Ever wonder if carb loading is right for you? Well you've come to the right place! In this post you'll find all my nutrition tips and tricks for carb loading, as well as when and why you should consider carbohydrate loading.
What is carbohydrate loading
Carbohydrate loading is a fueling strategy that optimizes your energy stores before an endurance event. Our body stores energy from carbs in the form of glycogen. By carb loading, you can maximize these energy stores to help reduce fatigue and improve performance of an endurance event.
The proper way to carb load is to consume 8-12g of carbs per kg body weight, for 1-2 days leading up to your endurance race. I know, that's a mouthful. Dealing with the numbers behind the scenes is exactly what I can help with if we work together!
Should I be carb loading before a race?
Carb loading before a race can absolutely benefit your performance. Just like all other aspects of training, carb loading can't ensure the perfect race, but it can certainly increase your chances of meeting your goals!
Research has shown carb loading best benefits endurance activities lasting over 90 minutes. While it's a great idea to increase carb intake during any intense training block, full blown carb loading has not been shown to make a significant impact on performance of events shorter than 90 minutes.
Tips + tricks of carb loading
It's important to keep in mind that the goal of carb loading is to feel your absolute best on race day. If carb loading becomes so excessive that you feel sick from overeating, it will defeat the whole point!
While the evidence based recommendations are to consume 8-12g of carbs per kg body weight, meeting these exact numbers may not be necessary for recreational athletes. Focusing on these numbers may also not be best if you have an ED/DE history. All this to say, you can absolutely carb load without counting carbs or meeting the exact numbers above. Here's how:
make sure at least half of your plate is carbs at every meal (though still include all 3 macronutrients!)
prioritize carbs at snack time; 3+ carb-focused snacks per day will help get you to your carb loading goals
use liquid carbs to your advantage! juices, sports drinks, and smoothies can help you increase your carb intake without increasing the bulk of food you consume
A note for female athletes
The majority of sports nutrition research we have to date has been done with male subjects, then applied to women, simply viewing them as smaller men. The main problem with this is men have a 24 hour hormonal cycle, while women have a ~28 day hormonal cycle. This difference, marked by fluctuation of hormones, can potentially have an impact on women's nutrition needs.
While research is limited, there has been some results showing that carb loading can have a more significant impact on performance during the follicular phase (first half of the cycle), than during the luteal phase (second half of the cycle).
All this to say that, (1) we need more research on the unique needs of female athletes and (2) listening to your body and how it feels throughout your cycle is the best tool you can use as a female athlete.
Sports nutrition recommendations, while based on scientific research, are meant to make you feel your best during performance. If a strategy such as carb loading doesn't feel great to you, or maybe feels different during a certain time of your menstrual cycle, then by all means you can skip it and do what feels best. All endurance athletes should prioritize carbohydrates throughout their training, carb loading or not.
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