Multiple Carb Transporters - rethink your sport nutrition

 

The ideal fueling strategy during training/racing is the consumption of carbohydrates in a way that can be quickly emptied from the stomach, be rapidly digested and quickly absorbed so it can be used by the working muscles.  Just because you are consuming a gel, bar, solid food or drink with carbohydrates, this doesn't mean that your muscles are receiving those carbohydrates. The takeaway from this is not all carbs are the same.

Exercise shifts blood flow away from the GI (Gastrointestional tract) towards the active muscles and lungs. Digestion is compromised during exercise. This is why it's important that your carb choices during exercise do not require a lot of digestion. The quicker and easier those carbs are emptied from the stomach, the quicker those carbs can be used by the active muscles. Also, the more digestion that is required, the greater risk for GI issues. 

After digestion comes absorption. For the muscles to continue to perform during long distance activity, absorption moves nutrients, water and electrolytes from the small intestines into the cell and then into the blood. Because cell membranes are careful not to let dangerous substances into the body, they make it difficult for nutrients to enter the body. Therefore, nutrients need the help of a transporter (protein) to move across the cell membrane barrier. For carbohydrates to be absorbed, a transporter takes the digested and broken down carbohydrate from the intestional lumen inside the intestine, through the intestinal wall and into the body circulation. 

There are two specific protein transporters (SGLT1 and GLUT5) that allow for carbohydrate absorption. When your sport drink contains glucose, sucrose, galactose, maltodextrin or starch, exogenous carbohydrate oxidation peaks ~60g/hr (~240 calories). This is because the SGLT1 transporter becomes saturated ataround 1 gram of carbohydrate per minute. This is very important because if your sport drink, bar, or gel contains only the carbohydrates listed above, consuming more than 60 grams per hour will not result in more carbohydrate oxidation. The excess carbohydrate will not be absorbed and will accumulate in the intestines. This means the muscles will fatigue despite continuing to consume a large amount of carbohydrates and the risk for GI issues increases dramatically.

Because fructose uses a different transporter (GLUT5), the additional of fructose to a sport drink will allow for higher oxidation rates (up to 90g/hr) so long as you saturate the SGLT1 transporter with 60 grams of glucose or maltodextrin. Because these carbs use different transporters, you can deliver more carbohydrate to the muscle per hour.

If you are simply consuming carbohydrates without the awareness of how much you are consuming, what types of carbs you are consuming and how often you are consuming them, there's a good chance that you are not optimizing absorption - which means a greater risk for bonking, early fatigue, dehydration and GI issues. 

According to research, the ideal combination of carbs include: 

• maltodextrin : fructose 
• glucose : fructose 
• glucose : sucrose : fructose

If you are trying to consume more than 60 grams of carbs per hour (which is around 240 calories), you need to consume a product with multiple transportable carbohydrates so that you don't clog the SGLT1 transporter. 

Because most endurance athletes will benefit from consuming between 60-90g of carbohydrates on the bike per hour, I put together the helpful chart above to help take away the guessing when trying to plan how to fuel based on the duration of your workout/race.

To increase the capacity to absorb carbohydrates, it's critical that your sport drink has the right formulation. Simply eating/drinking whatever you want, whenever you want, does not guarantee that what you are consuming is being digested and absorbed.

To fuel or not to fuel?

                                                

The off-season/foundation phase presents itself with a unique opportunity in your season where training volume and intensity is relatively low and thus, you don't expend a great amount of calories. This is a perfect time to break away from relying on engineered sport nutrition products to get you through your workouts and to see your daily diet as the fuel for your workouts.
In other words, sport nutrition will play a very small role in your training routine. 

However, I feel this is where many athletes eat and train with confusion.

I'm sure you have been told that you don't need to eat before a workout in the off-season/foundation phase or you should avoid all sport nutrition during workouts, to burn more fat, in the off-season/foundation phase.

