The best hydrating solution is unique to an individual's sweat analysis. The ideal goal is to replace exactly what an athlete is losing, and this concentration can range significantly from one person to the next.

Some people are "saltier" sweaters than others and require more electrolytes to maintain appropriate hydration levels. You can start by getting a sweat analysis that tests your sweat's sodium concentration, but if this isn't an option, you can look out for the following:.

While having an endurance fueling strategy is very important and pivotal to your training performance, it is not something you want to test for the first time on race day. We want to train the way we race. Testing your endurance nutrition strategies during practice is essential for several reasons:.

Innovation is the lifeblood of BPN. We're constantly studying and trialing new ingredients to stay informed and work to become a leader in the industry. Skip to content. The Endurance FUEL GUIDE August 24, What does it mean to fuel for endurance training properly? Imagine a vehicle.

It uses fuel as its primary energy source to power its engine and move. The speed at which that vehicle moves directly affects fuel economy and consumption.

We are born with an internal engine. We can build that engine to become stronger and more efficient through training and physical adaptations, but it will always require a fuel source to work. What happens when you don't fuel properly? Inadequate fueling before a run and failing to maintain a nutrition strategy on large endurance efforts can lead to: Fatigue and reduced performance Muscle cramps and weakness Delayed recovery Reduced focus and mental processing Dizziness and Nausea Adequate fueling before, during, and after endurance training is essential for maximizing performance, enhancing recovery, optimizing hydration, and protecting overall health and well-being.

Carbohydrates and electrolytes Carbohydrates play a vital role in supporting endurance training by providing the primary source of fuel for both the muscles and the brain. The amount of sodium loss during one hour of exercise can vary widely depending on factors such as an individual's sweat rate, exercise intensity, environmental conditions, and fitness level.

On average, during moderate-intensity exercise, a person may lose about 1, mg of sodium per hour but can increase to as high as 3, mg of sodium per hour.

BPN's G. M Sport G. Traditional sports drinks typically utilize a higher osmotic pressure carbohydrate source, which results in stomach discomfort, gas, bloating, and belching. M Sport is naturally sweetened with Stevia and Monk Fruit.

BPN's Electrolytes Our electrolytes contain mg of sodium per serving with no sugar added. How Do I get Started? Less than 30 minutes of moderate physical activity:. M Sport mixed in water minutes before exercise. Post run. How to customize your fuel strategy Several factors influence an endurance fueling strategy, as each athlete has unique needs and requirements.

Begin by adding 2 scoops of G. M Sport , mixed in water, and slowly sipped on throughout the workout to maintain appropriate fueling requirements during longer duration or high-intensity training sessions.

Sweat Rate Individuals have varying sweat rates, which influence their hydration needs. You can start by getting a sweat analysis that tests your sweat's sodium concentration, but if this isn't an option, you can look out for the following: Visible Salt Crystals: After an intense workout, you may notice white, salty reside on your skin or clothing.

This is caused by the crystallization of salt as sweat evaporates. Salty Taste: If you've ever tasted your sweat during or after exercise, and it tastes noticeably salty, it could indicate a higher sodium concentration. Stinging or Burning: Salty sweat can sometimes cause a stinging or burning sensation on the skin, particularly in areas where sweat accumulates and evaporates.

Dehydration Susceptibility: Individuals with a higher sodium concentration in their sweat may be more prone to dehydration during exercise, as they lose more sodium and fluids in their sweat. Begin by adding an additional serving of electrolytes mg sodium to your pre-workout nutrition and an additional serving of electrolytes to your intra-workout nutrition.

Train the way you race While having an endurance fueling strategy is very important and pivotal to your training performance, it is not something you want to test for the first time on race day.

Testing your endurance nutrition strategies during practice is essential for several reasons: Identify what works for you.

Everyone's bodies react differently to various foods and nutrition approaches. You can determine what works best for your specific needs and preferences by testing different strategies during practice.

Avoid potential issues during races or events. If you have yet to test your nutrition strategies in practice, you may encounter unexpected problems during a race or competition.

Build confidence. Knowing that your nutrition plan has worked well during practice gives you the confidence to trust your strategy during the event.

Train your gut. Just like training your muscles, your gastrointestinal system needs adaptation to handle the nutrition demands of endurance activities. It is also very energy consuming.

Because the body knows that, it does its best to never run out of energy. Since the body cannot predict when and what kind of food will be available to it especially in nature food is a potentially very scarce resource , it stores energy for future use. The first amount of excess energy in the form of carbohydrates the body stores as glycogen in the liver and muscles, and when these stores are full, the body could in theory transform carbohydrates into fat.

Many modern people have problems with obesity. To put it simply, this is because we consume too much food, providing our body with much more energy than it is able to spend. In the developed world, there is an overabundance of food, but in the medieval times, obesity was considered a sign of wealth — and during a cold winter when food was scarce for all, obese people had a much greater chance of survival, as their bodies had large stores of energy available to them like keeping money in a bank account.

While fat is a very smart way through which the body can store almost limitless amounts of energy, it is not a very efficient source of energy due to complex metabolic processes that need plenty of time and numerous enzymes.

