Nutritional Energy Balance

[Carrot]

http://graemethomasonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/sport-and-health-supplements.jpghttp://www.petshoponline.co.za/petshop/images/naturalVitamins.jpg

 

Seeing as I'm having a hard time gaining weight (I'm at about 65kg's instead of the "optimum" 75) I'm trying to balance out the calorific intake for longer distanced races. But is it worth anything trying to do it this way:

 

Say my Garmin tells me I spend 2000 Calories over an event, equaling into about 8000 kJ's, should I then try and match that with drinks and chews intake while riding, or just halve and then the other halve after the event?

 

What's the rules of thumb here?

Edited August 16, 2012 by Carrot

[Enticement]

Hi Carrot, during intense activities, your brain redistributes blood to active areas as your amount of blood in your body is "limited". Body parts that are less active only gets enough blood to keep basic systems running and the rest of your blood is used to transport already processed nutrients and oxygen to active parts. Very little blood is available for assisting digestion while active, and furthermore, anything in your stomach must pass through 2 hurdles - your stomach and your liver. Consequently you consume double as much energy while active than what can be replaced at any given time. So, if you want goodies that you take in to be available immediately, they have to be formulated specifically for that as your body only uses it in a specific format and it has to be processed into that, hence the imperative that some off-the-shelve supplements work better than others.

 

However, after your activity, for about another 30minutes, your body is still in a "mode" of transporting processed nutrients and blood distribution has again been restored to its before-active state. That means digestion is back to normal and blood is available for transporting these digested goodies. Therefore, during that time your body reaches an optimal state for recovering depleted nutrient stores.

 

In your specific example - be meticulous with pre-activity consumption (about 45 minutes before you start) by using a scientifically formulated supplement. Then make very sure that you recover well afterwards by consuming foodstuff that gets absorbed easily - also check your protein/carb mix.