Carb Loading and Calories Burned

TheRayOD2014

To keep the question quick and simple, a lot of carb calculators out there are giving me 4-500g of carbs for a 3 day load. However, the days leading up I’m still trying to eat at maintenance and burning 1000-400 calories of exercise. When eating these back, do you further consume carbohydrates or stick with the specific grams given?

cmriverside

"a 3 day load"?

Sounds like a competition phrase of some sort. If it's about gaining weight, there is a Gaining weight subforum,or maybe even the Fitness subforum? Your question confuses me (but I haven't had coffee!)
..also, what do you mean by this?

burning 1000-400 calories of exercise

I'm just asking in case someone may need correct info to answer you...1000-400? Did you mean 100-400? Or something else?

In general, when I am logging exercise I just eat what I want for the extra calories. I do usually eat protein, fat and carbs in every meal and snack so do what you want in general for the macros... again, unless this is some specific competition thing.

TheRayOD2014

cmriverside wrote: »

"a 3 day load"?

Sounds like a competition phrase of some sort. If it's about gaining weight, there is a Gaining weight subforum,or maybe even the Fitness subforum? Your question confuses me (but I haven't had coffee!)
..also, what do you mean by this?

burning 1000-400 calories of exercise

I'm just asking in case someone may need correct info to answer you...1000-400? Did you mean 100-400? Or something else?

In general, when I am logging exercise I just eat what I want for the extra calories. I do usually eat protein, fat and carbs in every meal and snack so do what you want in general for the macros... again, unless this is some specific competition thing.

No not about gaining weight. About food and nutrition, specifically carbohydrates because I want to make sure I properly carbohydrate load for an endurance event lasting longer than 90 minutes. It is a specific competition thing so that’s why I wanted to ask those who frequent the food and nutrition boards here

sollyn23l2

You might have more luck in one of the other groups. Carb loading is a really niche thing. But, at it's base, it's just eating plenty of carbs to make sure your muscles are preloaded with as much energy as possible. I would say just go on a higher carb diet for a few days. Things like rice, pasta, beans, bread, etc. You could stay within your calorie limits, just make sure a majority of your calories are from carbs, then protein. 3 days seem like a rather long carb load though. Maybe one full day? The day before the event.

littlegreenparrot1

I have done a couple of ultra running events, so 8 hrs up on the move.

A couple of days before hand I'm not doing much purposeful exercise, and just eat well. Not specifically more as such, but certainly not scrimping.
Bowl of porridge in the morning and ready to go.

Over that sort of period of time what matters more is how you fuel on the move. What I ate three days before isn't really relevant. Regarding the exact numbers of carbohydrate I pay no attention to it, seem to be cracking along ok without worrying about it.

AnnPT77

TheRayOD2014 wrote: »

To keep the question quick and simple, a lot of crearb calculators out there are giving me 4-500g of carbs for a 3 day load. However, the days leading up I’m still trying to eat at maintenance and burning 1000-400 calories of exercise. When eating these back, do you further consume carbohydrates or stick with the specific grams given?

Too quick and simple, maybe? What kind of event are you prepping for? By doing any kind of carb loading for endurance events, you're trying to top up your glycogen stores, which is going to be at least more challenging if you're exercising that much right up to the event.

For most kinds of events that would benefit from loading, seems like you'd want to be doing a taper, and that taper would be complemented by a carb load: IOW, you stop so aggressively emptying your glycogen stores, and start more-aggressively filling them. A thousand calories of exercise within 3 days of the event seems . . . hmm . . . in that context.

For a range of events, loading may not even be that important. For the kind of events I'm most familiar with (short endurance), the taper would be more vital than the load, IMU. For your events? Dunno.

To try to answer your question more specifically, you're going to eat those calories (from exercise, if you do exercise) or you're not eating at maintenance. It doesn't seem like there's likely any harm in getting extra carbs in those extra calories. Your glycogen stores can't get much fuller than full, but if you need the calories, you have to eat something.

Depending on what you're doing, you might want to limit fiber-dense carbs.

sollyn23l2 wrote: »

You might have more luck in one of the other groups. Carb loading is a really niche thing. But, at it's base, it's just eating plenty of carbs to make sure your muscles are preloaded with as much energy as possible. I would say just go on a higher carb diet for a few days. Things like rice, pasta, beans, bread, etc. You could stay within your calorie limits, just make sure a majority of your calories are from carbs, then protein. 3 days seem like a rather long carb load though. Maybe one full day? The day before the event.

If a person really wants to carb load, it can be more technical than that. There are various recommended combinations of exercise-load changes timed with carbohydrate intake changes, with programs in various lengths usually in the 1-6 day range. 3 days is used in some common forms.

sollyn23l2

AnnPT77 wrote: »

TheRayOD2014 wrote: »

To keep the question quick and simple, a lot of crearb calculators out there are giving me 4-500g of carbs for a 3 day load. However, the days leading up I’m still trying to eat at maintenance and burning 1000-400 calories of exercise. When eating these back, do you further consume carbohydrates or stick with the specific grams given?

Too quick and simple, maybe? What kind of event are you prepping for? By doing any kind of carb loading for endurance events, you're trying to top up your glycogen stores, which is going to be at least more challenging if you're exercising that much right up to the event.

For most kinds of events that would benefit from loading, seems like you'd want to be doing a taper, and that taper would be complemented by a carb load: IOW, you stop so aggressively emptying your glycogen stores, and start more-aggressively filling them. A thousand calories of exercise within 3 days of the event seems . . . hmm . . . in that context.

For a range of events, loading may not even be that important. For the kind of events I'm most familiar with (short endurance), the taper would be more vital than the load, IMU. For your events? Dunno.

To try to answer your question more specifically, you're going to eat those calories (from exercise, if you do exercise) or you're not eating at maintenance. It doesn't seem like there's likely any harm in getting extra carbs in those extra calories. Your glycogen stores can't get much fuller than full, but if you need the calories, you have to eat something.

Depending on what you're doing, you might want to limit fiber-dense carbs.

sollyn23l2 wrote: »

You might have more luck in one of the other groups. Carb loading is a really niche thing. But, at it's base, it's just eating plenty of carbs to make sure your muscles are preloaded with as much energy as possible. I would say just go on a higher carb diet for a few days. Things like rice, pasta, beans, bread, etc. You could stay within your calorie limits, just make sure a majority of your calories are from carbs, then protein. 3 days seem like a rather long carb load though. Maybe one full day? The day before the event.

If a person really wants to carb load, it can be more technical than that. There are various recommended combinations of exercise-load changes timed with carbohydrate intake changes, with programs in various lengths usually in the 1-6 day range. 3 days is used in some common forms.

Agreed. Much better answer than I could ever give.