How To Feed and Fuel During Endurance Exercise

Todd Josefski our Accredited Practising Dietitian and Sports Nutritionist takes us through the importance of feeding and fuelling during endurance exercise.

Proper nutrition during longer distance training (>2hrs in duration) is essential to refuel the body, enhance athletic performance and to ensure good recovery post your endurance exercise of choice.

Protein and fat can provide the necessary energy; however, carbohydrate is the body’s main source of fuel, because it is easily broken down and can provide sustained energy.

During endurance exercise longer than 2hours in duration, the aim is to look after our carbohydrate stores, by refuelling every hour with snacks that are high carbohydrate, moderate-low protein and low-fat, in order to meet the body’s increased energy and carbohydrate requirements. Studies also show that carbohydrate depletion can induce fatigue and lead to decreased performance as some of you doing keto will definitely recognise, particularly once you start to increase training intensity as an example.

The quantity of carbohydrate required per hour can vary between 20g to 90g, depending on your size, body composition goals and the length of the ride. Planning ahead is essential as it can be difficult to eat while training. Some examples of suitable snacks have been listed below.

To help understand what your specific requirements look like you can review Dr Asker Jeukendrup’s infographic below in relation to grams of carbohydrate per hour depending on the duration of endurance training or competition. Please not this is not taking into account your sex, body composition or event type. For more individualised advice please see one of our Sports Nutritionists/Dietitians.

Tips for fuelling in endurance exercise and competition:

1. Ensure snacks are easily accessible and unwrapped (i.e. cut the top off energy or cereal bars).

2. Cut up snacks into bite size pieces.

3. Ensure snacks are easy to digest (i.e. cut the crust off sandwiches).

4. In higher level competition foods that are easy to chew/drink may be preferred to optimise performance

For individualised planning for your specific needs we are happy to help devise a nutrition plan, training plan and/or race plan just for you. Please contact us either via phone at 07 3088 2323 or through our online enquiry submission. Todd Josefski our Sports Nutritionist is operating from a number of locations including Cam’s Cycling Collective. We also have a number of other Sports Nutritionists and Dietitians in the company who will be able to assist.