Gabriella Rao, RD

This week I’m going back to the basics to talk about a very important foundation of endurance sport: daily carbohydrate needs. Below is a table describing the recommended daily carb intake according to your average training intensity/duration.

Physical Activity Level	Description	Estimated Carbohydrate Needs
Light	Low-intensity or skill-based activities	3–5 g/kg of body weight per day
Moderate	Medium-intensity exercise program, at least 1 hour per day	5–7 g/kg of body weight per day
High	Endurance program, 1-3 hours of moderate-intensity exercise	6–10 g/kg of body weight per day
Very high	Extreme commitment (4-5 hours/day of moderate-intensity to high-intensity exercise)	8–12 g/kg of body weight per day

(To get your body weight in kilograms, divide your weight in pounds by 2.2)

If you know what 6-10 g/kg of carbs looks like, you probably realize it’s quite a lot! For example, a 60 kg athlete would need ~360-600 g carbs on a “high” physical activity day. That’s the equivalent of 6-10 bagels! Of course, you’re not eating only bagels to meet your carb requirements, but you get the idea. 

So how do we reach these carbohydrate goals?

You can use tools like the plate method to help you have an appropriate amount of carbs with each meal. For example, a hard day training plate looks like this:

This is a good reference to use on high-intensity training days, as well as the days preceding and following high-intensity training days. You want to not only fuel well on the day of an intense workout or long effort, but you also want to maximize glycogen stores the day prior, and refill glycogen stores the day after the workout/long effort.

You’ll notice that 1/2 of the plate is filled with carbohydrate, 1/4 is filled with protein, and the last 1/4 is filled with non-starchy vegetables. On a lighter training day, we swap out some of the carbohydrate for more fruits and veggies. Be sure that your snacks are also a combination of carbs along with a protein and/or fat to create a complete snack.

Hope this information helps you to meet your carbohydrate needs and gain more from your training!