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In the endurance world, there can be a disconnect between what sports nutrition science shows is the best way to fuel athletic pursuits and how athletes actually choose to eat. No better example of this exists than the convoluted understanding of carbs. Even though decades of research has demonstrated the importance of this macronutrient for performance, more athletes have begun to question just how essential they are in the quantities recommended. This can partly be chalked up to the fact that carbs are heavily demonized in various segments of society, portrayed as a player in so many of our ills. An additional evolution of carb misinformation sees more athletes experimenting with higher-fat (and lower-carb) eating plans under the guise of becoming “fat-adapted.”
But what you need to know is that for the most part, the science has never wavered: Endurance athletes need carbohydrates, and lots of them. Carbohydrate is the preferred substrate during high-intensity endurance exercise, with most of that hailing from glycogen stored in the muscles and the remainder from glucose in the…