While there's scientific research to support that working out fasted has an extra metabolic response where you metabolize more fat, improve insulin sensitivity and increase lean muscle mass, it's important to remember that scientific research is great for providing results but not every research study may apply to you.

As an athlete, your best performance enhancement is having consistently great workouts where the body is not limited in energy but also being able to maintain a healthy diet, all day, every day.

There are several types of athletes who I feel will receive no benefit from fasted workouts as they can actually cause a cascade of negative health and performance issues.

Do you/Are you....
-Experience hypoglycemia during a workout
-Overcoming an eating disorder
-Struggling with disordered eating
-Struggling with body image issues
-Overeat later in the day
-Experience great carb cravings later in the day
-Fast for reward food/overindulging after a workout
-Have never trained the gut to tolerate food before the workout
-A new athlete who is trying to develop consistent training and healthy eating patterns
-Struggle to get through workout without feeling lightheaded/dizzy/moody/low energy
-Experience a blackout/foggy sensation during workouts
-Get sick easily (weak immune system) or get injured easily (fragile body)
-Experience great hunger during a workout
-Diabetic athlete
-Health issues (organs, bones, heart, brain, etc.)
-You've tried it before and you feel you perform better and make better food choices when you aren't fasted

Sadly, many athletes in the above category are brainwashed to believe that they must perform fasted workouts to become more fat adapted and thus all symptoms will improve, paces will drop, heart rate will be more controlled and fat will melt off the body. And, if athletes are still feeling issues by performing a workout fasted, they aren't doing it right, they need to give it more time or it's proof that they are a horrible fat burner.

So what do you do if you are one of the above types of athletes I listed and you need to eat before a workout and maybe even take in a little extra energy during your workout?

Will it ruin all of your hopes and dreams for your 2017 season if you chew on a few energy chews during a run or sip on a 100 calorie sport drink during a 90 minute bike ride?

Believe it or not but Karel and I eat before all of our workouts, 365 days a year.
We also continue to use engineered sport nutrition products for our longer (60+ min) workouts (or intense short workouts), throughout our entire season. 

Does this make us unhealthy?
Are we inefficient at burning fat?
Are we overlooking the best way to take our performance to that next level?

Ironically, we don't bonk in workouts or in races, we don't experience GI issues in training or on race day, we never get sick, we don't overeat, we have great consistency in our diet, we have never had a stress fracture and we have great consistency in our training.
I'd say we are doing something right and that's because we have figured out what works best for us. We are one of those athletes in my above list, in that we have better workouts when we eat before our workouts.

I'm not anti-fasted workouts but I believe that it's not for every athlete and certainly, it's most appropriate to apply in the off-season/foundation phase for only the easy workouts.
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NEVER take in calories before or during a workout less than 90 minutes!!!!
I often shake my head when I read statements like this, from coaches and nutrition experts to never ever take in calories before or during workouts less than 90 minutes - "you simply don't need them", says the expert. 

You certainly do not need the same calorie intake before and during your workouts in the foundation phase/off-season as you would peak season (as that is the basis of periodizing your sport nutrition) but statements like this confuse athletes because there could be times during your off-season when it would be of value to take in calories during the workout AND you could be an athlete where fasted workouts will be of no benefit to your body right now in your development.

I understand that the topic is confusing, especially if you are looking to the off-season to change your body composition or to break yourself from a long season of sugary sweet sport nutrition concoctions and there's so much talk on metabolic efficiency.

But you are in control of your body. I say this with sincerity because whatever fuel strategy you choose in the foundation phase, it should help you move closer to your performance goals. And that means training consistently and eating well, on a daily basis.
Never should you "not fuel" for the sake of losing weight or because someone told you not to fuel. If you are an athlete and you want to get the most out of your body, even in the early phase of training, consider using food to help you have great workouts and to encourage healthy eating throughout the day.