Moreover, if we want to use fats, we need oxygen, and there is lack of oxygen in our tissues during high intensity efforts. Given that fat is abundant in humans, we mostly focus on getting the carbohydrate intake right — because depleting carbohydrate stores will unavoidably lead to fatigue, as we cannot utilize fats at the same rate as we can carbohydrates.

The body loves its glycogen stores, just like most people love money in their bank accounts. Quite naturally, because it makes it feel safe. Glycogen is stored in close proximity to the muscle fibers and is thus readily available to be used.

Why bother using fats that need to come from adipose tissue? As time progresses and glycogen stores start to decline, we slowly increase fat oxidation rates, but we never cease to use carbohydrates. And when we run out of carbohydrates, we simply stop due to fatigue.

During exercise, especially intense exercise, our body burns through its glycogen stores fairly quickly. Athletes store from to grams of glycogen in their bodies, which fuels them for 90 to minutes of high intensity exercise.

At this point we either stop or need to drastically reduce the intensity, and neither option is what we want. Depleting our glycogen stores has several other downsides attached to it as well.

Once we run out of glycogen, the body might get the brilliant idea to start looking for energy elsewhere. And where could it look? Hack, sometimes the body might go after muscles even when there is plenty of fat lying around.

Finally, letting the body run out of its natural resources, i. Our ability to perform over a longer period of time will drop severely, perhaps to the point of complete inactivity either because of long-lasting fatigue or because our body will simply break down and succumb to an endless series of injuries.

Whether we are professional endurance athletes or amateur athletes simply trying to maintain a decently active lifestyle, we want to keep our bodies fueled and our glycogen stores locked and loaded.

In turn, our body will run smoothly, recover efficiently, and keep our muscles steadily growing. Our stress hormones will be under control and our physical performance will not only improve but keep improving over a prolonged period of time.

Now that we are clear on this, we should ask the simple question — how do we do that? Our body gets glycogen from carbohydrates, so to replenish our glycogen stores, we need to consume the right amount of carbohydrates.

And what is the right amount, you ask? Well, that depends. To simplify the life of endurance athletes and all people involved in sports who wish to keep carbohydrates readily available, we have devised a simple on the surface yet deceptively sophisticated system which allows us to fuel during exercise in a manner that is easy and clear but also accurate and efficient.

This fueling system is based on a unit of energy we named Nrgy Unit. The Nrgy Unit is designed to provide the best type of fuel to your body in the right amount and right combination while keeping everything as simple as counting to two.

To determine exactly how many Nrgy Units you need, check out our fueling calculator! The most efficient way to fuel during exercise is either with sports drinks or energy gels. Nrgy Unit Drink and Nrgy Unit Gel are both based on the Nrgy Unit system, so you can freely mix and match the two and be fully aware of your exact caloric intake.

Nrgy Unit Drink and Nrgy Unit Gel are based on the This ratio has been confirmed by the renowned nutritionist Professor David S. Rowlands and his team to be the most efficient combination of carbohydrates to be ingested during exercise. Glucose and fructose use different transporters from the intestine to the bloodstream, which means the body can absorb more energy if both transporters are used simultaneously.

Consuming only glucose e. The Being able to maximize the intake of carbohydrates during exercise is a big deal. While an amateur athlete will need some dedicated testing to realize proper fueling improves their performance, professional endurance athletes depend on proper fueling to get them through the day.

The Nrgy Unit, based on the In my view, stronger, bigger, and better athletes could be ingesting and subsequently utilizing larger amounts of carbohydrates than the currently recommended 90 grams per hour. However, this is still merely a speculation, and we scientists are working hard to answer this question.

To function properly during physical activity, our body needs fuel. This becomes increasingly important with the intensity and frequency of our exercise. The right type of fuel allows us to consume more carbohydrates, which means more calories and ultimately more energy.

The Nrgy Unit represents 45 grams of carbohydrates, which equals calories. Nrgy Unit Drink and Nrgy Unit Gel are both based on the Nrgy Unit, which allows us to consume a sufficient amount of calories as freely and efficiently as possible. The amount of Nrgy Units we need depends on the intensity of our exercise, but one Nrgy Unit should be enough for most physical activities, while two Nrgy Units are meant for high-intensity exercise.

These may be single-activity events such as ultra runs, or multi-sport events like triathlons. It takes a lot of energy to power through endurance events.

This energy comes in the form of nutrition. Getting the proper nutrition for endurance and energy is important whether you are an elite or recreational athlete. Events vary, as do athletes and your everyday personal training clients.

So, it should be no surprise that an endurance diet is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Factors to consider include body weight, environmental conditions, and nutrient timing, just to name a few. Each client will have different needs for different events. Finding the best solution may involve starting with basic nutrition recommendations.

Finding the best diet for endurance is often a trial-and-error process. As always, keep your scope of practice in mind as a personal trainer—make sure you're cleared to talk about nutrition with clients.

Now, let's dig into the details of dietary needs for endurance. Macronutrients are the basic components of the food we eat. These are carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Eating macros in proper ratios fuel your endurance. Healthy adult eating includes ratios of:.

