Carbs and Electrolytes are not the same thing. They both play a vital role in performance but are often not consumed in harmony with one another. Here's how to work both into your nutrition plan to ensure you get the most out of your training and racing.
Beyond High Carb
High-carb is the thing in sports nutrition. Innovations have created ways to put an immense amount of carbohydrates in products and make them 100% digestible without causing cramps and what the scientists call "gastric distress." Athletes who train their bodies to utilize this fuel have been able to push to new limits. HPT athlete Magnus Ditlev consumes about 140-180g of carbs an hour to fuel his record-setting IRONMAN course times.
When done right, high-carb fueling is like magic. However, with all this focus on carbs and calories, some athletes are forgetting the thing we’ve been so obsessed with for decades: hydration. If carbs are the gas that give you power, hydration is the oil. You need both to make everything work
Strategy
A modern fueling strategy breaks fueling into two parts: fuel (carbs) and hydration (electrolytes). Both are crucial, but you will fail faster without electrolytes.
Carbohydrates are the fuel you need for all endurance events. During moderate to intense training, you will burn around 180g of carbs per hour, depending on body weight. The goal is to replenish 50% of what you are burning. This is why 90g per hour is currently the gold standard for what you should consume per hour for maximum performance benefits.
Electrolytes are essential minerals, like sodium, potassium, and magnesium. They are in nearly every cell of the body and essentially keep our bodies functioning. For simplicity, we like to focus just on sodium levels when determining how much you need per hour and when comparing different hydration products.
If you run out of carbohydrates, you bonk. But you can also eat and replenish carbohydrates during your workout.
If you become dehydrated, you are done for the day. You can’t really recover from dehydration during your workout. You’ll need to stop and rehydrate post-workout. When you get dehydrated, everything goes wrong—you lose strength, your muscles cramp, and your key processes for converting energy all stop working. You really don’t want this to happen.
How-to Guide
Eat your carbs and drink your electrolytes.
Gels, chews, and bars are your source for carbs. High-carb drinks can also work, but we think of them as "extra," not your primary carb source. What’s most important is that you have a bottle (or hydration pack) with a medium to high sodium electrolyte drink.
Electrolytes aid the digestion of carbs. High-carb products rarely have enough electrolytes in them. This requires the body to need additional hydration to consume them. Consuming massive amounts of carbohydrates without proper electrolyte hydration can actually be dehydrating to the body.
When electrolytes and carbs are separate, you can drink when you’re thirsty without taking on extra carbs and disrupting your fueling strategy (and you can consume a gel/chew/bar without needing to take on more fluids). Plus, bodies naturally crave more hydration when consuming food. Having a dedicated electrolyte bottle lets you quench your thirst and properly aid digestion to maintain proper levels of hydration.
Pairing Examples:
Mortal Hydration (600-1000mg Electrolytes) + Maurten Gel 160 (40g Carbs)
Precision Hydration (1000-1500mg Electrolytes) + Amacx Turbo Gel (40g Carbs)
