle contractions.

And what’s more, a study published in Food Research International shows dates boast an impressive phytochemical profile, which includes anthocyanins, phenolic compounds, sterols, procyanidins, and flavonoids, all of which have several beneficial health outcomes 8.

Because strenuous exercise increases the production of free radicals, antioxidants and other phytochemicals like bioflavonoids are necessary to protect cells against damage 9.

If you’re not a fan of eating dates on their own, throwing them in a green smoothie or a protein shake is another great way to reap the benefits, plus they act as a completely natural sweetener.

Nuts and Seeds

Nuts and seeds are like the powerhouses of sports nutrition. They’re packed with vitamins and minerals that are essential to performance and optimal body function.

Almonds especially are packed full of magnesium, manganese, B vitamins, fiber, protein, and other minerals. But they’re also a fantastic source of unsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants that help reduce inflammation and combat free radicals induced by exercise.

Specifically, almonds are rich in phenolic compounds and polyphenolic compounds that have been shown to help ease biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation 10.

Intense, prolonged physical exertion has been linked to an increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and this overproduction of ROS can overwhelm the body’s innate antioxidant defense capacities, which disturbs the balance of immune and endocrine systems, impairs exercise performance, and induces exercise fatigue 11, 12.

Research suggests that the unsaturated fatty acids, antioxidants, and micronutrients inherent to almonds may help maintain and/or enhance exercise performance by modulating fuel utilization and enhancing antioxidant defenses.

Quercetin and arginine specifically may help to upregulate mitochondrial biogenesis and oxygen sparing capacity, as well as facilitate oxygen delivery to skeletal muscle 10.

Arginine, an amino acid precursor required for the synthesis of nitric oxide, is an endothelial dilator 10, which helps to increase blood flow and sustain performance.

In one study, eight trained male cyclists and two triathletes consumed 75 g/day of whole almonds or isocaloric cookies for eight weeks (4 weeks alternating). They underwent three performance tests at the start of the study and at the end of each intervention phase 10.

Results showed that the cyclists consuming almonds exhibited improved cycling distance and other elements related to endurance performance, suggesting that some nutrients in almonds may contribute to carb reservation and utilization, as well as effective oxygen utilization.

But it’s not just almonds! Other great options for nuts and seeds include:

  • Flaxseed
  • Pumpkin seeds
  • Walnuts
  • Chia seeds
  • Pumpkin seeds

Hummus & Veggies

Chickpeas, lentils, beans, and field peas belong to a group of legumes called pulses that are often noted as a “superfood” for athletes because they offer a 2-for-1 deal you just can’t pass up on: they’re high in protein and a low-glycemic carbohydrate.

Low-glycemic carbs are digested more slowly due to their high fiber content, which provides a sustained energy source to muscles over several hours rather than spiking insulin levels and delivering a short-term jolt of energy.

Beans are also a great source of B vitamins, calcium, copper, iron, zinc, potassium, and magnesium—all of which are critical to maintaining general health and performance.

While hummus is traditionally made from chickpeas, it can be made with any type of beans!

However, be mindful that beans and legumes can cause some gastric discomfort if not soaked before cooking, so ensure you’re following directions to avoid gas and bloating.

Oats

Oats have long been a staple for any athlete’s diet, whether that’s endurance, bodybuilding, powerlifting, or anything in between.

They’re great for increasing satiety, providing good amounts of fiber, and a sustained release of energy, not to mention they are incredibly versatile, cheap, and easy to prepare.

If you’re an athlete, the last thing you want is to experience a blood sugar crash that deprives you of energy and prevents you from performing at your best.

Because oats are high in fiber and low-glycemic, they are slower to digest than things like white rice or potatoes, thus providing a sustained release of glucose into the bloodstream and a much steadier supply of energy.

And if that’s not enough, there’s more benefit to oats where endurance performance is concerned:

  • B vitamins: B vitamins are essential to energy production. They act as coenzymes involved in the processing of carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins to generate ATP. Specifically, the active forms of thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), and pantothenic acid (B5) are essential co-enzymes involved in mitochondrial aerobic respiration and cellular energy production. As well, thiamine and biotin/vitamin B12 are involved in the mitochondrial metabolism of glucose, fatty acids, and amino acids 13.
  • Magnesium: Magnesium is one of the common mineral deficiencies, but it’s also one of the most critical minerals for endurance athletes. Magnesium is critical for muscle recovery, stress hormone level regulation, aiding in blood sugar movement into muscles, and disposing of lactate, which can build up during exercise and cause fatigue 14.