Adjust these ratios based on the goal of the physical activity. For example, an endurance athlete would increase their carb percentage to improve muscle glycogen stores. A strength athlete would consume a higher protein intake. This would better support building more muscle mass. Carbs come in different forms.

Two to know are simple and complex carbs. Simple carbs , also known as simple sugars, have one to two sugar molecules. These include glucose, dextrose, or fructose. Simple carbs break down quickly in the body.

Foods with simple sugars include fruits, milk, vegetables, table sugar, candy, and soft drinks. They supply energy but lack fiber, vitamins, and other key nutrients. Complex carbs have three or more sugar molecules. You'll find these in foods like beans, whole grains, whole-wheat pasta, potatoes, corn, and legumes.

So, which kind of carbohydrate should you consume? Most carbs should come from complex sources and naturally occurring sugars. Processed carbs and refined sugars should be limited or avoided. How many carbs should endurance athletes eat? There will be some differences based on the type and duration of training.

This helps support the high volume of glucose needed for that level of physical activity. Each carb has 4 calories per gram. Endurance athletes should eat 8 to 10 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram kg of body weight per day.

This will depend on the duration of their endurance event. For endurance training lasting 4 to 5 hours, endurance athletes should consume 10 grams per kilogram of body weight. For example, an endurance runner who weighs 70 kg and competes in an endurance event lasting 4 hours or more should consume a minimum of grams of carbohydrate daily.

In comparison, a power athlete would consume fewer carbs around 4 to 5 grams per kilogram of body weight. A power athlete's focus would be more so to increase protein intake.

Many people focus only on carbs for endurance exercise. However, protein intake for endurance athletes is equally important. The purpose of protein is to build and replenish lean muscle tissue.

Protein also acts as a source of energy in times of caloric deficits. Animal-based protein, as the name implies, is protein that comes from animals. This type of protein is considered a complete protein. It is complete because it contains all nine essential amino acids.

Animal-based protein sources include:. Plant-based protein is protein that comes from plants. Plant-based protein is considered an incomplete protein. This isn't to say it is bad, it just doesn't have all essential amino acids. Plant-based protein sources include:.

Protein has 4 calories per gram. How much protein do you need to eat? Protein intake for a normal healthy adult is around 0. Endurance athletes should eat protein at 1.

Athletes taking part in longer endurance events need more protein than those running shorter distances. For example, endurance athletes weighing 70 kg would need to consume 98 grams of protein daily to support their endurance exercise. Athletes who take part in strength or power sports will consume up to 2.

Endurance athletes on a plant-based diet will have an increased protein requirement. This is due to a plant-based diet consisting of incomplete proteins. Endurance athletes need healthy fats in their diet.

Supply two fatty acids the body can't manufacture linoleic acid and linolenic acid. There are many types of fat, some good and some not. The most significant types are triglycerides, fatty acids, phospholipids, and cholesterol.

Of these, triglycerides are most commonly found in food. Fatty acids break down further into saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats. Endurance athletes need to minimize the amount of saturated fat consumed. Most fat calories should be in the form of monounsaturated fatty acids.

When adding fat to your diet to keep up with the demands of endurance training, focus your fat intake on healthy fats 1. This includes:. In addition to the three macros, endurance athletes also benefit from some specific micronutrients.

Two to consider are vitamins C and D. Vitamin C is perhaps best known for boosting immunity. But it also serves other important purposes. One is that it is an antioxidant, protecting the cells against free radical damage. Another is that it supports wound healing. According to a study , vitamin C also helps athletes recover during the competitive season 2.

Citrus fruits and potatoes are high in vitamin C. When it comes to endurance training, eating the recommended amounts of macronutrients at specific times can help increase your stamina and success. Carbohydrates are one of the most important nutrients to focus on for endurance training.

Your body breaks down consumed carbohydrates into sugar, or quick energy which can be used for exercise and brain function. The day prior to your endurance training or event, aim for a carbohydrate rich diet of at least 6 grams per kilogram of body weight and up to 7—12 grams per kilogram in the 24 hour period before the event 1.

Example: pounds divided by 2. During the endurance activity, aim for grams per hour if your activity is less than 2. After the training, it's still important to keep fueled with carbohydrate foods or drinks every few hours.

Protein is also a really important nutrient for training. It also helps repair and strengthen muscle tissue, both improving performance and preventing injuries or soreness 2. In general as an athlete it's recommended to have about 1.

Before the endurance activity, go for 0. If exercise is intense, aim for about 0. After the endurance training, try for 0. Fat is also essential for overall health and endurance training.

Dietary fat plays a crucial role in joint structure, hormone production, cell health, and absorption of fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, K 4. It can be helpful to limit fat before and during training though since it can cause stomach issues, as it takes longer to digest.

We all sweat at different rates which means our needs are different. The weigh-in and weigh-out approach is also helpful for understanding how much fluids you may be losing. Endurance workouts also increase the loss of electrolytes minerals such as sodium, calcium, and potassium which are keys to many of our body functions including our heart.

Learn which ones you may need here: Everything You Need To Know About Sports Drinks And Gels. Stomach upset is common for athletes since the blood flows to working muscles 5.

This helps redirect your blood flow back to your stomach.