Why Are Carbohydrates Important For Exercise?

When you exercise, carbohydrates are what your body uses as a main source of energy. Through the process of digestion, carbohydrates are broken down into smaller sugars, such as glucose, fructose and galactose.

Extra glucose will be first stored in the muscles as glycogen. Once they are filled to capacity, the liver is the next to get replenished. Any leftover now will be stored as fat.

The Role of Carbohydrates in Fueling Your Exercise

During short intense types of activities such as HIIT or Tabata, glycogen fuels muscles to perform these activities. But it can be quickly used up. Generally, most people run out of stored glycogen at around the 30-minute mark, but some people can go as long as 90 minutes. It all depends on intensity and duration as far as how fast you burn through the energy stores.

However, for long, slow activities once the glycogen in the muscles and liver are depleted, your body will turn to stored fat as an energy source. If there isn’t enough fat to fuel the activity, the body will use protein as a source of energy. However, this usually involves consuming muscle mass – something you don’t want to happen.

What is Carb-Loading?

You may have heard about carb-loading. It’s where athletes pack their glycogen stores as full as possible by eating complex carbohydrates – usually starches like breads, pastas and rice – the day before an event. This means they’ll have the energy to carry them as far as possible before they must replenish it.

With marathon and triathlon runners, replenishment is usually from sports gel packs literally eaten “on the run” about midway in the event. Those contain simple carbohydrates which are digested immediately ready for use to carry them through to the end.

How Many Carbs Can We Store?

While it varies from person-to-person, generally speaking we store about 350 grams of carbohydrates in our muscles, 90 grams in our liver and 5 grams suspended in our blood. At 4 calories per gram, that comes out to around 1,780 calories.

But some research results put this figure much higher … as much as 15 grams per kilogram or 2.2 pounds of bodyweight. Doing the math, a 175-pound athlete could store as much as 1,200 grams of glycogen or around 4,800 calories. Of course it stands to reason that the more muscle you have, the more storage capability there will be.

Because protein are the building blocks of the body and is used for muscles, bone, skin, hair and just about all other tissue creation and maintenance, it will be hard to maintain a healthy body without an adequate intake of carbohydrates.

Also, your kidneys will suffer and can even fail if overtaxed trying to get rid of the additional byproducts created from using protein as a source of energy instead of carbohydrates.

15 Foods That Are Important For Exercise

It is easy to see why carbohydrates are so important for the recreational athlete to the professionals. As you are planning your dietary intake, be sure you are getting enough carbohydrates, and of the right kind, to carry you through your training and events.

Your body also needs a certain kind of nutrition in each stage of an exercise workout. People are often amazed at how small dietary changes can reap huge results with their fitness goals. Whether you want to build muscle or improve your cardio performance, this free report 15 Foods To Eat Before & After Your Workout provides details on the superfoods you should eat to help you achieve better nutrition and a new personal best.