Author: sFizer

One of the most neglected aspects of recovery is the role of carbohydrates. Regardless of sport, almost all of my athletes reach for a protein shake after their workouts. However, refilling carbs stores is just as important as providing protein to maximise recovery.

Most athletes know that you need plenty of protein for your body to build new muscle, so that is their recovery focus. However, you can increase your gains if you pair that protein with some carbohydrates. First, the insulin spike caused by the carbohydrates tells your muscles to absorb both the protein and carbs from your bloodstream and into your muscles much faster. This accelerates your recovery.

Second, providing the building blocks of new muscle isn’t enough. Your body needs enough energy to actually do the work – and carbs provide a quick, easy source of energy. Whether you are a strength athlete looking to gain muscle or an endurance athlete trying to increase stamina, you will better adapt to your training if you body has enough energy in the hours after exercise.

Another reason to focus on carbohydrates for recovery is to perform well in your next training session. Most athletes get better results when they are able to train hard, recover, and go again the next day. As discussed previously (see Carbohydrates for Exercise: Before) starting your next workout with full muscle glycogen stores is key for performance. By consuming carbohydrates as soon as possible after exercise, you ensure a great next session.

The good news is that, if you have 24 hours between exercise bouts, your body will refill your glycogen stores naturally from your normal diet. Assuming your diet has enough carbs in it (See Macronutrients: Carbohydrates), no special strategy is needed. Particularly in the first 3-4 hours after a tough session, your muscles act like carbohydrate sponges.

However, when there is less than 24 hours between exercise bouts, carbohydrates stores are the limiting factor in performance. The shorter the gap between workouts, the more you need to focus on getting the carbs in. For example, if the gap between workouts is 4 hours or less, you’ll want at least 1g/Kg of bodyweight of carbs per hour. This can be a mix of simple and complex carbs, with some protein and fibre, but lower in fat (to speed digestion).

Remember, it is only when we give our bodies adequate rest and the right nutrition that we get fitter!

 

REFERENCES

Alghannam, A. F., Gonzalez, J. T., Betts, J.A. 2018. Restoration of Muscle Glycogen and Functional Capacity: Role of Post-Exercise Carbohydrate and Protein Co-Ingestion. Nutrients. 2018 Feb 23;10(2):253. doi: 10.3390/nu10020253.

Kerksick et al. 2017. International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Nutrient Timing. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2017; 14: 33. doi: 10.1186/s12970-017-0189-4

Thomas, D.T., Erdman, K. and Burke, L. 2016. Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine: Nutrition and Athletic Performance. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2017 Jan;117(1):146. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2016.11.008.

Vitale, K. and Getzin, A. 2019. Nutrition and Supplement Update for the Endurance Athlete: Review and Recommendations. Nutrients. 2019 Jun; 11(6): 1289. doi: 10.3390/nu11061289

Sport is all about performing well on competition day. No matter how well training goes, if you can’t produce the goods during an important race or match, you will not succeed. And part of being able to perform well repeatedly on competition day is getting your nutrition right.

As discussed previously, our bodies store enough carbohydrates to last for about 60-90 minutes of moderate exercise. Almost all exercise will use up the body’s carbohydrate stores, it’s just a question of how fast. Longer and higher intensity workouts will deplete those stores faster than shorter, lower intensity workouts.

If you have 24 hours between exercise bouts, your body will refill your glycogen stores naturally from your normal diet (assuming your diet has enough carbs in it – See Macronutrients: Carbohydrates). No special loading strategy is needed.

However, when there is less than 24 hours between exercise bouts, carbohydrates stores are the limiting factor in performance. In training, this may not matter much. For example, if you do a high intensity, skill-based workout in the morning, this will deplete your glycogen stores. But if the second workout is an easy fat burning running or cycling session in the afternoon, you may not need or want full glycogen stores.

However, if that second workout is also high intensity, then you absolutely need to refill those glycogen stores as fast as possible. This is especially true in a competition situation, where you may have repeated bouts of high performance exercise over the course of a day or weekend. For example, in sports like swimming or athletics, there might be heats, followed by quarter or semi-finals, followed by a final – all on the same day.

What you can eat between races is determined by how much time you have to digest. Most tummy troubles during exercise are caused by having too much food in the stomach. The shorter the time between sessions, the more you need to stick to easy to digest simple carbs with limited protein, fat, and fibre.

