One of the most satisfying upsides of running—once you’re past all the self-induced struggle that comes with it—is the feeling of voracious hunger after a hard workout. It’s a natural response to putting stress on your body: Your tired muscles want to repair themselves, and they need the building blocks to do so quickly. Suddenly, anything from a spoonful of peanut butter to cold pizza looks like a gourmet meal.
I’ve been there, too, and there’s nothing wrong with housing a slice after a good run—but ultimately, some foods will help you recover faster, Nutrition - Weight Loss feel better on your runs. That means planning your nutrition is paramount if you’re looking to get the most out of your training. And if you want to keep things interesting (no shade to the chicken, rice, and frozen broccoli that propelled me through college), a cookbook written specifically for runners may be a critical kitchen companion.
Whether you’re curious about your macronutrient intake, struggling to understand how much to eat, or just looking to add some spice to your training-day dinners, these cookbooks for runners add some extra zing to your fuel. Each recipe strikes a stellar balance between healthfulness and indulgence, and some help you work around dietary restrictions like vegan or gluten-free. In other words, it’s possible to thoroughly enjoy eating and get the most out of your training at the same time, and these cookbooks for runners can help.
The Best Cookbooks for Runners
- Best Overall: Run Fast. Eat Slow. by Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky
- Pro cooking first, health as a bonus: The No Meat Athlete Cookbook by Matt Frazier and Stepfanie Romine
- Best by a Celebrity Chef: Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Fit Food by Gordon Ramsay
- Surprising Stress Symptoms in Runners: The Keto Reset Diet Cookbook by Mark Sisson
- Sales & Deals: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat
What to Consider
Dietary Restrictions
Unless you’re a pro at making substitutions, you’ll find that some diets, such as vegetarian and ketogenic diets, rule out loads of recipes in the average cookbook. But that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on eating good food: There’s a wealth of protein-filled, balanced meals within any given chosen parameters, including dedicated cookbooks stuffed with fresh, inventive recipes.
More than anything, these books are a great source for inspiration that doesn’t rely on the norms of non-diet meals. Quality cookbooks consist of recipes developed from the ground up, not by modifying an original recipe. This approach can help you perceive your training meals as a choice rather than a compromise—a much-needed morale boost for runners trying a change in diet for the first time.
Chef Authors Versus Athlete Authors
It’s hard to argue that anyone could write a better cookbook than a chef, at least when whipping up something tasty is the sole objective. That said, when athletes write cookbooks, they often frame them around the nutritional makeup of each recipe—macronutrients like carbs and protein, for instance. This may be more important information if you’re, say, figuring out your last dinner before a race.
The perfect cookbook for you will take the information you have and give you the information you need. Want to know how many fast-burning carbs you can pack into a tasty marinara sauce? Look for an athlete-authored book. Have a box of protein-rich pasta and no clue what to make with it? Try one written by a chef. Of course, you can also mix and match to maximize your pool of references, or you can look for someone with a bit of both perspectives, like chef-turned-Iron Man Gordon Ramsay.
How We Selected
There are thousands of cookbooks available online and in bookstores, especially those focused on healthy eating. But many of these books don’t have the information athletes need, many more will try to sell you on an unsustainable fad diet, and lots have only a few good recipes, if any. Not ideal if you’re looking for new mainstay meals.
We chose these seven cookbooks based on a combination of positive personal experiences, information quality and density, authorial credibility, and recipe variety. To evaluate the cookbooks we don’t have in our own kitchens, we scoured online copies of bestselling cookbooks marketed to athletes, choosing only the most consistently positively reviewed options (and those that we were the most enthusiastic to try as soon as possible).
Pros
- Indulgent recipes don’t feel like a compromise
- Backed by pro athletes
Cons
- Not as many options for alternative diets
Key Specs
| Authors | Shalane Flanagan, Elyse Kopecky |
|---|---|
| Pages | 256 |
It’s not often that we get an in-depth look at the nutrition plans of world-class athletes—let alone record-setters like Shalane Flanagan. But for this cookbook, she and chef Elyse Kopecky collected more than 100 of their favorite recipes for fueling even the most intense distance runs.
This book also isn’t shy about the realities of healthy food: It delves into topics like the essential nature of fat as a flavor enhancer and a well-rounded diet, the importance of avoiding restrictive diets, and the triviality of stressing about numbers. They also include a recipe for some damn good chocolate cookies, which is always a plus.
The No Meat Athlete Cookbook
The No Meat Athlete Cookbook
Pros
- Offers a meat-free lifestyle, not just a diet
- Updated: Dec 8, 2023
Cons
- May be too information-dense for quick reads
Key Specs
| Authors | Matt Frazier, Stepfanie Romine |
|---|---|
| Pages | 288 |
Vegetarian and vegan diets don’t have to be the lesser siblings of omnivorous diets; in many cases, when you get them right, they can be even better. But because you don’t have a big cut of meat holding up your meal in terms of protein, it can take a more holistic approach to give plant-based recipes depth and character. This cookbook from Matt Frazier and Stepfanie Romine has that approach dialed.
