Fuelling for faster times? New study suggests maybe not

It is a commonly held belief amongst runners that taking carbohydrates both before and during a race is a key component of success.

Gatorade, eLoad and various gels and ‘race fuels’ are plentiful during both training and racing, and aim to offset and extend the consumption of available carbohydrate stores.

However, a recent review of over 16,600 articles pertaining to carbohydrate use by athletes during sport performance yielded some surprising results.

Of the 16,658 articles originally screened, only about 150 were considered of adequate quality to be used in the review. The majority of studies were excluded because they “fail to reflect competitive real-life situations” such that athletes begin in a fasted state and/or require them to exercise to complete exhaustion, when in real life, most of us simply go ‘to the finish line.’

Eventually, only 22 “interventions” from 17 studies were used, a vast majority of them using cyclists and only one which included women.

A full half of these interventions indicated no performance improvement whatsoever, while the other half suggested a modest performance increase of from 1-13%. Most of the improvements occurred in interventions lasting more than 70 min (10 out of 17) while only one (out of 5)  intervention lasting less than this indicated any improvement to performance.

What is perhaps most surprising are not the results themselves but how few scientific studies aim to mimic ‘real-life’ situations or test the effectiveness of actual athlete practices. It is indeed difficult to control every and all aspects of a research study or intervention, but surely more attention should be made to the ways that athletes, elite or otherwise, actually act in training and competition.

But getting back to the current study: What might this mean to you?

To begin, fuelling for events lasting less than 70 min ( about 10K or less) is likely to be futile, especially if you are well-fuelled going into the event.

For longer events lasting greater than 70 min, taking fuel may improve performance moderately but not necessarily.

For events such as the marathon, it’s probably a good (essential?) idea to fuel up even if the science is inconclusive.

As always, you should definitely practice what type and how much fuel you plan to use to ensure your body can tolerate it and that it responds in a predictable way. Use long runs and ‘tune-up’ races to practice fuelling strategies including the type, total amount and timing of your intake. Absolutely DO NOT do anything new on race day (the golden rule of racing?)

Note that this article pertains specifically to fuelling DURING an endurance event and does not pertain to carbo-loading which is well-supported as a necessary aspect of endurance (specifically marathon) performance success.

So what do you do to fuel during a race? For what distance(s) do you feel it’s necessary? Agree or disagree with this study? Please share your stories.