Time between exercise bouts	Carb strategy	Examples
Less than an hour	Try to have at least 30g of carbs in the form of simple sugars.   Limit protein, fat, and fibre.	Sports drinks, juice/smoothies, energy gels, banana, grapes, even jelly sweets.
One to two hours	Try to have at least 1g/Kg of bodyweight of carbs, mostly simple sugars.   Small amount of protein and fibre.	Fruit, granola bars, low fat fruit yoghurt, white bread jam sandwich, simple cereal and milk (rice crispies, cornflakes, etc.)
Over 2 hours	At least 1g/Kg of bodyweight of carbs per hour, mix of simple and complex crabs.   Some protein and fibre, but still low fat.	Overnight oats or porridge, sandwich with a couple slices of turkey or ham (no cheese), pasta salad, etc.   All served with a side of juice or sports drink and other high carb snacks.

As a performance nutritionist, some of my biggest wins come when I improve an athletes’ nutrition on competition day. I often find that athletes are not consuming the right carbs, at the right times, in the right quantities, to maximise performance. Once we fix that, they go on to produce their best performances when it counts.

 

REFERENCES

Kerksick et al. 2017. International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Nutrient Timing. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2017; 14: 33. doi: 10.1186/s12970-017-0189-4

Thomas, D.T., Erdman, K. and Burke, L. 2016. Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine: Nutrition and Athletic Performance. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2017 Jan;117(1):146. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2016.11.008.

Vitale, K. and Getzin, A. 2019. Nutrition and Supplement Update for the Endurance Athlete: Review and Recommendations. Nutrients. 2019 Jun; 11(6): 1289. doi: 10.3390/nu11061289

Carbohydrates are our bodies’ preferred energy source, especially when exercising. Running out of carbs usually results in a dramatic drop in performance. However, you can prevent that by taking on more carbohydrates during longer exercise sessions.

Our bodies store enough carbohydrates to last for 60 to 90 minutes of moderate exercise. You do not need to take on extra carbohydrates for sessions lasting less than an hour! However, for sessions longer than that, you should consider topping up.

Exercise duration	Type and Intensity	Carb strategy
Less than an hour	Skill, strength, or easy endurance training (cycling, running, etc.)	None (stick to water)
	Very intense longer interval session (i.e. 45 min of HIIT)	May want to have 30g carbs per hour.
One to two hours	Skill or strength training with frequent rest periods	May want to have 30g carbs per hour.
	Endurance or team sports, whether continuous or interval	30-60g carbs per hour, starting 30 min into the session.
Over 2 hours	Skill or strength training with frequent rest periods	30-60g carbs per hour, starting 30 min into the session.
	Endurance or team sports, whether continuous or interval	Potentially 60-90g carbs per hour, from both glucose and fructose.

For example, if I’m doing an easy two hour long run, I might have an energy gel with 20g of carbs every 30 minutes (40g carbs per hour). On the other hand, if I am doing a longer race, I might have a gel with both glucose and fructose every 20 minutes, so I’m getting 60g of carbs per hour.

During exercise, stick to simple sugars which are easy to digest. This can be in the form of sports drinks, energy gels, high carbohydrate energy bars, fruit (such as bananas or raisins) or even jelly sweets. Complex carbohydrates (oats, wholemeal bread, etc.) have too much protein and fibre, and are likely to cause stomach upset. Likewise, sweets high in fat (like chocolate) are also harder to digest when exercising.

Despite all the recent hype about fasted training and teaching our bodies to use fats for fuel, carbs are still king for exercise performance. Carbohydrates are simply broken down into usable energy much faster than fats (even if you are fat adapted). So if you want to perform at your best, maintain a steady supply of carbs during exercise.

 

REFERENCES

Kerksick et al. 2017. International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Nutrient Timing. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2017; 14: 33. doi: 10.1186/s12970-017-0189-4

Thomas, D.T., Erdman, K. and Burke, L. 2016. Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine: Nutrition and Athletic Performance. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2017 Jan;117(1):146. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2016.11.008.

Vitale, K. and Getzin, A. 2019. Nutrition and Supplement Update for the Endurance Athlete: Review and Recommendations. Nutrients. 2019 Jun; 11(6): 1289. doi: 10.3390/nu11061289

Getting the right carbohydrates at the right time can make or break any athlete. It doesn’t matter if you are a recreational cyclist looking to lose weight, a dedicated gym goer looking to gain muscle mass, or an elite footballer looking for peak performance. Fundamentally, having enough energy to get the best out of your workouts is key, whatever your goals.

In most cases, you want to start your workout with a good supply of energy. Fasted training, where you train on an empty stomach before breakfast, has become very popular recently. And it is true that this encourages your body to use fats as fuel during the workout. But this only leads to weight loss if you are in a calorie deficit over the whole day. And training on an empty stomach makes exercise feel much harder. Training on empty usually leads to a lower quality workout – you can’t lift as much weight or run for as long.

Carbohydrates are our bodies’ preferred energy source, especially when exercising. Exactly how many carbs you need depends on the type of workout. For most sessions a pre-workout meal with 0.5 to 1.0g/Kg of carbs is the right amount of fuel. For example, if I weigh 65Kg and I am doing an easy run or standard strength training session, that’s 33 to 65g of carbs in my pre-workout meal/snack. If you have a much longer or harder session planned, such as a long run or a full football match, then you need 1.0 to 1.5g/Kg of carbs beforehand.

Ideally you would have this meal 2-3 hours before your training session. This gives you enough time to digest, but ensures the energy is still there when you need it. The closer you are to your session, the more you need to rely on smaller snacks which are low in protein, fat, and fibre. This is especially true if you often get an upset stomach while training.

What you eat depends on how close you are to your session. Basically, if it’s 3 hours before, you can have a normal meal with complex carbohydrates, protein, and fats. If it’s two hours before, go easier on the protein and fats. Think porridge or wholegrain cereal with milk. If it’s less than an hour until you start exercising, then you want to stick to simpler carbs which are low in protein, fat, and fibre. If you are running from work/school straight to training and can only eat right before, your best bet is straight simple sugars, such as a banana or a bottle of sports drink.

For athletes, the key to success is consistent, quality workouts. For most people, a good supply of carbs before workouts ensures they can train hard, recover, and go again the next day.

 

REFERENCES

Kerksick et al. 2017. International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Nutrient Timing. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2017; 14: 33. doi: 10.1186/s12970-017-0189-4

Thomas, D.T., Erdman, K. and Burke, L. 2016. Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine: Nutrition and Athletic Performance. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2017 Jan;117(1):146. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2016.11.008.

Vitale, K. and Getzin, A. 2019. Nutrition and Supplement Update for the Endurance Athlete: Review and Recommendations. Nutrients. 2019 Jun; 11(6): 1289. doi: 10.3390/nu11061289

 

One of the most common issues I see as sports nutritionist is athletes not eating enough. Strangely, it doesn’t seem to matter if they are trying to lose, gain or maintain their weight. And more often than not, it is completely inadvertent. Training increases but the athlete keeps eating the same amount as before. Or they follow the recommended portion sizes on packaging, which are for a 2000 kcal diet – when they are burning over 3000 kcal per day!

Not eating enough can lead to a syndrome known as Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) (previously known as the Female Athlete Triad). Symptoms include:

• Irregular or missed periods in women and low testosterone in men
• Decreased adaptation to training (you don’t progress) and decreased performance in competition, despite training harder than ever
• Low mood and fatigue, despite getting enough sleep
• Frequent injuries, particularly bone injuries like stress fractures
• Frequent illnesses like colds and flu
• Poor body composition – you can’t gain muscle mass or lose body fat

The second item on the list was of particular concern to me. My goals this year are all about performing well in the marathon – not losing body fat or looking a particular way. To set a new marathon PB, I needed to hit all my training targets. That meant I needed to eat enough to go hard in training, recover, and go hard again the next day. As my mileage and hours of training increased, so did the number of extra calories I had to consume. And it quickly became apparent just why so many of my athletes struggle to eat enough! Turns out, it can be hard to eat more than 3000kcal per day while sticking to healthy foods.

It was tempting to just add more treats to my diet. After all, junk foods – like cake or chips – taste so good because they are loaded with fat, salt and simple carbs (sugar, white flour, etc). This ramps up the calorie count. And I did sometimes have more cake or ice cream than I normally would. Problem is, these foods lack the protein, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that speed up recovery. So you get the calories, but not much else in the way of nutrition.

Long run days, where I would burn over 1000 extra calories, were a particular challenge. After a bit of trial and error, I did find some meals that were both nutrient and calorie dense. For example, my typical breakfast before a long run is porridge made with gluten free oats, skim milk, a small chopped apple, ground flaxseed, raisins, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Together with a large mug of tea with milk and sugar, that’s over 700Kcal and over 100g of carbs. And that fuel is a mix of both complex carbohydrates (oats), simple sugars (in the fruit) and healthy fats (from the seeds).

In the end, I used a variety of techniques to increase my calorie intake without resorting to a load of fat laden junk food. I increased the portion sizes of my usual healthy foods, which took some getting used to. In particularly, I needed enough complex carbohydrates to fuel training, like oats, sweet potatoes, quinoa, pasta, etc. If I had a particularly heavy training session, I would have a couple different carbohydrate sources in the same meal, such as butternut squash in a risotto, or a curry with both rice and naan bread. I also added more healthy fats to my diet, mostly from nuts, seeds and oily fish. And I did enjoy some higher calorie, higher fat foods like cheese (high in calcium and protein) and liver pate (high in iron, which is often low in runners).

