The Right Way to Fuel by Steve Born

In our search for improvements to performance and recovery times while training hard on the bike, and to understand more about replenishing your body during and following exercise we would like to share this article with you -

"Your body is extraordinarily designed and knows how to regulate itself when it comes to fueling. During prolonged exercise it does need your help, but you must cooperate with your body’s innate survival mechanisms. Give your body “a helping hand” by providing it with what it can effectively assimilate (instead of trying to replace everything it’s losing), and I absolutely guarantee that you will feel better during exercise and enjoy dramatic performance improvements.

What this means is that the body cannot replace fluids and nutrients at the same rate it depletes them. Yes, the body needs your assistance in replenishing what it loses, but that donation must be in amounts that cooperate with normal body mechanisms, not in amounts that override them. Here’s an important fact to keep in mind: at an easy aerobic pace, the metabolic rate increases 1200-2000% over the sedentary state. As a result, the body goes into “survival mode,” where blood volume is routed to working muscles, fluids are used for evaporative cooling mechanisms, and oxygen is routed to the brain, heart, and other internal organisms. With all this going on, your body isn’t terribly interested in handling large quantities of calories, fluids, and electrolytes; its priorities lie elsewhere.
Your body already “knows” it is unable to immediately replenish calories, fluids, and electrolytes at the same rate it uses/loses them, and it has the ability to effectively deal with this issue. That’s why we don’t recommend trying to replace hourly losses of calories, fluids, and electrolytes with loss amounts. Instead, we recommend smaller replenishment amounts that cooperate with normal body mechanisms.
Based on what science has shown us, plus over two decades of working with athletes, we have determined the following ranges as ideal for most athletes the majority of the time for maintaining optimum exercise performance:

•    Fluids: 12-24 ounces hourly (350 to 700 mls)
•    Sodium chloride (salt) in a balanced formula with other electrolytic minerals: 100-600 mg hourly         
•    Calories: 150-280 calories hourly

Of course, there are many individual variations that you will need to consider (age, weight, training/racing stress, fitness, acclimatization levels, weather conditions) to determine what works best for you. Some athletes will need less than these suggested amounts, a handful slightly more. Certain circumstances require flexibility. For instance, hot weather and high-impact exercise, such as the run portion of a long-distance triathlon. Hot weather usually means lower hourly calorie intake, a slightly higher fluid intake, and an increased electrolyte intake. High impact exercise such as running does better with roughly 30%-50% lower caloric intake per hour than what you’d consume during a less jarring exercise such as cycling.
 

We have been advocating the “less is best” recommendation for over two decades. Sadly, many athletes continue to listen to “consume what you lose” propaganda, arguing that nutrients and water need to be replaced immediately. This is neither true nor possible; fluids, calories, and electrolytes cannot be replaced 100%, or even 50%. As a result of following this flawed advice, athletes continue to experience cramping, vomiting, gastric distress, diarrhea, and other problems. The safe rule of thumb is to replenish at about one-third of loss values, obviously adjusting as conditions dictate.

Proper fueling is consuming the least amount necessary to keep your body doing what you want it to do hour after hour. And if you do err on the “not enough” side, that’s a lot easier problem to resolve than an “uh oh, I overdid it” problem. We’re pretty darn sure once you get away from those 500-700 calorie and liter-of fluid-an-hour regimens, your body will perform much better, you’ll feel better, and you’ll get the results you trained so hard for."

Thanks to Steve Born for the use of this article.
Steve Born is a technical advisor for Hammer Nutrition with over two decades of involvement in the health food industry. He has worked with hundreds of athletes—ranging from the recreational athlete to world-class professional athlete—helping them to optimize their supplement/fueling program. Steve is a three-time RAAM finisher, the 1994 Furnace Creek 508 Champion, 1999 runner-up, the only cyclist in history to complete a Double Furnace Creek 508, and is the holder of two Ultra Marathon Cycling records. In February 2004 Steve was inducted into the Ultra Marathon Cycling Hall of Fame.
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