Carbs vs. Calories
Is it more important to focus on how many calories you take in or how many grams of carbs you take in?
As an example: I see that gels have many more carbs for say 100 calories as compared to bars that have less than 1/2 the carbs for the same 100 calories.
So which is more important.....carbs or calories?
Thanks!
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1g carb = 4 calories
1g protein = 4 calories
1g fat = 9 calories
The gels are generally pure carbs (there may be ones with protein, but I haven't seen them) - so you pretty much take the (calories/4) to get the grams of carbs. So a 100 calorie gel is 25 carbs.
Bars differ in their ratios, but lets go with an example of one that uses a 60/20/20 ratio of carbs/protein/fat. In that case, a 100 calorie bar would contain 15g carbs, 5g of protein and 2.22 g of fat.
Generally speaking, when you are looking to fuel an endurance event, carbs are more important. The carbs are usually a simple sugar, which readily gets converted to usable fuel in the muscles. Fat and protein have to be broken down, and thus get absorbed more slowly.
Greg - the most important thng to remember when fueling during a race is how fast and efficient will your stomach release the fuel into the small intetine to get to the working muscles. Carbs are your friend. Fats, fiber and intact proteins will slow down the rate at which fuel leaves your gut - not good during a race.
If you get hungry over a long event then it's ok to add a very small amount of protein and fat. I like to add the good old first generation Power Bar to my fueling plan. I nibble on it.
Good point on the fibre - I forgot that fibre gets counted as a carb on nutrition labels!