
Additionally, a high-carbohydrate (8.1 g carbohydrate per kilogram body weight per day or 600 g carbohydrate per day) diet significantly elevated preexercise glycogen stores versus a low-carbohydrate (1.4 g carbohydrate per kilogram body weight per day or 100 g carbohydrate per day) diet given to trained individuals for three days before completion of a 45-minute bicycle ride at 82% VO 2peak. In eight trained runners, three days of a high-carbohydrate diet (10 g carbohydrate per kilogram body weight per day) while runners completely refrained from exercise maximized muscle glycogen stores (Bussau et al. These conclusions were well received as a much more practical approach to maximizing muscle glycogen. 1983, 1981) suggested that a reduction in exercise training volume along with a high-carbohydrate diet (65% to 70% dietary carbohydrate) over a minimum of three days can elevate muscle glycogen levels.
CARBO LOADING SERIES
Using this approach, early studies reported an ability of athletes to maintain their pace of training for significantly longer periods of time (Karlsson and Saltin 1971).Ī series of studies in well-trained runners (Sherman et al. This phase was followed by a three- or four-day period of high carbohydrate ingestion (>70% carbohydrate or 8 to 10 g carbohydrate per kilogram body weight per day) and a decrease in exercise volume to facilitate supersaturation of muscle glycogen. Traditional carbohydrate loading studies conducted on untrained individuals incorporated a three- or four-day depletion phase in which athletes ingested a low-carbohydrate diet and completed a high volume of exercise training to “deplete” the internal stores of glycogen (Bergstrom and Hultman 1966). All text and images provided by Human Kinetics.Ĭarbohydrate loading is a practice used by athletes to saturate their endogenous stores of muscle glycogen before longer-duration events that typically lead to depletion of glycogen stores. The following is an exclusive excerpt from the book NSCA’s Guide to Sport and Exercise Nutrition, published by Human Kinetics.
