Prevention's 400-calorie fix: A weight-management tool for runners?

Runners are well-versed in the art of calorie burning. We know we burn roughly 100 calories per mile, and that we can get more bang for our calorie-burning buck by picking up the pace or heading for the hills. But we often struggle to balance post-run refueling and sports nutrition with weight management.

On Wednesday, the editor in chief of Prevention magazine will unveil the magazine's "400-calorie fix" on the Rachael Ray show. Regular Prevention readers know the magazine advocates eating four 400-calorie meals composed of produce, whole grains, lean protein and dairy, and monounsaturated fats throughout the day — basically, the foods runners should be eating, anyway.

This Examiner isn't thrilled that the magazine has chosen to market this as a "no-exercise" fix, especially since Prevention offers a stellar walking program and features legitimate strength-training moves on its pages each month. And a 1,600-calorie day may be woefully unsufficient when it comes to an endurance athlete's calorie needs (check out this Runner's World story offering tips on how to calculate how many calories you need to consume each day).

Still, runners can benefit from breaking up their daily calories into 400-calorie meals to avoid the dreaded "carbo-bloat" that can accompany a pre-race taper — or post-run hunger. Endurance athletes may want to add an extra 400-calorie meal or two, and all runners can supplement Prevention's 400-calorie fix with these other runner-friendly nutrition resources:

Prevention's general nutrition tips are smart and helpful.

Rodale's recipe-finder provides a portal to both Runner's World and Prevention's virtual recipe boxes.

Runner's World Nutrition and Weight Loss page offers everything from nutrition tips to calorie-torching interval workouts.

Deena Kastor's recipes don't promise to be lower than 400 calories per serving, but are both chock-full of nutrients and delicious.

Registered dietitian Rebecca Scritchfield, part-time faculty in Sports Nutrition at George Washington University, provides great recipes and sports-nutrition tips on her Web site.