Although this blog post started as an off-season topic, I find this "fuel smart" topic more relevant for the Foundation phase or your "post season/first phase" of training as this is often the time of training when you are easing back into structured training, your workouts are specific, you can start training your gut to tolerate food before and during workouts, you need to stay healthy to stay consistent and your focus is on getting stronger and fine-tuning the basics before you next more intense phase of training. 

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picture source

The big takeaway from this blog is to not let scientific research, a nutrition expert or an article tell you what you should or shouldn't do as it relates to nourishing or fueling your body.
While there are many sport nutrition recommendations available, it is important that you listen to your body and understand your own body signals, to figure out what works best for you.
Also, be mindful that a past version of you may be different than a new version of you. So if you are hanging on to old nutrition strategies, you may need a nutrition professional to help you figure out your new/different metabolic needs.

Even if someone tells you that you don't need to fuel before and during a workout, it's OK if you decide to go against the crowd and do what works best for you.
As an athlete, you need to make choices that keep you healthy and you move you closer to your health and performance goals.

If you are still confused on fueling in the foundation phase/off-season, let's work together.
By reviewing your current training and eating strategies, we can quickly figure out which workouts require fuel during and how much to eat before and after workouts.

Trimarni Nutrition Consult

Nail your 2017 nutrition goals

There is a lot of information available to athletes on the topics of nutrition, specifically as it relates to how food can change your body composition, improve your health and boost your performance.

I think it is safe to assume that most athletes view food as a naturally safe way to boost athletic performance and the diet as a method of changing body composition.

But with so much information available to athletes, the topics of eating for health, eating for fuel, eating to change body composition and so forth, can make the simple topic of "diet for athlete" so confusing and overwhelming.

Due to information overload, I wouldn't be surprised if you are one of the many athletes who have explored (or tried) a dietary trend or fad at least once a year (likely around January) in an effort to get your diet under control in order to change body composition.

The interesting thing about a diet trend is the unique marketing of the dietary strategy which accurately identifies everything that you are doing wrong (insert you saying "this diet is exactly what I need!") and finds a sneaky way to convince you that this diet is the only way to fix your issues.

At Trimarni, we do not restrict food in any way.
We do not diet or jump on any hot sport nutrition trends or fads.
We apply research to real world settings but we always put our health before performance.

We eat a balanced diet every day of the year, we use sport nutrition products properly and we eat before and after our workouts.
Food has a positive role in our life and it enhances our performance and keeps us healthy.
There's no extreme method of eating (or not eating) and absolutely no food rules or off-limit food list.

Doesn't this sound peaceful and reassuring that this style of eating really does exist?

Sadly, you may still be searching for a diet plan.

If you want to create a sustainable style of eating, there's no better time than right now, when your training volume is low and you have extra time in your day to spend on your lifestyle habits, to focus on yourself and your own nutritional needs and to create a great relationship with food and the body.

As a qualified nutrition expert (Board Certified Sport Dietitian), it's important to me to remain a great nutrition role model to my coaching athletes but also to the public, as I know many athletes follow Trimarni and obtain services from Trimarni.

If you insist on changing your diet in 2017 without the help of a nutrition expert, I hope you find value in my latest Triathlete Magazine article (pg 56) as I share a few simple smart nutrition tips to kick start your nutritional success in 2017.

The point of diminishing returns - part I

Training for an event can be very rewarding. Considering that you have to exercise to train yourself for an event, preparing for a race can actually be a healthy way to de-stress and to keep the body in good health. 

But when the body becomes overly stressed from training OR an overly stressed body tries to adapt to consistent training stress, there is a point of diminishing returns when an active lifestyle becomes unhealthy.

Much of our society has an obsession with productivity.
To-do lists are never ending and there is always something to do to keep busy.
Yet athletes still find 10-20+ hours to train, despite already living a very busy lifestyle.

Sadly, an overworked, always on the go, constantly connected, squeezing everything in athlete can become so accustomed to living a busy lifestyle that healthy habits become expendable all in an effort to get in a workout.

