But Do You Actually Need 90+ Grams of Carbohydrates Per Hour?

Introduction

"How many grams of carbs per hour should I be taking?" 

It's the most common question we get here at UCAN. You’ve probably seen the recent trend pushing athletes to consume 90+ grams of carbs per hour. But does your body actually need that much to train and race hard?

We won't leave you hanging on the conclusion. The real answer here is: it depends.We know, classic nutrition! But what does this mean? How does this affect you as an athlete? Keep reading for the important details.

The Science

First, let’s break down where that 90g recommendation comes from, and why it can be a risky game for your gastrointestinal system: 

• Transporter Limit: Your body absorbs simple sugars (glucose and fructose) through SGLT1 and GLUT5 transporters. Research suggests that the glucose maxes out around 60 grams per hour via the SGLT1 transporter and fructose maxes out via the GLUT5 at 30 grams per hour.

• Reality: For most athletes, in our experience, the actual sweet spot is closer to a range of 40 to 75 grams per hour. That said, there is no magic number that all athletes need to hit and this is the beauty of nutrition. Research is still trying to grapple with it! Its complexities are vast and the individualized nature of it is exciting.

• GI Distress Trap: If you push past your personal ceiling, those excess carbs don't just disappear. They can sit in the stomach and ferment, causing the bloating, cramping, and gas you desperately want to avoid on race day. This is why building up intake, and assessing how you feel along the way is vital.

When it comes to endurance sports, we always recommend aiming for a strategy that offers high reward with low risk. This is exactly where the LIVSTEADY carbohydrate in UCAN comes into play.

Because LIVSTEADY is a complex, starch-based carbohydrate instead of a simple sugar, it digests easily and delivers longer-lasting fuel. It doesn’t hit your system with a massive influx of sugar all at once, which means you get steady energy without overwhelming your stomach. 

Research also suggests that UCAN’s carbohydrate is burned through at lower amounts per hour in comparison to traditional gels in prolonged exercise of moderate intensity, mainly due to the fact that the body is able to pull from your additional storage tanks (ie. fat stores) simultaneously without increasing your stress response. Thus, your dosing for UCAN at moderate intensity or below might look a little different to your dosing of traditional gels and remain just as efficient. Pretty cool, right?

That said, when thinking about race pace and high intensity training, the body will burn through carbohydrates at a faster speed, so increasing your UCAN dosing per hour during these times to support the effort would be advantageous.

The protocol for finding your sweet spot: 

1. Start Steady: If you're new to fueling or prone to GI distress, aim for one UCAN Gel every 45 minutes in training. I’d recommend testing one of my current favorites, Strawberry Kiwi from the new UCAN gel + electrolyte line.

2. Scale Up: Start by working toward taking a gel every 30 minutes and see how your body responds. Wait a week at this level. From there, tinker with a gel every 20 minutes, then every 15 minutes in key intense and long duration sessions if you feel your body needs a bit more. Remember, you’re fueling for both effort and duration, so not every run will require this much, but race days and key training days likely will.

3. Tinker in Training: Test your nutrition on both easy and high-intensity days. Tune in to how your body feels, rather than copying what the runners around you are doing! Scale up or scale down depending on how #2 goes. Look out for signs like how you feel taking the gel at each time point, how your body digests it, and how it responds. Find what feels best for you.