How To Carb Load Like The Elites Do

Now you've done all the hard work you've trained for weeks and months nonstop to get to your race week well prepared physically but now you're faced with a new set of challenges. You must prepare yourself both mentally and physically for your race to come. From a nutrition perspective you need to make sure you nail your nutrition strategies in race week to maximize your returns from all your hard work in training to make sure you can perform at your peak on race day.

In this blog post today I'm going to share with you exactly how you can carbohydrate load like the elite professionals do. I'm going to show you how I do it with my athletes in my elite performance coaching program that has been battlefield tested season after season with hundreds of athletes.

By the end of this blog you will;

1. Know exactly how to set yourself up nutritionally to give yourself the best possible chance of performing at your peak.
2. Know how eliminate the possibility of any debilitating GI issues (vomiting nausea diarrhea Constipation heartburn bloating) from occurring on race day, typically seen when carb loading goes wrong.
3. Be able to use the exact methods of carbohydrate loading that elite athletes use during race week.

If you'd like to learn more about how to fuel your training leading up to race week please follow the links down below. Where I walk you through how you can feel your high intensity short duration training and your long low intensity duration training optimally to maximize your returns form all you hard work

How to Fuel High Intensity training

Read More

How to fuel long duration low intensity training

Read More

So what is Carbohydrate loading ?

Simply put carbohydrate loading is a dietary strategy where you the athlete consume excessive amounts of carbohydrates in the days or day leading up to your race or event. The end goal here is to replenish your glycogen stores within your muscles and liver that typically get depleted during hard intensive training blocks leading up to race week. Basically, we want high glycogen (the fuel for energy) concentrations within your skeletal muscles.

 So how is this done, well typically you would eat high amounts of carbohydrates during race week /days leading up to your race, more than what your body would need on that given rest day.

(Side note; as you are entering into race week you should be also entering into a taper, a taper is when exercise and intensity and volume decrease leading up to your race to allow body to relax reset and be as fresh as possible for your event).

The end goal here being the excessive amounts of carbohydrates get broken down and stored as glycogen in your skeletal muscles and in your liver making sure they are fully topped up and no longer in a depleted state. With these newly topped up glycogen stores in your skeletal muscles allows you to hit that start line on race day with a full tank of energy helping you to perform at your peak and preventing you from hitting the wall or bonking during the race.

Carb Loading the right way

 Gone are the days with the old-fashioned carb loading model, where you would typically eat as much carbs as you can the day before or the night before a big race. Stuffing yourself full of pasta. However, this model is outdated, and we now use what's called a carbohydrate supercompensation model.

This new carbohydrate loading model is comprised of a steady increase day by day of your carbohydrate intake. As you progress through your taper (exercise intensity & volume decrease) you will gradually increase your carb intake. Typically, we'll use this model over a 3 or 4 day period leading up to the day of the race. How this model works is that the first day there's a gradual increase in carbohydrate intake compared to that of a normal day (i.e. 2 extra portions of carbs) the 2nd day we increase the carb intake up even more (i.e. 4 extra portions of carbohydrate) the 3rd day we step up the intake again (i.e. 6 extra portions of carbohydrate)

This gradual increase in carbohydrate intake compared to the traditional model of eating loads of carbohydrates the day before allows the body to digest breakdown the carbohydrates into glucose and get the glucose into the liver and the skeletal muscles (ready to be used when racing) in a more optimal way (the body needs time to get the carbs into the muscles) the end goal here is to have high glycogen concentrations, this also helps to avoid GI issues (nausea/vomiting/heartburn/diarrhea/constipation/bloating) that can occur when overeating carbohydrate foods typically seen with the classical model of eating as much as you can today before. Another point to note with GI issues that can occur with the traditional carb loading model is that as you start loading three to four days out from your race if you do experience any GI issues you can stop and give the body time to recover and repair before your race unlike the traditional model of the day before.

You might be saying to yourself right now how am I going to eat all this extra carbohydrate. Thrust me I know where you're coming from it can be quite a challenge. I know trying to get six extra portions of carbohydrates in the day before a race can be quite challenging that's why with the athletes I work with I recommend that they use the carbohydrate supplements that they're going to compete with i.e. the gels, carb blocks or drinks you're going to use on race day and use them as part of your extra carbohydrate portions throughout the 3 or 4 day carb loading window.

There are two benefits to doing this;

1. first up it's an easy way to get extra carbohydrates in without causing any potential GI distress or that feeling of fullness and bloating,
2. secondly, we're also allowing the body to assimilate and get used to consuming digesting and transporting those carbohydrate supplements around the body before you use them on race day.

 The more exposure we can give the body to the carbohydrate supplements you are going to use the better chance you have at not experiencing any GI issues such as bloating/nausea/cramping/diarrhea/constipation or vomiting.

So how can you pull off this supercompensation carbohydrate loading protocol.

First, I recommend eating your typical diet of a normal week and then deciding if you're going to do a 3 or 4 day load depending on how hard you have been training. I would start with three days and see how that goes for you.

Secondly pick carbohydrate foods that you consume regularly do not chance anything new the few days leading up to a race as this can lead to a disaster. In the research base there is no indication that carbohydrate type will have any impact on increasing glycogen concentration in the muscles (it’s the amount of ingested carbs that matters) therefore it is advised to eat food that you are familiar with alongside using the carbohydrate supplements that you're planning on using on race day throughout the three-day load. If you're looking for an exact number of carbohydrates to have the rule of thumb is anywhere from 5 to 7 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight per day leading up to race. Which is sufficient at restoring muscle glycogen concentrations that will allow you to compete at your peak performance. There is further research to indicate anywhere from 10-12 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram body weight is seen as optimal however these higher concentrations of carbohydrates do tend to place a lot of stress on the GI system. Therefore, it's something to maybe work up to ideally start off on lower dose and work higher till you reach your limiting point. That's the best approach in my opinion.