In August I went for a second round of physiology testing, and it was all good news. My VO2 max had gone up by 6%, my lactate thresholds had shifted to higher speeds, and I was using more fats as fuel. Not to mention the new half marathon PB I also had in August. Eating enough to fuel proper hard training works!

Part of marathon preparation is doing some shorter races in the lead up to the big day. Shorter races can be a good gauge of how your training is progressing – many people set new personal best times at shorter distances when training for a marathon. Shorter events also give you the chance to practice all your routines around racing – training the week before, your clothing choices, pacing during the race, and of course, your nutrition.

I had looked to do at least one 10K and a half marathon before my full marathon in October, but those races were cancelled. So, with the help of my husband, I did a couple of faux races. This involved getting up bright and early, going through my pre-race routines (same breakfast, warm up, etc.), driving to a park 20 minutes away (so I was less familiar with the route), and starting at exactly 9am. For the half marathon I even did a full, three day, carb loading diet – and boy, was that an eye opener!

Carbohydrates are stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen. When we exercise, that glycogen is broken down for energy. The higher the intensity of the exercise, the faster you burn through your glycogen stores. In training, having slightly depleted glycogen stores is normal, and can even encourage the body to use fats as fuel (see the previous post on Using Fats as Fuel). However, in a race situation, you want all the carbs you can get to maximise performance.

Carb loading is when an athlete eats a lot of carbohydrates in the days before a race, to maximise glycogen stores. Generally speaking, you only need to do this if the race will last more than 90 minutes. There are various ways to carb load, but recent research has shown that eating at least 6g/Kg of carbohydrate, and up to 12g/Kg, in the 2-3 days leading up to the race is enough to fully top up glycogen stores¹. Especially as most people are resting or training very lightly in the days leading up to their race.

This is well known and I have dispensed this advice to my athletes for years. What I didn’t realise is just how much carbohydrate that is, and how hard it is to eat that much! Especially if you are trying to keep the calorie count within reason. For example, I weigh 62 Kg so 6g/Kg is 372g of carbohydrate, so that’s my minimum target. The day before my half marathon I ate:

Breakfast: Two boiled eggs with two gluten free crumpets topped with butter and jam, a 200ml glass of pineapple juice, and a large mug of tea with milk and sugar.

Morning Snack: A mug of tea with milk and sugar and two small, gluten-free custard creams.

Lunch: Small grilled mackerel fillet with plenty of rice, steamed broccoli and carrots. Watermelon for dessert followed by a mug of tea with milk and sugar and two small, gluten-free custard creams.

Afternoon Snack: Three slices of toasted gluten free bread topped with reduced fat Brussels pate and caramelised red onion chutney, with 36g of dried apricots on the side. Two satsumas (small oranges) shortly afterwards.

Dinner: Free from spaghetti with homemade tomato sauce and a beef and lentil meatball, topped with a small amount of Parmesan cheese. Frozen yoghurt ice lolly.

In total that was 2660 kcal – at least 500kcal more than I would normally eat on a rest day. Of that, 411g was carbohydrates, including 146g of sugar – well above the recommended. That’s only 6.6g/Kg of carbs and I have to say I felt stuffed! I can’t imagine eating the amount of food an 80 Kg runner would have to take in to get above 7 or 8g/Kg of carbs. Even though, as a nutritionist, I have created menu plans that do exactly that!

You’ll notice my intake of processed foods was well above normal – I am not in the habit of having crumpets, bread and biscuits all in the same day! Part of that was trying to avoid too much fibre. We get most of our fibre from carbohydrates (wholegrains, vegetables, etc.), so carb loading can mean a big increase in fibre. Normally a high fibre diet is good, but too much fibre too close to a race can lead to gasto distress during the race. So many athletes switch to lower fibre, “white” carbs when carb loading. Hence my breakfast of crumpets rather than the usual porridge.

There was also 88g of protein (1.4g/Kg) and 73g was fats. This is a perfectly healthy amount of both but probably too much when carb loading. At the time I chose mackerel because it’s an oily fish high in Omega 3 fatty acids, which reduce inflammation and help with recovery. And I had pate on my toast because it’s high in iron (often low in runners) and vitamin A. However, both are high in fat and in hindsight, I’m not sure I need. I could have kept the calorie count down by choosing lower fat white fish and a lower fat, high carb toast topping (like honey or jam).

Is carb loading worth it? Yes! I had a really good half marathon, setting a new PB. But if I’ve learned anything, it’s that carb loading is more complicated than even I thought (as demonstrated by the length of this post)!

 

References

1. Vitale, K. and Getzin, A. 2019. Nutrition and Supplement Update for the Endurance Athlete: Review and Recommendations. Nutrients. 2019 Jun; 11(6): 1289. doi: 10.3390/nu11061289