Carb loading is the process of maximising your glycogen stores in preparation for a long, endurance event — long being anything in excess of 90 minutes.
Research suggests that an average 70-kilo male athlete can only store a maximum of between 1,500 and 2,000 calories of carbs in the blood, liver and muscle at any one time so in order to give yourself the best chance of performing to your full potential it’s vitally important to have the ‘tank’ full.
A common mistake made by those who are about to run their first half or full marathon, complete their first 100-kilometre cycle race or triathlon is to consume all before them in the days leading up to the event. This will weigh you down and leave you feeling bloated and sluggish on the day of the event.
So the message is this; you do not need to cook and eat every ounce of pasta in the food aisle.
Advertisement
How to do it
Carb loading should be done in the three- to four-day period leading up to an event where you should aim to eat about 10-12 grams of carbs per kilo of body weight daily. So, if you’re a 70 kilo runner, that’s at least 700 grams of carbohydrates – on top of what you usually eat.
Scientists at the University of Western Australia found that this resulted in a 90% increase in glycogen storage.
A sample daily diet for an athlete carb loading is as follows;
Breakfast; Glass of orange juice, bowl of porridge with some chopped banana and flaked almonds.
Snack; A muffin, croissant or some toast, buttered with some cream cheese or jam. Wash down with an isotonic sports drink like powerade.
Lunch; Soup with two slices of bread, large bagel with as many fillings as you can fit and a natural yoghurt.
Snack; A smoothie is good for the mid-afternoon slump, packed with as much fruit as you can fit.
Dinner; Two pint glasses of pasta cooked with some parmesan cheese and tomato sauce. Some garlic bread – 3-4 pieces is fine. Wash it down with a diaoralyte and another 500ml isotonic drink. An electrolyte drink is better again.
Before bed; Two slices of toast, lathered with Nutella or peanut butter and another chopped banana or sliced avocado.
This daily diet is around 3,500 calories.
Who does it?
Sportsmen and women of all ages have carb loaded since the theory was first introduced in the 1960s. It is most beneficial for long-distance endurance athletes, cyclists, runners, ultra-marathon runners, cross-country skiers, rowers and mountain climbers.
How does your body work during the event?
Your body will process around 60grams of carbs every hour, which translates to around 250 calories. But you’ll most likely be burning more than that every hour – a good spinning class will see you burn 350 calories at least. So it is for this reason that your body ‘digs into’ the glycogen stores you’ve accumulated the last few days.
Is it dangerous?
More a consideration than a concern but carb loading will result in an increased body mass, depending on how much you actually eat. You put on this weight not just because you’re eating more, but because you’re doing less exercise. So that’s concern number one but number two is that this increased storage of glycogen means you need to store more water to help break it down and this leads to that bloated feeling.
For this reason, athletes have now turned towards getting their calorific intake from energy gels, bars and electrolyte drinks. These are all pretty much one thing, sugar but a 55g energy gel can have as much calories as four slices of bread.
Does it actually work?
Some athletes have run extraordinary times after a period of systematic, scheduled carb-loading. More have floundered and cramped and never felt worse, so it’s not a one-size-fits-all process. The bottom line is, it will only add a very small percentage to your overall performance. A good performance is the result of months and months of hard work and discipline, not the product of gorging on sugar. Place far more emphasis on the months before the event, and less the days before.
The amount of people ive seen who carb load incorrectly. You’ll ask them why they eat past 3 times per week and the answer is they have the gym the next day. You don’t need to eat that much for the gym. Its the reason some people have trouble losing the extra pounds
Yeah, and for maximum carb loading to work, for muscles to ‘absorb’ maximal amounts of carbs, don’t you need to be in a heavily carb depleted state.
Which means doing a very high intensity training session, pushing very hard, for quite a while to use up the carbs. Hard sessions… Well that hard anyway, can be quite unpleasant.
It’s all fun and games until you’re at the registration for a run and the shhtink of carb farts would bring a tear to a glass eye! Even worse when you’re running directly behind someone who’s basically sharting the entire way to the finish line!
Carb loading is bunk unless you are in a glycogen depleted state. If you are preparing for an event, and you are already at full glycogen saturation (which you should be the night before a race) all those extra carbs do is to go to storage. The body turns on de nove lipogenesis and stores the excess. You cannot ‘over-saturate’ muscles beyond the maximum amount of glycogen they are capable of storing. You cannot ‘maximise’ the amount.
All these anecdotal stories of athletes performing well after heavy carb dosing pre-event are just that anecdotal. They are correlation at best, not causation. Telling people to do it because it works is broscience. Can a professional news source not do better? The article could have been short: Carb Loading: What You Need to Know. Then just a single sentence: ‘There is no science to suggest that this can be done.’
