Under consumed and overestimated: race day carb intake in endurance athletes 🪫
The needs are there, how many athletes fulfil them?
Under Consumed and Overestimated: Discrepancies in Race-Day Carbohydrate Intake Among Endurance Athletes
Study Details
This new study aimed to quantify carb intake practices of 60 endurance athletes (38 marathoners + 22 cyclists) during two official races 🏆
Athletes’ planned, perceived, and actual carbs intake 24 h before and during the race were assessed 🔍
Here is what they found ⬇️
Key Findings
Across all participants, actual CHO intake (31.7 ± 23.5 g/hr)…
…was lower than planned (38.0 ± 27.3 g/hr) 📉
The absolute planned-actual gap was…
🚴♂️ larger in cyclists (58.9 → 49.1 g/hr)
🏃♂️ than in marathoners (25.9 → 21.7 g/hr)
But the relative shortfall was similar ∼16%-17% ⚠️
Further data also showed that…
🏁 Race type
😴 Better sleep behaviour
🧠 Lower cognitive anxiety
…predicted higher actual intake during the race ✅
GI distress did not account for the observed differences in fueling strategies ❌
The day prior to each race…
Cyclists consumed significantly more carbs (4.95 ± 1.73 g/kg) than marathoners (3.40 ± 1.62) 📈
…however both groups fell way below recommended targets (10 - 12 g/kg) 🚨
Conclusion
Despite similar intentions, both marathoners and cyclists overestimate carb intake‼️
Better sleep and psychological readiness improves fuelling success 💤
Sleep promotion strategies will likely have positive crossover into race day fuelling adherence ✅
Reference
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41054247/
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