Hi Dr. Clyde,
I'm from Cal Tri and am racing in my first IM race next Sunday in Arizona. I've read a lot about Carb loading, and was wondering what you thought and the best way to maximize the amount of glycogen stored in our muscles and liver. Thanks and there is a ton of great info on here...
Ryan
ANSWER: Hi Ryan, twice the number of carbs you usually eat in one day by eating twice as many meals (not by eating more carbs at any one time). Keep the total amount of protein and fat the same as usual during the day over-all, meaning there will be less in each meal compared to what you are used to (since there are twice as many meals). Keep in mind that an extra 1000 Calories of carbs requires at least 1 Liter of additional water to stay dissolved in your body. I recommend avoiding any digestion, glycogen production and hydration issues by doing the carb load a couple days before the event (not the day before). Research shows that a carb load is maintained for several days in muscle (sugar does not "leak out" of muscle, it only goes away as it is burned as fuel). For liver glycogen include a piece of fruit with each meal, but keep in mind that these calories also require a bit of extra hydration AND excess fructose can cause gastrointestinal distress and diarrhea so this is not something you want to max out on. By maxing out I mean eating a half dozen huge 120 Calorie bananas for a total of over 600 Calories fruit. Half this amount (e.g. including some smaller fruit like plumbs, an apple or orange) would be just fine. I would not go with fruit juice since the starch ("carb") intake is so high on the carb load day already, so there are already a lot of fairly rapidly digesting calories in your meals. I would not eliminate vegetable intake completely since it is such a critical tool for slowing digestion and increasing recovery. Excess fiber is clearly an issue to be avoided to minimize diarrhea during the race, but if the carb load is 2 or 3 days before the event this should not be an issue. If you have no choice but carb load the day before the race I would reduce fruit and vegetable intake by half and, since the starches are digesting faster as a result, reduce your meal sizes even further and eat every 2 hours (i.e. even more than doubling the number of meals, but for the same total end number of calories).
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