A lot of athletes can experience gut issues prior too and during events if they have not adequality trained their gut to handle the increase in glycogen stores (carbohydrate intake).
This strategy involves getting the stomach used to eating larger volumes of carbohydrate intake.
Even if you are not experiencing gut issues, training your gut can help you get the most out of your session as you will be absorbing more energy over all.
When consuming carbs whilst training the body needs to be able to absorb this adequately so that it can be used for energy. If the gut is not trained to handle higher volumes of carbohydrates consumed this can lead to gut discomfort and energy not being absorbed and just sitting in the stomach. This would also mean that you are not getting all of the energy from your fueling, and would lead to earlier fatigue.
If your session or event is lasting less than 90 minutes, it is recommended to consume 60g of carbohydrate/hour of single or multi-transportable carb. If your session is lasting longer than 90 minutes your glycogen stores will be depleted and fatigue will start to set in.
The maximum absorption of glucose is around 60g/hour , if you are needing to consume more than this you will need multi-transportable carbs (maltodextrin and fructose) which are found in carb gels and chews.
In order to reduce depletion consuming 30-90g of carb / hour of multi-transportable carbs (carb gels/chews) is recommended.
I recommend to trial a few ways to train your gut prior to your event, so you can ensure the chosen strategy works best for you.
If you need any help with strategies for training the gut please book a free consult and we can work out what is best for you.
Jules,
Founder, Accredited Sports Nutritionist.
JVIA
@jvia_nutrition
**References:
PMID: 21660838
PMID: 28508559
PMID: 28177715
PMID: 20574242