To start off, we have created the Torq Fueling System as a very simple means to understand what, when, and how much fuel to consume per hour of exercise.
All in all, you need to consumer between 30-90g of carbohydrate per hour, depending on intensity of exercise.
- Each Torq single serving of a Gel, Bar, Jelly packet, or Energy Sachet (makes 500ml or 16oz bottle), is 30g of carbs
- With Torq's blend of multiple-transportable carbohydrates, you can safely ingest up to 90g of carbohydrate per hour
- In hotter (greater perspiration) conditions, leverage Torq gels and energy drink mix to provide both fuel and electrolytes
- In cooler conditions, favor our Torq organic bars, jellies, and/or gels (more solid foods) vs biasing the bottle. If you're not perspiring, the water needs to go somewhere...
Lets move to the next level...
The world of professional sport is an environment in which the word “stagnation” sends shivers down the spines of athletes. The investment in new cutting-edge practices forever pushes the boundaries of performance and nutrition is one area that is being forever refined. Optimized nutrition is allowing athletes to go faster, further and recover more quickly than ever before.
With elite athletes being able to cycle, run and swim faster than ever before, the energy requirements for these efforts is also increasing and with that comes an increased need to take fuel onboard. It’s now frequently reported that elite athletes are pushing the scientifically recommended carbohydrate ingestion rates from 60-90g per hour to 120g per hour. So, what does the data suggest about these exceptionally high carbohydrate ingestion rates?
A study from Pfeiffer et al., (2012) aimed to gather data insights into the nutritional practices of athletes in a real-world setting. The study documented fuel and fluid intake during professional Ironman races and explored how these nutritional interventions are linked to Ironman finishing times and the development of gastro-intestinal (GI) distress.
The graph below shows data collected from Ironman Hawaii 2009. With each dot representing an individual athlete, you can see how those who consumed more carbohydrate typically completed the Ironman in a faster time. Interestingly, the athlete who ingested 120g of carbohydrate per hour was the fastest to finish, although it can’t be ignored that the second fastest to finish consumed considerably less (around 80g per hour). The trend however, which must not be overlooked, is that there was certainly a correlation between high carbohydrate ingestion and better finishing time. Interestingly, the high carbohydrate practices the athletes were implementing here were actually well ahead of the research as there were no official recommendations for these levels of intakes.
But what about stomach upset, or what’s more scientifically referred to as gastrointestinal (GI) distress? Well, the prevalence of GI distress did increase as the carbohydrate ingestion rates increased, with the study suggesting that this was most likely down to factors such as dehydration as well as the overconsumption of carbohydrates, which we will discuss in more detail later.
In line with these practices being well ahead of the research, the research team in the Pfeiffer et al., (2012) study suggested that better advice was needed to support athletes to make more informed nutritional choices, especially when ingesting such high rates of carbohydrate. This type of education would help athletes determine a nutritional strategy that would support the specific physical/environmental demands of certain training sessions or races to maximize performance and/or training adaptation.
Skipping forward to the present day, this is a strategy that we see being implemented far more frequently – a concept known as “periodized nutrition”. Here athletes look at the demands of a days’ training sessions ahead of schedule and adapt their nutritional strategy accordingly, paying particular attention to their carbohydrate and hydration requirements.
Current Carbohydrate Recommendations
Variable hourly carbohydrate recommendations exist based upon the intensity and duration of the exercise session. It’s only in extreme circumstances where we see the established recommendations of 30g–90g of carbohydrate per hour being exceeded to reach 120g per hour.
At this point, you may be wondering what 30g, 60g, 90g or 120g of carbohydrate per hour looks like? Allow us to introduce you to the Torq Fueling System, a fueling guide meticulously refined over 15 years and molded by sports and exercise science research. The Torq Fueling System has been painstakingly engineered to support the energy and hydration demands of the body during training and racing. Each TORQ fueling product, be it 500ml of Energy Drink, an Energy Gel, Energy Bar or Energy Jellies pack contains 30g of carbohydrate, or 1 Torq Unit. Below we take a look at some specific exercise examples, helping you to understand how many TORQ units you should be aiming to consume per hour:
1 Torq Unit (30g Carbohydrate): If you’ve never really used energy and hydration products in a structured way before, start with just 1 Torq Unit per hour. If for instance, you’re completing a relaxed session at a sociable pace, but you plan on being out for a prolonged period of time, regularly consuming 30g of carbohydrate will help you to enjoy the experience and you won’t feel so drained after you’ve finished.
If you do choose to try 1 Torq Unit per hour and find that you run out of energy towards the end of your exercise session, consider moving up to 2 Torq Units per hour on the following occasion and see if this fixes the problem. You don’t just have to be a novice to consider consuming 1 Torq Unit per hour either. You could be a serious athlete, but the exercise session you have planned is so low in intensity that you require a much lower level of fueling than you would if the intensity/duration were to be higher.
2 TORQ Units (60g Carbohydrate): If you’ve used energy products before and really want to notice a difference in your endurance performance, stick diligently to 2 Torq Units per hour. This will deliver some noticeable results, extending time to exhaustion (you’ll last longer) and will afford you a higher pace (you’ll be able to push harder and faster). 2 TORQ Units per hour is a comfortable and effective level of fueling and represents our default position here at TORQ, because many people we speak to chronically under-fuel and 60g per hour gets them to a solid and progressive fueling position.
3 TORQ Units (90g Carbohydrate) Consuming 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour has long been considered optimal for brands combining glucose derivatives with fructose at a 2:1 ratio as TORQ does. It’s at 3 TORQ Units per hour where the Torq Fueling System starts to deliver the highest levels of performance. In the same way that a highly tuned sports car has to burn more fuel to deliver the performance the driver needs, if you want the best physical performances, the more fuel you can deliver to your muscles, the faster and further you will go.