It’s also important for encouraging healthy nervous system function, neurotransmitter synthesis and is involved in over 600 biochemical reactions 15! And in just a ½ cup of oats, there is around 275mg of magnesium!

Protein Shake

If you’re looking for a clean snack option, you can’t go wrong with a protein shake.

However, because a lot of what you’ll find on the market is filled with things like artificial sweeteners, poor quality protein, stabilizers, thickeners, and everything else under the sun, you may as well not even consume them.

Studies show that, especially with endurance activities, the combination of protein and carbohydrates elicits the most favorable effects on performance and recovery.

A 2010 systematic review and meta-analysis comparing 11 studies looking at the effects of protein + carb consumption versus just carbohydrates during endurance performance found that the consumption of protein and carbohydrates resulted in a 9% improvement in performance compared to carb consumption alone 16.

Final Thoughts

Everyone loves a snack sometimes, but for endurance athletes, it’s all about keeping glycogen stores up and protein intake consistent to maintain fuel, muscle protein substrates, and thus performance.

If you need a little boost between meals, clean, whole-food snacks are a great option.

Be mindful when selecting snacks because there are many choices available that aren’t beneficial to your health.

So next time you reach for something, ensure that it’s nutrient dense, geared towards supporting your athletic and training demands, beneficial to your overall health, and has enough variety to keep you full and satisfied.

References

  1. M Kanter. High-Quality Carbohydrates and Physical Performance: Expert Panel Report. Nutr Today. 2018;53(1):35-39.
  2. LM Burke, JA Hawley, SH Wong, AE Jeukendrup. Carbohydrates for training and competition. J Sports Sci. 2011;29 Suppl 1:S17-S27.
  3. H Kato, K Suzuki, M Bannai, DR Moore. Protein Requirements Are Elevated in Endurance Athletes after Exercise as Determined by the Indicator Amino Acid Oxidation Method. PLoS One. 2016;11(6):e0157406. Published 2016 Jun 20.
  4. KR Howarth, SM Phillips, MJ MacDonald, D Richards, NA Moreau, MJ Gibala. Effect of glycogen availability on human skeletal muscle protein turnover during exercise and recovery. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2010;109(2):431-438.
  5. L Breen, A Philp, OC Witard, et al. The influence of carbohydrate-protein co-ingestion following endurance exercise on myofibrillar and mitochondrial protein synthesis. J Physiol. 2011;589(Pt 16):4011-4025.
  6. DC Nieman, ND Gillitt, DA Henson, et al. Bananas as an energy source during exercise: a metabolomics approach. PLoS One. 2012;7(5):e37479.
  7. FoodData Central Search Results. FoodData Central. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/168191/nutrients. Accessed February 14, 2021.
  8. MS Baliga, BRV Baliga, SM Kandathil, HP Bhat, PM Vayalil. A review of the chemistry and pharmacology of the date fruits (Phoenix dactylifera L.). Food research international. 2011; 44: 1812-1822.
  9. MA Lila. Anthocyanins and Human Health: An In Vitro Investigative Approach. J Biomed Biotechnol. 2004;2004(5):306-313.
  10. M Yi, J Fu, L Zhou, et al. The effect of almond consumption on elements of endurance exercise performance in trained athletes. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2014;11:18.
  11. SK Powers, MJ Jackson. Exercise-induced oxidative stress: cellular mechanisms and impact on muscle force production. Physiol Rev. 2008;88(4):1243-1276.
  12. MB Reid. Free radicals and muscle fatigue: Of ROS, canaries, and the IOC. Free Radic Biol Med. 2008;44(2):169-179.
  13. DO Kennedy. B Vitamins and the Brain: Mechanisms, Dose and Efficacy--A Review. Nutrients. 2016;8(2):68. Published 2016 Jan 27.
  14. HY Chen, FC Cheng, HC Pan, JC Hsu, MF Wang. Magnesium enhances exercise performance via increasing glucose availability in the blood, muscle, and brain during exercise. PLoS One. 2014;9(1):e85486.
  15. JH de Baaij, JG Hoenderop, RJ Bindels. Magnesium in man: implications for health and disease. Physiol Rev. 2015;95(1):1-46.
  16. RL Stearns, H Emmanuel, JS Volek, DJ Casa. Effects of ingesting protein in combination with carbohydrate during exercise on endurance performance: a systematic review with meta-analysis. J Strength Cond Res. 2010;24(8):2192-2202.