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# Practical tips about pre-event fuelling

Okay, so let's go back to Module 5, Unit 1, slide 5.

In there, you will find the recommendations for competitive athletes made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the International Society for Sport Nutrition (ISSN), the American Dietetic Association (ADA), and the Dietitians of Canada (DC) - the world-leading authorities on sports nutrition.

These recommendations still remain up-to-date and reflect the current scientific consensus.
**1g to 4g** of carbohydrate per kg of bodyweight consumed 1 to 4 hours before exercise refers to the actual carbohydrate content in a food item or meal (and not the total weight of such food item or meal) that a competitive athlete would consume to enhance performance and power output.

There's a suggestion of a similar intake, somewhere around the middle: **2.5g** of carbohydrate per kg of bodyweight about 3 hours pre-training.

**2.5g** of carbohydrate per kg of bodyweight constitutes a *significant* meal - and even more so **4g** of carbohydrate per kg of bodyweight, which is the upper range!

So, the closer you are to the start of your training session, the smaller your meal should be (to allow for gastric emptying and avoid discomfort during the workout or event).

How much carbohydrate do foods contain?

If you go back to Module 4 (online), in your Downloadable Reference Materials section, you will find [__**this handy table with estimated carbohydrate content**__](https://courses.thehealthsciencesacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Carbohydrate-Counting-Reference-Tables.pdf) in different foods.

Carbohydrate content varies from brand to brand, but you can use this table as a starting point.

You can find more tips on how to search the [__**nutritional facts in common foods here**__](https://help.thehealthsciencesacademy.org/en/article/how-do-i-search-the-nutritional-facts-in-common-foods-mom2e/).

If you're a competitive athlete, working on extreme sessions and events, and your goal is performance enhancement (you're in it to win it!), you will want to test a carbohydrate increase slowly and gradually.

Here's what I mean:

You can create a spreadsheet with various meal options, depicting the carbohydrate content of each.

Once you have that, you can test different meal compositions 2 to 4 hours before training and track your performance markers (e.g. power output, RPM, watts, reps, load, time to exhaustion, endurance, 
stamina, agility, reaction time, speed, heart rate, etc.).

Keep notes of this information in your spreadsheet!
Y
ou may want to start with the lower range (1g of carbohydrate per kg of bodyweight) on weeks 1 and 2, then up your intake slightly on weeks 3 and 4 (e.g. **1.5g** of carbohydrate per kg of bodyweight), and so on, whilst monitoring whether such increases make any difference in your performance.

If they don't, there's no point in increasing your carb intake.

The more conditioned you are, the more glycogen your muscles will store, so you will want to experiment to see what the threshold is, typically reflected in your performance output.

Testing your meal tolerance also matters: some athletes can consume a huge meal in the 4 hours before exercise without any issues (such as a big plate of pasta with tomato sauce, which has a significant amount of glucose in it, plus a sweet drink or smoothie, and a dessert). Whereas others may experience discomfort and prefer to eat energy bars or liquid meals only (such as a banana smoothie, a yogurt drink, or a shake).

For this reason, it's important to experiment to find the exact quantity of food or drink and the timing that works best for you or your athlete.

By the way, two toasts (**55g** carbohydrate) with honey or jam (**20g** carbohydrate or so) would already surpass the pre-training lower range (**1g** of carbohydrate per kg of bodyweight) for a 70kg athlete.

On the other hand, if your current primary goal isn't performance enhancement but fat loss, exercising in a fasted state, such as first thing in the morning, may help your body burn up to **20%** more body fat for fuel compared to having breakfast before your workout ([__Gonzalez et al., 2013__](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23340006)).

For an advanced analysis on whether to pre-load or not before training (which varies, based on different fitness goals), here’s an *optional* Continuing Education Training you can take: [__**Fasting and Training: Good or Bad?**__](https://thehealthsciencesacademy.org/fasting-and-training-ce-2011320/)

And of course, you'll be learning how to further fine-tune your nutritional plan in the coming modules!

For example, Module 6, Unit 4, will help you with the planning of a weight (fat) loss diet, without compromising performance or causing a metabolic decline.

Module 8 (Competition Diets for Endurance, Power and Strength), will address in great detail how to prepare for competitive events of different durations, such as "short heats" of less than 4 minutes which require explosive power, endurance events of more than 90 minutes, endurance events of less than 90 minutes, "multiple heats" in one day, and weekly events.

AUTHOR: Alex Ruani, Research Director