Supplements to consider during race week.

Down below is a list of supplements that I typically recommend to my athletes on my elite athlete performance program to use during race week. Sometimes for longer periods beforehand depending on what we're working on but typically these are my go-to to help improve your recovery while you taper alongside maximizing your performance on race day.

Note; Please note if you're an athlete that is subjected to doping testing please make sure that any supplements you take or purchase has been third party independently checked for banned substances I highly recommend using informed support and informed choice as your resource here. If in doubt do not take anything.

 https://sport.wetestyoutrust.com

Pomegranate Juice

Pomegranate juice is a source of a high concentration antioxidant. There is emerging evidence that supplementing with high concentration antioxidants can improve exercise performance by delaying onset fatigue during an event. In current studies pomegranate juice extract has been shown to demonstrate an increase in time to exhaustion alongside an increase in time to reach second ventilatory threshold (the point at which breathing becomes labored). Therefore, supplementing with pomegranate juice extract may improve aerobic exercise performance during your race.

Dosage; 225mg of punicalagin daily (if you can acquire this 30ml of concentrated pomegranate juice may work the same). A 14-day loading phase is required.

Tart Cherry juice

Montmorency cherries contain high levels of anthocyanins – natural compounds with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. These compounds help reduce inflammation and reduce free radical damage caused during exercise. This action both aids immune function through reduced post exercise inflammation and reduces muscle soreness, hence improving recovery

Dosage; AM 30 ml concentrated juice mixed in 250 mill water. PM 90 min pre sleep 30 ml concentrated juice mixed in 250 mill water.

Nitrates (beetroot juice)

When supplementing with beetroot juice we are actually supplementing with a natural source of nitrate which gets converted to nitric oxide an effective regulatory of blood flow and vasodilatation. Nitrate supplementation reduces the oxygen cost of exercise and thus prolonging time to exhaustion, improving exercise performance.

Dosage; 0.1-0.2mmol/kg (or 1 beet it shot/250 ml of beetroot juice) loading phase of 3 days pre event is required. You can start this lading phase on day 1 of your 3 day carb loading.

L-Glutamine

L-glutamine is an amino acid that can help redirect blood flow back to your small intestine with purpose to repair the lining of your small intestine that can get damaged during long intense periods of hard training. Therefore, I recommend athletes to take glutamine in the week leading up to race day to help repair any damage to the small testing which in turn can help reduce the potential of any GI issues from happening.

Dosage; 0.25-0.9 grams per kg of fat free mass within 30min post exercise (if unsure of fat free mass, standard dosage 5-10g). If not exercising take in the evening.

Sodium Bicarbonate

Sodium bicarbonate acts as an intracellular pH buffer (stops the environment becoming too acidic). When we do intense exercise and we get that burning sensation which is result of hydrogen ions getting released the pH concentration within our skeletal muscle cells can become more acidic, resulting in fatigue. Sodium bicarbonate can help maintain a neural pH allowing us to exercise at higher intensities for longer without giving into fatigue.

Dosage; AM 200mg mixed in water & PM 200mg mixed in water. A 3 day loading phase is required to reach muscle saturation levels this can be done at the same time as your carbohydrate loading phase.  

What you can do now

1. Stick with your typical diet consuming the usual carbohydrate foods however just aim to increase your portions of them.
2. ideally start with a 3 day carb load ,day 1 have two extra portions of carbohydrates, day 2 have four extra portions of carbohydrates and day 3 have six extra portions of carbohydrates.
3. listen to your gut listen to your body work within your own limitations don't over force yourself to eat ,if you are experiencing GI issues stop and allow the body to relax reset and try again.
4. It is recommended to consume anywhere from 5 to 12 grams of carbohydrates per kg of body weight during your carb loading protocol, start low work high
5. I highly recommend using the carbohydrate supplements that you will use on race day as part of your extra carb portions during your carb loading period to allow the body to get used to digesting and breaking down those products which will reduce the chances of any GI issues that may occur with these products.

Keen to discover more about how to eat more carbs, without getting the runs? 

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Reference’s

•  Burke, L.M. et al. (2018) “Toward a common understanding of diet–exercise strategies to manipulate fuel availability for training and competition preparation in Endurance Sport,” International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism,28(5), pp. 451–463. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsnem.2018-0289. 
• Eberle, S.G. (2014) Endurance Sports Nutrition: Fuel your body for optimalperformance. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. 
• Impey, S.G. et al. (2018) “Fuel for the work required: A theoretical framework for carbohydrate periodization and the glycogen threshold hypothesis,” Sports Medicine,48(5), pp. 1031–1048. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-018-0867-7. 
• Jeukendrup, A.E. (2017) “Periodized nutrition for athletes,” Sports Medicine, 47(S1), pp. 51–63. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-017-0694-2. 
• Podlogar, T. and Wallis, G.A. (2022) “New horizons in carbohydrate research and application for endurance athletes,” Sports Medicine, 52(S1), pp. 5–23. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-022-01757-1. 
• Sedlock, D.A. (2008) “The latest on carbohydrate loading,” Current Sports Medicine Reports, 7(4), pp. 209–213. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1249/jsr.0b013e31817ef9cb.