WHAT SOURCE OF CARBOHYDRATE IS OPTIMAL FOR SPORTS PERFORMANCE? – Technical sports magazine Sport Training

Article provided by CROWN SPORT NUTRITION

Author: Lucas Jurado Fasoli – Doctor in Biomedicine (University of Granada)

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Los carbohydrates are essential for sports performance, since they are the main energy intake during exercise. An adequate carbohydrate intake allows you to maintain adequate training levels, delays the onset of fatigue, helps aerobic and strength performance, improves muscle mass gains and promotes adequate recovery between training sessions and competitions. For all these reasons, an adequate carbohydrate intake before, during and after physical exercise is essential.

In general, the main carbohydrate sources They are cereals, fruits, vegetables, legumes, sugars and of course specific sources for athletes such as gels, drinks, bars or recovery products. However, we do not always know which are the best sources of carbohydrates, as this will depend on the corresponding objective.

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How to choose sources for before, during and after physical exercise?

The intake before exercise It should have the objective of providing simple and complex carbohydrates as a source of easily absorbed energy with low fiber content. Therefore, whole grains, legumes and excess fibrous vegetables should be avoided, and prioritize refined grains (white rice, pasta, white bread, potato) y quickly assimilated sugars for example jam, honey, high-carbohydrate drinks, or carbohydrate bars among others.

during exercise, simple carbohydrates should be ingested, easily assimilated and without fiber content. In this way, intakes with liquid or semi-liquid consistency (e.g. gels), could be an optimal option since they lead to less gastrointestinal stress because it is not necessary to chew, or perform mechanical digestion of the food to break it into smaller particles as would happen with solid options. In addition, liquid or semi-liquid options are absorbed more quickly and easily, therefore they will be the primary options when you do not exercise for a very long duration. In the event that they are carried out very long exercise sessionssuch as an iron man, they may be included solid options of carbohydrates, since there will be the time necessary for the digestion of the solid food and the subsequent absorption. Therefore, the options during the exercise could be carbohydrate-rich drinks, carbohydrate gels and carbohydrate-rich bars or solid preparations (for example rice bars or gummies) when the duration of the exercise is prolonged.

After exercise, the goal should be to incorporate simple carbohydrate sources that allow glycogen replenishment as quickly as possible. In this situation, you can choose options with different consistencies (liquid, semi-liquid or solid) that are easily digestible. In this way, you can combine solid intakes (fruits, bars, sandwiches) with liquid intakes (drinks rich in carbohydrates, smoothies, juices). However, in the event that there are repeated competitive events with little time between events, options with a liquid or semi-liquid consistency should be prioritized to facilitate absorption.

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What carbohydrate sources should we choose for the rest of our intakes?

On the other hand, leaving aside intakes before, during and after exercise to promote performance, the choice of different carbohydrate sources may depend on the athlete’s energy needs. Therefore, we can differentiate two situations:

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Situations of caloric surplus or high energy needs

These situations may arise for example: i) in athletes with a large training volume and high energy expenditure; ii) large body size athletes with high energy needs; iii) competitive moments with high energy needs; or iv) muscle hypertrophy goals with the corresponding caloric surplus.

In these cases, we must prioritize options food that they give me greater amount of carbohydrates in less volumecon soft consistencies y sin and excess in the amount of fiber. Some simple and applicable examples They can be: i) introducing purees (e.g. potato), instead of whole food; ii) grind different preparations (e.g. hummus instead of whole chickpeas); iii) choose “soft” options that allow greater intake without gastrointestinal stress (e.g. sliced ​​bread instead of whole wheat bread); iv) choose liquid preparations (e.g. juices, carbohydrate-rich drinks); v) include foods rich in simple carbohydrates (e.g. breakfast cereals, honey).

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Hypocaloric diet situations or lower energy needs

On the other hand, we can find situations in which the athlete must reduce or regulate his energy intake and must not exceed his carbohydrate intake. We can observe these situations in: i) periods of low-calorie diet to reduce body weight; ii) rest days in which there is training; iii) moments outside the competitive season.

In these cases, the recommendations will be totally contrary to the previous ones, requiring options that provide a Greater volume, mayor amount of fiber and one consistency further rigid that have an effect satiating in the organism. In this way, some simple examples could be: i) prioritize whole fruits and vegetables instead of juices and purees/creams; ii) prioritize foods with a rigid consistency or complete foods instead of foods with a soft consistency (e.g. whole chickpeas instead of hummus, toast or crackers instead of bread or rice cakes instead of cooked rice); and iii) reduce intake of foods rich in simple sugars (e.g. beverages rich in carbohydrates, cereals, etc.).

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Conclusions

Carbohydrates are essential for sports performance. However, the sources of primary carbohydrates can vary depending on the situation in which we find ourselves (e.g. before, during, after exercise, diets with high or low energy intake).

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2024-04-16 07:17:06
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