Macro partitioning
Carbohydrate intake should be periodized ('fuel for the work required') based on the daily fuel cost of exercise rather than a fixed macronutrient ratio, ensuring high availability for high-intensity/long-duration sessions and lower availability for low-intensity/short sessions.
Stop counting carbs as a fixed percentage of your diet. Instead, match your carbohydrate intake to your daily training load. On heavy training days or long sessions, eat more carbs. On rest days or light recovery sessions, eat fewer carbs. This is called 'fueling for the work required'.
a further update in 2010 recommended that CHO availability, rather than absolute intake, be used to evaluate the athlete’s dietary CHO consumption... the amount and timing of daily CHO intake are defined in relation to the fuel cost of the day’s exercise load—recently termed 'fuel for the work required'
Why this rating
Cited as 'official recommendations from an International Olympic Committee expert panel' and 'latest sports nutrition guidelines'.
Source
Toward a Common Understanding of Diet–Exercise Strategies to Manipulate Fuel Availability for Training and Competition Preparation in Endurance Sport
Louise M. Burke et al. · International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism · 2018
DOI 10.1123/ijsnem.2018-0289
More from this paper
- High carbohydrate availability is required for sessions involving higher intensity workloads, optimal performance, or maximizing recovery, whereas low carbohydrate availability may be sufficient for light or low-moderate intensity exercise.Good
- Manipulating carbohydrate availability during training (e.g., 'train low') to create metabolic stress can upregulate cellular signaling and adaptive responses, potentially leading to superior performance when carefully integrated into an endurance training program.Moderate
Related findings · Macro partitioning
- Total daily protein intake of 1.6 g/kg/day is sufficient for maximizing resistance training-induced muscle gains, with an upper confidence interval of 2.2 g/kg/day.Strong
- Resistance exercise training combined with sufficient dietary protein intake acts synergistically to maximize skeletal muscle hypertrophy, with protein intake saturating around 1.6 g/kg/day for general populations and potentially requiring 2.0-2.2 g/kg/day for resistance-trained individuals.Strong
- Trans fats should be completely eliminated from the diet, as they increase LDL cholesterol, decrease HDL cholesterol, and are directly associated with increased coronary risk.Strong
This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →