Too Many Endurance Athletes Are Racing on Too Few Carbs, Study Finds

Yet, despite the greater emphasis being placed on proper carbohydrate fueling during exercise, many endurance athletes of all stripes fail to meet the recommended carb intake guidelines, both before and during workouts and races. You know you need to take in a certain amount of carbs to keep going strong and have a well-thought-out plan to do so, but, you somehow fail to execute. This shortfall causes a potential hit to performance.

This played out in a newly released European Journal of Sports Science paper titled Under Consumed and Overestimated: Discrepancies in Race-Day Carbohydrate Intake Among Endurance Athletes, where most athletes were found to be running and cycling on too few carbs.

The takeaway here is that there is a significant discrepancy between planned, perceived, and actual carb intake among athletes, at least in those who are competing at nonelite levels.

“The purpose of carb consumption during racing is to provide fuel to the working muscles, to help maintain blood glucose levels and to support the central nervous system,” Sumbal says. “Not meeting individualized needs means increased risk for bonking, early fatigue, and increased perceived effort.” This is compounded by not enough athletes consuming sufficient carbs leading up to a big race.

Among different disciplines, cyclists tend to execute better fueling strategies, including taking more carbs onboard and having a stronger adherence to planned intake. For triathletes, this can translate into better fueling during the cycling leg, but potentially problematic underfueling during the running portion. Triathlete