Carb Loading for Endurance Events

If you just want the calculator and couldn’t care less about the years of research and trial behind carb loading - Click here

For everyone who actually wants to understand how it works, keep reading. This is the deep drive most people never get.

What is Carb Loading?

In short, carb loading is a short-term, strategic increase in usual carbohydrate intake designed to MAX out glycogen (reserve energy stores) before an endurance event.

What is Glycogen?

Think of glycogen as a reserve energy pack stored in the muscles and liver - ready to fuel moderate to high intensity movement.

Here's how it works: 

1. We eat carbs.
2. They break down into glucose and enter the bloodstream for immediate energy.
3. Whatever isn't needed straight away is converted into glycogen and stores in the muscles (mainly) and liver (a bit). How much someone can store depends on muscle mass and training status (hence the calculator below, based on personal stats).
4. When we next come to exercise, the body first uses circulating glucose (anything we've just eaten), then taps into the glycogen to keep us going.
5. When we eat carbs again after training, we top those glycogen stores back up. This is why eating a carb-heavy post-workout meal is ideal for glycogen replenishment.

Glycogen is constantly going up and down - emptying with hard training, refilling when we eat.

Why Do You Need To Carb Load?

Here's the problem. When someone is in a calorie deficit, they're almost never fully refilling their glycogen stores. Overtime, this can lead to:

• Low energy
• Poor training performance
  
• A big spike in hunger

Imagine now running a marathon. The body will use the glucose from the carb-heavy meal it had before the race. However, the event is that long that it will barely last someone 30/40 minutes. After that, the body needs to tap into glycogen stores.

If someone goes into an endurance event and has depleted glycogen stores, it's also going to burn through that super fast. That's what people refer to as 'Runners Wall' - when someone energy tanks completely. It's isn't their fitness letting them down, it's their fuel!

When it comes to having an advantage over components, this strategy is going to be really important. Whether it's football, endurance events or anything similar - carb loading can increase performance tenfold. The difference can be night and day.

Depending on how much lean muscle tissue someone has and how well they trained will dictate how much glycogen they can store in their muscles (hence this calculator!). 

For example, a 6ft1, 220lbs male could store up to around 1200g of glycogen, whereas a 5ft5, 135lbs female may be able to store around 750g.

Pre-loading glycogen stores = more full glycogen stores and longer they will last 

When Should You Carb Load?

The biggest challenge is going to be knowing how depleted someones glycogen are.

Below are two calculations:

• One is for someone not in a diet phase, who would most likely have 50/70% glycogen stores already.
• The other is for someone who is hammering a diet and most likely sitting at 25/35% glycogen stores.

A carb load should be done 24hrs in advance to the endurance event. Sometimes it can take a full day for the carbohydrates to be fully converted into glycogen.

How To Structure A Carb Load

💧 1. Hydration

Carb loading can increase water storage by 1.5-2.5 litres. That's normal. Make sure water intake is higher than usual to support this, or you could feel drained and thirsty. Water can be tracked directly in the Team RH App to keep everything consistent.

🥣 2. Plan ahead

The last thing we want is a chaotic, unstructured carb load.

If someone's aiming for a refeed between 3000-7000 kcal (yes, that's normal!), grams of fat can creep in fast.

Make it easier by:

• Pre-plan meals
• Log them in the Team RH App
• Get the right foods in the house in advance

Keeping fat intake low is key.