What is carbohydrate loading? Who needs to use this strategy?
Carbohydrate loading is a special strategy used to “superload” muscle glycogen stores before events of greater than 90 minutes duration that are performed at high intensity with little scope for eating and drinking during the event- for example, a marathon or Ironman triathalon. By extending your refuelling techniques to include 3 days of rest/taper and high carbohydrate eating, you may be able to increase your muscle stores to 150-200% of their normal levels. This extra fuel may be needed towards the end of these prolonged events to stop you from “hitting the wall”. However, there is no advantage in having higher fuel stored if your activity doesn’t need it. Furthermore, your activity may not allow or require a 3 day taper. So, despite the widespread recognition of carbohydrate loading as a sports nutrition tactic, it is really only useful for a number of endurance and ultra-endurance events. Unfortunately some people equate carbohydrate loading with overeating, particularly on high f
