What Is Carbohydrate Loading?

What Is In This Article:

• What Is Carbohydrate Loading?
• The Classic Regimes
• Rapid Super Compensation 1 & 2
• Conclusion

What Is Carbohydrate Loading?

Carbohydrate loading, or carb-loading, is a strategy used by athletes to maximize the storage of glycogen in muscles and the liver. This practice is commonly used before endurance events such as marathons, triathlons, and long-distance cycling.

Purpose of Carbohydrate Loading

The primary goal of carbohydrate loading is to enhance athletic performance by ensuring that muscles have enough glycogen stores to sustain prolonged, intense exercise. Glycogen is the stored form of glucose, which muscles use as a primary source of energy during extended physical activity.

To this day, there have been multiple studies suggesting the best ways to carbohydrate load, we have summarised the most common & classic ones for you.

The Classic Regimes

There are two classic regimes: The 7-day protocol (Bergstrom et al., 1967) & the 6-day protocol (Sherman et al., 1981).

Classical super compensation 7-day protocol:

• Glycogen depleting exercise bout
• 3 days of high protein high fat intake
• Exhausting exercise bout on day 4
• High Carbohydrate diet for 3 days

However as with everything good, there are downsides:

• Hypoglycemia (during the low CHO period)
• Gastro Intestinal Distress
•  Poor recovery (when no carbohydrate is ingested)
• Detraining during taper
• Increased risk of injury

Moderate super compensation 6-day protocol:

• Exercise taper over 6 days
• First 3 days = mixed diet with 50% carbohydrates
• Last 3 days = high carbohydrate diet (70% energy from carbohydrates)

This strategy has similar levels of muscle glycogen levels, but with less extreme dietary manipulations & fewer negative effects.

Rapid Super Compensation 1 & 2

Rapid Super Compensation 1 (Fairchild et al., 2002)

• Starts with 2.5 minutes of hard exercise, with 2 minutes at 130% VO2Max (Maximal Oxygen Uptake), then 30 seconds all out effort.
• The 1 day of 10-12 g/kg of body weight. So a person weighing 60kg would eat 600-720g of carbohydrates, mainly from high GI (glycemic Index) carbohydrates, potatoes, white bread, short-grain rice etc.

Rapid Super Compensation 2 (Bussau et al., 2002)

• For trained endurance athletes, starts with normal activity levels for 3 days (no specific exercise prescribed)
• Followed by intake of 10 g/kg of body weight of high GI (Glycemic Index) carbohydrates, so a 70kg individual will intake 700g of carbohydrates.

Conclusion