Any time I’ve done a run there is always a huge queue outside the shatter in the race hq before the start. I can only assume this is the result of carb loading or else people are on the well timed laxatives. Why bother. I just eat as normal but make sure each meal is complete with a few extra small snacks. My idea of carb loading is an extra spoon of cooked rice or eating the extra few bits of pasta left in the pot but 2 pint glasses (surely couldn’t be dried pasta thats about 300g – 3 times more than you need for an already large bowl of pasta). What a load of coq.
If I go out for 3 hour cycle in to the Wicklow mountains , I’d have porridge before and bring a couple of bananas with me. For gym work its mostly protein you look for not carbs.
Right enough, when you finish up make sure you load up on a good balance of carbs and protein, your body will look to replenish the sugar stocks first. It’s not just protein.
I don’t know about determining when to pre-event carb load. But since starting to cycling to work (20 mile round trip) every day. I am basically constantly hungry. Do you think the work canteen will do me a dinner at 9:10am?
Two double-bogeys prove costly for McIlroy as Lowry finishes with important birdie
2 hrs ago
8
FreeAll Square
Late penalty save ensures first-leg draw for 10-man Rangers
4 hrs ago
2
Concussion
Former France star Chabal says he has 'no memories' of rugby career
12 hrs ago
27
Sign in or create a free account
To continue reading create a free account
Or sign into an existing account
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 164 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.Privacy Policy
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 111 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 146 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 116 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 85 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 85 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 39 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 35 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 136 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 61 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 76 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 84 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 37 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 47 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 27 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 93 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 100 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 73 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 55 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 91 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 69 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
Two pint glasses of pasta?! Jaysus
Seems a lot alright!
No way could you eat 2 pint glasses of spaghetti, you might manage rigatoni or penne!
Wusses.
Wis I could stop carb loading!!!!
No carbs in steak.
The amount of people ive seen who carb load incorrectly. You’ll ask them why they eat past 3 times per week and the answer is they have the gym the next day. You don’t need to eat that much for the gym. Its the reason some people have trouble losing the extra pounds
A lot of people seem to think that they can outrun a bad diet. One gym session will amount to about 3 slices of bread.
I don’t know why you are being downvoted. Technically you are right.
Yeah, and for maximum carb loading to work, for muscles to ‘absorb’ maximal amounts of carbs, don’t you need to be in a heavily carb depleted state.
Which means doing a very high intensity training session, pushing very hard, for quite a while to use up the carbs. Hard sessions… Well that hard anyway, can be quite unpleasant.
It’s all fun and games until you’re at the registration for a run and the shhtink of carb farts would bring a tear to a glass eye! Even worse when you’re running directly behind someone who’s basically sharting the entire way to the finish line!
You’re some ticket hahahahaha :)
Carb loading is bunk unless you are in a glycogen depleted state. If you are preparing for an event, and you are already at full glycogen saturation (which you should be the night before a race) all those extra carbs do is to go to storage. The body turns on de nove lipogenesis and stores the excess. You cannot ‘over-saturate’ muscles beyond the maximum amount of glycogen they are capable of storing. You cannot ‘maximise’ the amount.
[Here](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3165600) is a paper discussing the effect of over-consumption of carbs on body composition.
All these anecdotal stories of athletes performing well after heavy carb dosing pre-event are just that anecdotal. They are correlation at best, not causation. Telling people to do it because it works is broscience. Can a professional news source not do better? The article could have been short: Carb Loading: What You Need to Know. Then just a single sentence: ‘There is no science to suggest that this can be done.’
That’s complete nonsense Rob, “professional news source”?? You must be stoned! Everything else is perfectly sensible.
I wonder how many people have followed that daily diet and then shit the bed.
Any time I’ve done a run there is always a huge queue outside the shatter in the race hq before the start. I can only assume this is the result of carb loading or else people are on the well timed laxatives. Why bother. I just eat as normal but make sure each meal is complete with a few extra small snacks. My idea of carb loading is an extra spoon of cooked rice or eating the extra few bits of pasta left in the pot but 2 pint glasses (surely couldn’t be dried pasta thats about 300g – 3 times more than you need for an already large bowl of pasta). What a load of coq.
If I go out for 3 hour cycle in to the Wicklow mountains , I’d have porridge before and bring a couple of bananas with me. For gym work its mostly protein you look for not carbs.
Right enough, when you finish up make sure you load up on a good balance of carbs and protein, your body will look to replenish the sugar stocks first. It’s not just protein.
The words chemical shit storm spring to mind reading that diet plan.
I don’t know about determining when to pre-event carb load. But since starting to cycling to work (20 mile round trip) every day. I am basically constantly hungry. Do you think the work canteen will do me a dinner at 9:10am?