Carbohydrate Gels & Powders Vs Real Food: What's BEST To Fuel The Ride?

Today, we explore whether a food-first approach is better than a supplemental approach to fuelling your rides.

Carbohydrate (CHO) recommendations during endurance-based sports are based on duration and intensity. Of which, the greater the duration or intensity, the greater the amount of CHO needed to maintain work capacity.

CHO recommendations are highly individualised and require experimenting, but the general guidelines to use as a starting point are as follows:

• <60 mins = no need for CHO during
• 60-120 mins = 30g CHO/hour
• 120-180 mins – 60g CHO/hour
• >3 hours = 90g/CHO hour (sometimes 100-120g CHO/hour).

If intensity is higher per unit of time, these recommendations can be shifted to the right. I.e. 60g CHO/Hour may be appropriate for rides lasting 60-120 mins, etc.

Ultimately, hitting these CHO hourly quotas can be challenging. The main determinants are palatability (flavour fatigue), logistics, or gastrointestinal issues (tolerability).⁣

Therefore, what's the best way to fuel exercise to meet your body's demands: Food (bars, fruit, etc.) or CHO supplements (drinks, gels, chews, etc.)?⁣

A recent 2022 review by Reynolds et al. concluded that foods and supplements had an equal performance-enhancing effect on endurance performance.⁣

However, athletes were at greater risk of gastrointestinal issues when fuelling their sessions with food products vs supplemental products, particularly when exercise lasted >2 hours.⁣

Gastrointestinal issues during exercise often arise as there's less blood in the gut to aid with digestion and absorption of nutrients. This is because more blood is directed to the working muscles to support performance (fight or flight vs rest and digest).

Therefore, having harder-to-digest, solid food will further amplify this issue, especially when time, quantity or intensity increases. i.e. <120 mins where 30g CHO/hour is recommended may be OK as the gastrointestinal load is small, whereas hitting 90-120g CHO/hour for events lasting >3 hours may be problematic.

As cliché as this sounds, everyone is different, and each cyclist will have their preferred food or supplements to help fuel their ride. Therefore, a well-practised and formulated fuelling plan is essential to get the best of both: Peak performance whilst keeping gastrointestinal issues at bay.

If you need help figuring out where to start, stick with what you know currently works and build upon this. When your training rides become more prolonged, we recommend rotating through multiple CHO sources.

For example: To hit 90g CHO/hour, you may have a 30-40g CHO drink that you 'drip feed' throughout the hour, then have an energy gel at 20 mins (~20g CHO) and an energy bar (~20g CHO) at 40 mins.

If you're looking to consume CHO intakes higher than 90g per hour, composite CHO products would be favourable, as glucose and fructose uptake will increase. This is where newly formulated products such as SIS Beta Fuel, Maurten 320, Styrkr Mix90, Skratch Labs Superfuel mix, etc., can be beneficial during very demanding rides, as each bottle will provide ~80-100g CHO. Therefore, there's less load to carry and easier to consume, as it's often difficult to ingest food when breathing hard.

In contrast, during easier zone 2 rides, you may want to opt for more solid-based foods, such as bars and bananas, as this will keep you satiated whilst on the ride and, most likely, cause minimal GI issues as there the gut will have the adequate blood supply to support digestion and absorption, unlike challenging rides where appetite is suppressed, and there's reduced blood flow to the gut.

General principle:

• High Intensity Rides = Preference for supplements
• Moderate Intensity Rides = Preference for both supplements and food
• Low-Intensity Rides = Preference for food

Ultimately, there's no right or wrong to fuel the ride, assuming that the CHO you consume is appropriate to meet the body's demands. Personal Preference is essential, assuming you hit the hourly quotas and experience minimal GI distress; the options to Fuel The Ride are endless.

- Coach Chris