As an athlete, healthy lifestyle habits can enhance training. Whereas you may think that you have to get in x-miles or hours to improve performance, what you do when you aren't training can actually help your body improve fitness quicker than feeling the need to always train harder or longer.

If you are a triathlete training for an event this season, you are likely at the point in your training where the volume and/or intensity is increasing. This is exciting but also concerning.

Is your body ready to handle this increase in training stress?
What are you giving up in your life in order to add in more training hours and to be able to recover properly between added workouts or are you trying to add more training stress without adjusting your life?

Seeing that the body needs repeated stress to produce advantageous physiological gains, it's important to pay attention to the noticeable signs and symptoms that your body may not be adapting well to consistent or residual training stress.

Sometimes the training plan and recovery routine needs to be adjusted whereas other times, there is an issue with the daily diet, sport nutrition/fueling, sleep or other lifestyle habits.
It's important to be honest with yourself when something needs to change. Otherwise,
if an immediate change isn't made, it's only a matter of time before a more serious health issue and performance decline could arise. 

This is a hard subject to debate about because every athlete adapts to training stress differently.
It's difficult for dedicated, hard working athletes to understand when training stress is normal and needed or too much and unhealthy.

When I work athletes, I'm always considering the athlete and his/her lifestyle, personal life stressors and other life responsibilities when designing a training plan or discussing a nutrition strategy so that any plan or change is conducive to optimize performance and health.

I'm all about maximizing performance with a healthy body and mind.

Considering that athletes have the discipline and motivation to make sacrifices in life to get in a workout, I want you to understand that your love/desire to train, if not done in a smart way, may actually make you less fit and unhealthy. 

In part II of this blog post, I will discuss some of the signs and symptoms that your body is not handling life stress or training stress very well and how to train smarter to train harder.  

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Remember, performance gains are not linear. It takes time to develop your skills and fitness. When you think you aren't making progress, you may actually be doing exactly what you need to be doing. Give yourself time and be patient in your journey.

But if you are training for continuous fitness gains in order to complete or to compete in an event and you know that something is limiting your performance or health, consult with a professional to provide an objective expert opinion to ensure that your hard work will pay off by race day. 

Fuel smart and avoid anti-inflammatory pills

April 2014 issue of Triathlete magazine

Knowing what foods to eat to fuel your training is important, but to reap the benefits of the nutrients, it’s the when that really matters. Before and during a workout, your goal is to increase the delivery of nutrients to your working muscles to maintain glucose levels, postpone fatigue and improve your hydration status. After you’re done training, the focus shifts to replenishing glycogen stores and initiating tissue repair and muscle growth so you can bounce back even stronger for future workouts.

With the following fueling suggestions, I will help you reduce risk for GI distress and help you find yourself gaining a competitive edge.

How To Fuel Before Workouts

Eating something before a training session is critical, as it will better prepare your gut for race day and help you to become more aware of how your body absorbs and metabolizes fuel in varying intensity levels, durations and weather conditions.

Note: For an individualized approach on fueling your triathlon routine and to meet dietary needs, contact a registered dietitian (RD) specializing in sport nutrition. It should be noted that recommendations for fueling around workouts should be “as tolerated” and perfected by each individual over time.

Learn how to fuel for a track or swim session HERE.

Learn how to fuel for a brick or long run session HERE.

May 2014 issue of Triathlete magazine

One of the most common setbacks for an athlete is extreme inflammation and the discomfort and restriction of proper range of motion that it causes. 

When taken occasionally, athletes should not worry about side effects of anti-inflammatories, but religiously popping a pill before or after training or during racing is not advised. Long-term use or excessive intake may increase the risk for heart attack, stroke and kidney damage.

Many triathletes rely on pain relievers during an Ironman, which may do more harm than good. 

Be sure to follow a smart training and fuelling regimen to develop a body that adapts well to training stress, instead of just swallowing a pill to mask any discomfort.

To read the entire article, read more HERE.