In my experience working with athletes, it sometimes seems that carb-loading is touted as the be-all and end-all when it comes to performance nutrition.
On the other hand, most players have never implemented it in a structured way, beyond maybe having some pasta the night before a match.
And although it clearly isn’t the only thing we should be worried about, it is worth delving into what it is, and where it should or shouldn’t fall into your nutrition plan.
Carbohydrates for Sport
When you’re making those blistering runs up and down the pitch, or doing tackling grids in training, or running a 5k PB, the body needs to create energy quickly and repeatedly to keep up with those demands.
It also generally needs to be able to do that for a sustained period of time.
The optimal fuel source for this job is glycogen - a name given to carbohydrates when stored in the body.
When we eat carbohydrates, they are broken down into glucose, which is circulated around the body, and ultimately stored as glycogen in the muscles.
This glycogen is then available to be converted and used during intense activities, like those we see in heavy training sessions and sporting matches.
The more glycogen you have available in the muscles when it comes to match-day or race-day, the more fuel that is available, and hopefully, the better your performance will be (or at least you won’t be limited by low fuel availability).
What is Carb-Loading?
Carb-loading (or carbo-loading or carbohydrate-loading) is a term that describes a strategy used to increase the amount of glycogen stored within the muscles leading up to a sporting event, by increasing carbohydrate intake in the days leading up to that event.
The original method proposed involved a few days of very low-carbohydrate intake (with a lot of training to deplete glycogen stores), followed by a few days of extremely high carbohydrate intake (and no training).
As you can imagine, however, this was logistically quite difficult.
On match-week or event-week, all you want to do is focus on getting to that day, but here, you’re looking at 7 days of changing your diet, with each of those 7 days being very different from your usual intake, and with the presupposition that you have complete control over your training load.
Sure, if you thought there was no other option and that it was going to turn you into an elite athlete, you’d probably do it, but fortunately, researchers compared an approach of simply increasing carbohydrate intake in the 1-3 days leading up to the event, and found that this was almost just as effective as the approach of going from very low-carb to very high-carb days.
Who Does it Work For?
Most of the research on carb-loading has been done on endurance athletes, who obviously have different demands than field sports for example.
The former involves staying at a relatively steady pace for a long time, whereas the latter involves mostly short, intermittent bursts followed by short recovery periods.
With that said, both of these significantly deplete glycogen stores, particularly at higher intensities and at longer durations.
For that reason, maximising glycogen stores is likely to also be beneficial for field sports like GAA, hurling, soccer, and rugby, and anecdotally, a lot of the clients I’ve worked with have noticed the benefits when implementing a carb-loading approach.
At a very basic level, given that glycogen is the predominant fuel source in high-intensity training and competition, it is likely that performance in these activities will be improved by having sufficient stores to pull from.
With that said, it’s probably not AS necessary for a GAA athlete, for example, as it would be for a long-distance runner, since it’s unlikely that a GAA athlete is going to completely deplete their carbohydrate stores during a match, BUT having high glycogen availability can improve athletic performance even in events where there isn’t a risk of depleting glycogen stores, and it’s better to have the stores there for when they’re needed, also because it tends to be a much better fuel source than fats or muscle protein.
How to Do it
My recommendation would simply be to increase carbohydrate intake in the 1-2 days leading up to match-day.
For some, this may simply be a case of adding in a large portion of carbohydrates to each meal, or adding in a couple of extra high-carb meals/snacks.
For those who want to bring in a bit more accuracy, or already tend to track their food intake, consuming 5-8 grams of carbohydrate per kg body weight (400-640g for an 80kg player) is a good place to aim for.
For those who are new to tracking their food, this can be tracked through the Myfitnesspal or Cronometer apps.
This intake might seem very high for many people, and if that is the case, you can always start at a lower intake and you’re still likely to get some benefits if it’s above your usual intake.
There are also cases where someone with a fat-loss goal may not want to increase their carbohydrate intake as much, since this may increase their calorie intake significantly for the week, potentially decreasing their fat-loss for that week.
That will be an individual decision based on the balance of their fat-loss and performance goals.
On a practical level, the usual sources of carbohydrates (potatoes, rice, pasta, oats, breads, fruits etc.) will be a good idea.
However, I would recommend opting for mostly lower-fibre options, as well as bringing in some higher glycemic options (breakfast cereals, sports drinks, sugary sweets, juices) for reasons outlined in the next section, but also because players often find it difficult to get enough carbohydrates in when they are eating very filling sources.
Avoiding Common Mistakes/Problems
There are a few common problems that tend to come up with carb-loading approaches, and the first thing to mention is that you should practice it beforehand, in the weeks/months leading up to match-day or event-day, so that there are no surprises when it comes to the big day itself.
It’s Not an Excuse to Eat Whatever You Want
Carb-loading shouldn’t be used as an excuse to eat whatever you want.
It shouldn’t be used as an reason to overeat on pizza and pastries the night before a match or event.
Instead, it should be viewed as a strategic approach to improving performance.
Yes, you will be eating more food, but the likelihood is that you will have to make a conscious effort to eat enough and to eat the right types of foods.
For example, optimally, the increase in food intake should be predominantly in the form of carbohydrates, whilst keeping your fat and protein intake relatively constant.
You want extra carbohydrate stores in the muscle, and adding in extra fat intake isn’t necessarily going to help with that, but will provide additional (excessive) calories, on top of the already high levels.
In order to manage this, it is better to opt for carbohydrate-dense sources, like rice, pasta, potatoes, cereals, breads, as opposed to things like pizza, pastries, foods with creamy sauces, and deep-fried foods, which do tend to contain carbohydrates but also contain a lot of fat.
Even some of the foods usually thought of as poor food choices, like breakfast cereals, sugary sweets, and fruit juices can be used here as easy-to-consume sources of almost completely carbohydrates.
Gut Issues
Any major change to the diet is likely to cause gut issues, as the gut tends to adapt to what you feed it over time, and therefore prefer gradual changes to sudden ones.
Even if you were to majorly increase fibre intake (which is generally seen as a good addition to the diet), the gut would struggle to deal with it, and you may experience digestive issues.
In that case, it would be important to gradually increase fibre intake and allow the gut to adapt.
The same can be true for carbohydrate intake.
Asker Jeukendrup coined the term “training the gut”, the idea of allowing your gut to get used to high carbohydrate intake, which will be very important if you plan on using a carbohydrate-loading approach over the long-term.
This can be done by eating a relatively high amount of carbohydrates in general, but also by practicing carbohydrate-loading for important training sessions, or less-important matches and races in the weeks leading up to the the improtant ones.
Gut issues can also occur as a result of eating too much fat, fibre, or protein during the carb-loading process.
It can also be a good idea to opt for fewer whole-grain carbohydrate sources during the carbohydrate-loading period, since these will inevitably have a higher fibre content.
Another, often overlooked, issue is the impact of stress on gut discomfort.
This can be managed somewhat with psychological interventions, but is often unavoidable to some extent, which is why athletes often prefer to have lighter meals on event-day, increasing the importance of having done most of the fuelling up in the previous days, through strategies like the carb-loading approach we’ve gone through here.
Article Written By Conor O’Neill
Conor O’Neill is a Nutritionist, Strength & Conditioning coach, Psychologist, and Author.
He has helped 1000+ everyday athletes to pursue excellence in their physique and performance through optimising their nutrition, training, and psychology.
You can find out more about The Everyday Athlete Program by going to everydayathleteprogram.com/coaching.