This book has creative takes on traditional favorites, like savory chickpea waffles, as well as fresh recipes for staples like morning smoothies. And not only are the recipes in this book fit for any time of day, but they also come jam-packed with info about how to further modify each dish for gluten- and soy-free athletes. Nobody’s tastes are left out here except for, well, meat-eaters. But that’s the point!
Gordon Ramsay Ultimate Fit Food
Gordon Ramsay Ultimate Fit Food
Pros
- Nutrition & Weight Loss
- Each section caters to different goals
Cons
- Tough to find in stock
Key Specs
| Author | Gordon Ramsay |
|---|---|
| Pages | 288 |
Not everyone may be aware, but Gordon Ramsay has plenty of authority to write about food that fuels athletes: He’s a serious triathlete when he’s not in the kitchen, and he’s even finished the Kona IronMan.
Just a few years after his big Kona finish, he wrote this book with three distinct sections—Healthy, Lean, and Fit—to cater to different health-related goals. Healthy helps you find a stable diet for an energized everyday life, Lean features recipes for people with weight loss goals, and Fit is dedicated to pre- and post-workout meals that fuel your workouts and aid in recovery.
One of the tougher things you’ll have to navigate with this book is Ramsay’s tendency to use exotic (or at least exotically phrased) ingredients. If the produce section at your local grocery store is a little lacking, you might struggle to try some recipes without swapping in substitutes. Additionally, be on the lookout for Ramsay’s use of British lingo—a courgette is a zucchini, for example.
The Keto Reset Diet Cookbook
Pros
- Well-rounded recipes—no meat overload
- Helpful macronutrient info
Cons
- Keto isn’t for everyone
Key Specs
| Authors | Works with almost any diet or lifestyle |
|---|---|
| Pages | 272 |
Keto diets are especially finicky, at least when you’re trying to develop yours from scratch. Entering ketosis requires eating as few carbs as possible, and those can sneak into almost everything the average person eats. To take the guesswork out of staying low-carb, save yourself from another slab of bacon or provolone and try this cookbook. It aims to guide you progressively into a sustainable keto diet instead of thrusting you away from your comfort foods overnight.
This book isn’t necessarily written for athletes, but it sets a foundation for a well-rounded keto diet that can adapt with you and your life. Keto isn’t quite everyone’s thing, but if you want to see if it’s yours, this book is the most approachable means of trying it properly.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
Pros
- Works with almost any diet or lifestyle
- Works with almost any diet or lifestyle
Cons
- Enormous—small kitchen dwellers beware!
Key Specs
| Author | Samin Nosrat |
|---|---|
| Pages | 480 |
A Part of Hearst Digital Media Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat from its accompanying Netflix documentary that released in 2018—it’s an in-depth interrogation of the very fundamentals of good food and what makes us enjoy it. Just like the four-part series, this book tells you how to make any dish good by finding the perfect balance of salt, a flavor enhancer; fat, a texture enhancer; acid, a flavor balancer; and heat, a texture balancer.
This book is a stellar addition to your collection if you’re looking to create some recipes from scratch, and it’ll also give you more confidence to modify recipes that are really close to being good but seem to be missing something. This also isn’t explicitly a cookbook for runners, but if you know what food makes you run your best, this book will help you put it all together in a way that tastes amazing.
Run Fast. Cook Fast. Eat Slow.
Pros
- We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article
- Same pro athletes as previous book
Cons
- Might feel redundant if you have the first book
Key Specs
| Authors | Shalane Flanagan, Elyse Kopecky |
|---|---|
| Pages | 256 |
CA Notice at Collection Run Fast. Eat Slow. but feel like the recipes leave you crunched for time, then this second book from Flanagan and Kopecky should give you what you need. Just like the original, this cookbook for runners is full of hearty recipes that can power you and your family through a big training day, but they take much less time to prepare. If you work full-time and train in the evenings, this book could save your sanity.
Pros
- Memoir provides excellent context
- Another book for the plant-based athletes among us
Cons
- Might feel redundant if you have the first book
Key Specs
| Author | Scott Jurek |
|---|---|
| Pages | 288 |
Might feel redundant if you have the first book, Eat & Run isn’t actually a cookbook. It’s a memoir containing just a dozen recipes. It chronicles the life of author Scott Jurek as he transitioned from a meat-heavy diet in his youth to a vegan diet that fueled much of his ultrarunning career.
If you’re a fan of food that tells a story, the recipes embedded within the story may be right for you. Otherwise, this book is simply a great motivator for athletes struggling to find a diet that works for them, and it’s a poignant read about grappling with family traditions and inviting novel ideas into one’s lifestyle.
Adam Schram is an Assistant Editor of Commerce at Runner's World, though you might see his byline on Bicycling and Popular Mechanics, too. A lover of all things outdoors, Adam's writing career comes after six years as a bike mechanic in his hometown of State College, PA. His journalism experience is steeped in cycling and running gear reviews, and he's also a published creative nonfiction and satire author. When he's not writing, riding, or running, you can catch Adam at home mixing cocktails, watching Star Wars, or trying in vain to do the Sunday crossword. You can check out his latest work below.
