Carb loading is a bit of an outdated thing, yet, most people would think of loading up on carbs a day or two ahead of any endurance effort.
The principle is that by increasing the amount of carbs stored in your body over the week before the event means you have more glycogen available for energy.
Carb loading has been studied for years, and it can be useful for longer duration, constant paced activities. There are no benefits for shorter duration activities or for weight training.
The issue with carb loading is the effect throughout your whole system.
How energetic you feel after a carb heavy lunch… Do you feel geared up for a long activity?
This is because the higher carb intake has an impact on your blood sugar levels, which have a knock on effect on your whole system.
But, it’s not just about the blood sugar balance.
Carbs actually affect how the muscles work, and how much energy is them.
When we’re eating carbs to fuel endurance activity, a by-product called lactate is produced. When lactate builds up our muscular contraction and the energy in our muscles both reduces.
On the completely and utterly opposite end of the spectrum, we have ketosis where we can use fat as fuel for endurance efforts rather than glucose from carbs.
This approach is better from a blood sugar and digestive happiness point of view and can be effective – possible even allowing you to perform better than you would on a carb based diet. However it often take several months to truly adapt to using fat as fuel so it’s not a choice you can make lightly.
The other issue with keto is that it hasn’t been studied for exercise for as long as carbs have, and the studies are almost exclusively carried out with men.
So, what’s the solution?
Sit somewhere in the middle. Keep the carbs at a reasonable level – maybe a cupped palmful each meal or even a bit more if you’re doing a lot of endurance activity.
If this means cutting down your carb intake to experiment with this different approach, then your should replace the calories with healthy fat instead. Beyond that, prioritise protein intake and eat plenty of veggies.
Do you do endurance type activity often? I’d be really interested to hear how you get on by tweaking your food intake ahead of the activity. Experiment with more carbs and less carbs and see which your body performs better with.