carbohydrate intake guidelines for athletes

carbohydrate intake guidelines for athletes

the IOC suggests that athletes with considerable and prolonged energy demands of training should have a high-carbohydrate diet, increasing CHO intake to 65-70% of dietary energy. However, due to the high total energy intake of athletes, population dietary guidelines that recommend a CHO component of at least 50-55% are in most cases appropriate also for the health needs and fuel requirements of athletes. For athletes, therefore, the recommended CHO intake is usually expressed in grams per day or grams per day per kg body mass, rather than as a percentage of the total.

Table 1: Carbohydrate intake guidelines for athletes

Purpose	Intake per kg body mass	Intake for body mass of 70 kg
To accumulate muscle glycogen for endurance events of 1-3 hours at moderate to high intensity	7-10 g daily	490-700 g daily
To accumulate muscle glycogen for endurance events of 4-5 hours at moderate to high intensity	10-12 g daily	700-840 g daily
To increase availability before a long session	1-4 g within 4 hours of start	70-280 g within 4 hours of start
To maintain CHO supply during moderate or intermittent exercise lasting longer than 1 hour	0.5-1.0 g hourly	40-70 g hourly
To assist recovery of muscle glycogen, when interval between exercise sessions is only a few hours	1 g immediately after exercise, repeated after 2 hours	70 g repeated