You can improve your exercise performance (and results) by eating this macronutrient...

Time to throw fasted cardio out of the window:

Often I'll hear questions like 

"Is fasted cardio good for fat loss?"

Or "does it matter if I don't eat before I exercise?"

Well the jury's out:

Research consistently shows that exercise with high carbohydrate availability improves acute exercise performance compared to exercising in a state of lower carbohydrate availability (i.e. fasted).

High carbohydrate availability simply means having carbs available in the body for quick energy utilisation when it's needed. If you train fasted in the morning after not having eaten ALLL night for 12+ hours then your stores will be lower than someone who refuels strategically pre-exercise.

This is important because better fuelling = better session = better results. 

How much does eating carbohydrates improve exercise performance by?

In cardio-specific research, having high carbohydrate availability improves endurance and output, with a 2-3% improvement in time trials when compared with a non-nutritive placebo (Burke, et al. 2011)*.

For the everyday exerciser: 

The 2-3% improvement may not be as relevant to you but you'll feel much better throughout your session and get better results- even if you're not hung up on the percentages.

The benefits of consuming carbohydrate are consistently observed in studies as short as 50-60 minutes in duration and greater benefits are observed as the exercise duration is prolonged.

For athletes:

A 2-3% per cent improvement in performance by adjusting your training carbohydrate intake strategy is a massive gain if chasing performance!!

You can see the pooled data below:

You can increase your 'carbohydrate availability' in an acute exercise setting by:

• Deliberately increasing pre-exercise muscle glycogen stores (by including higher carbs in your diet) for a few days before the event
• Consuming a carbohydrate-rich pre-exercise meal
• Consume carbohydrates during exercise if you're undergoing a prolonged session or race

How much carbohydrate should I eat for exercise?

Now this is context specific, as in- what kind of exercise you're doing, how long for, what the rest of your day's nutrition is looking like and more BUT here's a few general rules for you:

Under 60m high-intensity sport/event: small amounts of carbohydrate, including even mouth-rinsing, enhance performance via central nervous system effects

1 hour- 2.5 hour: 30–60 g per hour is an appropriate target for sports of longer duration,  

In events >2.5 h you may benefit from higher intakes of up to 90g/hour  

Pre-exercise snack inspiration: 

I hope you found this helpful!

Happy carb-ing

Dom xx

*Citation:

Louise M. Burke, John A. Hawley, Stephen H. S. Wong & Asker E. Jeukendrup (2011) Carbohydrates for training and competition, Journal of Sports Sciences, 29:sup1, S17-S27, DOI: 10.1080/02640414.2011.585473