Can't I Just Google This Stuff?

Laura Kistemaker - 3:27 marathoner, mum of two boys, and RHSN athlete

Why Endurance Nutrition Needs More Than Search Results

The internet is overflowing with blogs, social media posts, YouTube videos, brand ambassadors, and well-meaning strangers offering opinions about what you should eat, when you should eat it, and which foods are “best” for performance.  For general health, some of it is harmless enough. But endurance nutrition isn’t for the general population. 

What you find online may be generic at best, contradictory at worst, and in some cases genuinely harmful when applied to an athlete. This is why athletes who rely on Google often end up confused, underfuelled, or following advice that simply doesn’t work for their body.

At Real Health Sports Nutrition, I’m a proud member of the Sports Nutrition Association that regulates our industry to ensure a minimum standard of education, ethics, and professional practice. It means you can trust that the information I provide is grounded in science and is evidence-based — not trends.

Research-based vs. Evidence-based

Much of what you find online isn’t tailored to the realities of endurance sport. A lot of athletes end up restricting carbohydrates or fasting because they’ve read that it improves fat oxidation, even though anything above light aerobic work relies heavily on glucose and the health risks associated with fasted training far outweigh the potential small benefits of being able to oxidise fat a bit more efficiently. Others use whole foods for training and racing where faster-absorbing carbohydrates would have worked far better. Many more copy elite athletes like Kilian Jornet without considering differences in physiology, training history, altitude adaptation, and genetics.

It’s also really easy to find a research paper to back up what you want to hear, and much of what is online is what I call “research-based” rather than “evidence-based”.  They’re not the same thing - if it’s evidence-based, it means that there is sufficient evidence that it actually works and can be relied on.  Hearing influencers and so-called experts talk in absolutes is a huge red flag, and should be your first indication that they’re on the take.  

Above all, online advice rarely considers the specifics of how your body produces energy at different intensities, and that’s where it really starts to fall apart.

Generic advice simply cannot address this complexity because it overlooks differences in sweat rates, sodium losses, gut emptying speeds, recovery needs, energy expenditure, and personal preferences. Two athletes doing the same

session can have completely different carbohydrate and hydration requirements. 

When you fuel without understanding these nuances, your training becomes inconsistent, your energy unpredictable, and your recovery slower than it needs to be.

Why Endurance Nutrition Must Be Personalised

Proper fuelling supports every system involved in endurance sport — metabolic, muscular, neurological, hormonal, and gastrointestinal. 

An individualised approach considers your training cycle, weekly load, session type, sweat rate, sodium loss, taste preferences, past gut issues, and performance goals. It recognises that an easy 40-minute jog does not require the same approach as a 90-minute threshold session, just as a build phase requires different nutrition from a recovery week.

Google can provide information, but it can’t interpret your needs, your responses, or your physiology. It can’t adjust for the fact that you hate sweet gels or that you lose a lot of sodium in sweat. It can’t tell you whether your low energy availability is affecting your performance, or whether you’re fuelling enough to support recovery.

Applying Evidence-Based Sports Science in Real Life

Understanding the science behind fuelling doesn’t need to be complicated. Once athletes learn how to match their carbohydrate intake to the demands of each session, how fuelling windows work before and after exercise, and how to adjust nutrition as training volume changes, everything becomes far more predictable.

When you match fuel to intensity — using foods and products that your gut tolerates and your palate accepts — you support glycogen availability, protect performance, and reduce the risk of both underfuelling and overthinking. When you understand how recovery nutrition works, you bounce back faster for the next day. And when you learn to periodise your nutrition alongside your training cycle, you stop guessing and start making deliberate choices that support adaptation.

This is why a structured, evidence-based approach matters. It allows you to build a system that works with your physiology instead of working against it.

Endurance-based nutrition is not a list of recipes or a collection of trendy hacks found online. It is a personalised, science-informed system that supports your training from the inside out. When you move beyond generic advice and begin to understand how energy systems respond to different intensities, how timing influences performance, and how your unique preferences and physiology shape your fuelling needs, you gain clarity.

Training becomes more consistent. Your energy stabilises. Recovery becomes faster. And the frustration that comes from random nutrition begins to disappear.

Your nutrition should be as intentional as your training plan. When it is grounded in evidence rather than algorithms, you give your body the support it needs to perform for the long-term as well as the short-term.