For athletes participating in aerobic activities lasting at least 90mins, carbo loading can play a crucial part in increasing and improving performance.
It can increase stored glycogen in muscles to about 3 to 4 times normal levels.
The full carbo loading process is listed below
Duration: 13 days
1st-7th day - (Hard exercise daily to deplete carbo stores to get body used to depleting and using carbo stores, but eat normally)
8th -10h day - ( Cut Carbs 50% each meal for first 3 days, continue to maintain light and short workouts, the 3rd day should see you eating less then 5% of your original carbo quantity. drop in level of carbs can be made up by high fat and high protein diet to keep full)
11-13th day - (Increase carb intake back to original levels i.e. 7th day, during the 3 days, eat almost exclusively carbohydrates i.e. lower fat intake and reduce protein intake to almost zero, eat as much carbs as you can ingest 3-5 times a day)
14th Day - (Race day)
How to know you've done it right?
1. You feel stiff and heavy (it can be due to water retention because every 1 gram of glycogen stored in muscle there will be 2.7gram of water stored too)
2. You've gain 2-3kgs (all comes from additional glycogen and water stores)
With all this said, bear in mind, that carbo-loading may leave you psychologically weaker and it takes its toll on your immune system. Hence, one must be ultimately careful to look out for any tell-tale warning signs during the process
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3 comments:
Interesting. Never knew that you are supposed to "deload" first before loading.
Friend said he felt weaker when he tried to cut down on carbs for a few days. Is it just psychological?
What are some of the warning signs to look out for during the process?
when i depleted and loaded for langkawi, i was so full constantly that i felt full all the time. never was hungry at any second of the last 3 days before race day.
if i can change something, it is that i shouldn't eat till i gonna explode. a bit too uncomfortable. and i was visibly fatter and rounder. i doubt the pros were eating till they were gonna explode haha they still looked really lean and mean.
but it worked though. coupled with race nutrition, i never felt hungry at all thruout the whole ironman. so i guess it did worked.
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