I ❤️CARBS! (and so should you!)

I think there’s a place for dedicated sports nutrition on the trainer, particularly during really sweaty/intense sessions- but like most aspects of fueling on the bike it’s pretty subject to individual differences.
I prefer real food 90% of the time, but I was definitely mainlining gels the whole way through DIsaster :stuck_out_tongue:

I can understand that.

I’d didn’t eat anything at all through todays 1 x 78 minute sst interval at 91%, that was probably a mistake though. Got some (plenty) toast, eggs and greek yoghurt straight after though, hope I got away with it. Lol.

Love it:

now if we just could take lab measured substrate utilisation seriously: new study, day to day reliability of fatox

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I saw that posted on Twitter yesterday.

Here’s the text that goes with the graphics: https://glut4science.com/publicaciones/fisiologia-del-ejercicio/fat-oxidation-athletes-high-carbohydrate-versus-high-fat-diet/101

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I have been looking at past tweets by GLUT4. Very much in the high carbohydrate camp with Inigo San Milan.
Really good graphic of substrate use.

seems to be a lot of low carb training done by the pros still though.

Periodisation of carb intake is not low carb

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Sure, but Dr San Milan, who is head of performance at UAE also, does not recommend any low carb training.
if I was not clear, some teams, coaches etc are using low/periodised low carb training quite often it seems (several times per week), where others are saying that it is not beneficial at all.

I think “low carb” is the wrong way of describing it. Some training protocols implement targeted training in a glycogen depleted state, but the overall daily intake of CHO for anyone performing at a decent level is still going to be very high. They may implement this type of training more frequently in the off season but they’re definitely not cutting back on carbs when they’re racing. I’d recommend listening to the Science of Ultra podcasts. There’s lots of decent content on there.

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Any particular eps?
Cheers

The ones with Dr Ron Maughan and Trent Stellingwerff are 2 of the best, but there’s quite a few decent ones on there.

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I love carbs as much as @ Captain_Doughnutman, but have been experimenting with eating only fats/proteins for the LSD rides.

Although I tend to only eat decent cabs off (and on the bike - though for intensity, I use mix/the odd gel), I was concerned that during LSD ride these were fairly pointless and leading to weight gain. Knowing I’m pretty fat adapted (lab results), I switched all LSD to nuts/seeds/protein and the body fat has been coming down steadily.

Current schedule is around 20h p/w, 2x3 LSD rides (4-5h in duration) with 2 intensity sessions (VO2 Max at the moment).

Interested to hear if any others follow this approach (if so, I may start a “I :heart:! FAT! (and so should you!) thread”.

NOTE: I’m not Keto and don’t want to get into that discussion!!

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My 2019 summer was all fasted HFLC Z2 LSD (do we use actual words anymore? :laughing:). Never noticed a significant drop in body fat or over-all weight. I’m sure there was some kind of positive long-term adaptations, just not externally measurable.

As for fuelling w/ fats and protein…my suggestion: don’t. If you are highly fat adapted then you shouldn’t require any exogenous fuel for a 4-5hr endurance ride. Protein is not a fuel source (usual caveats) and your body doesn’t need additional fat to burn (after taking a long time to process).

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Yeah, but I love food…

Also, if I don’t eat during long rides, my appetite is insatiable afterwards, negating any benefits of riding without.

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Seasons (since 2017 about 20h/week cycling/running):

2017: came out of baby break, lost 10 kg before , carb centric, great race results, > 5W/kg
2018: if I just lost 2 or 3 more kilos → fasted rides (especially LSD) → worse race results, 4.8 W/kg
2019: this has to work → fasted + intermittent + low glycogen training → worse race results, 4.5 W/kg
2020: screw this all, back to fuelling the engine again → no races but back at 5W/kg again … and feeling good the first time in quite a while

if you do high volume you already reap the benefits of low glycogen. If you add a nutritional regime you easily do to much. Fuel the engine, have fun with your workouts.

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I’m only 18 and have experimented with far to many complex strategies, some which went horribly wrong and led to decreases in my power. But i’m performing the best I ever have at the moment by loading on the carbs!! I can sustain high power outputs by taking in 50g of sugar water/hour. It’s led to me being able to hold 366W for 20min @62.5~ kilos… So… CARBS ARE KING!!!

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Sometimes I’m glad there’s no racing. At least no racing against you! :scream: :laughing:

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The sad part is my best 1min power doesn’t even break 500w :weary:

My power curve is a straight line…

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What i would do for that juicy 500w ftp :rofl:

Bert Kreischer definitely Loves carbs

Right, where’s my e bike? Surely that’s got enough carbs!