How Do You Carb Load for a Triathlon Without Feeling Bloated and Heavy?

Want to build your own carb loading plan? Grab my complete Carb Loading Masterclass here: https://www.dietitianapproved.com/carb-loading

A giant bowl of pasta the night before your race is not carbohydrate loading. Not even close.

In two decades of working with age group triathletes, Taryn has never met one who carb loads properly. This episode fixes that once and for all. It breaks down the science of carbohydrate loading, why it is genuinely free speed out on the course, and the handful of mistakes that leave you feeling bloated, heavy and fading in the back half of your race.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• What carbohydrate loading actually is, and why it is not the same as demolishing a pasta dinner
• Why carb loading delays fatigue rather than making you faster, and how it is worth 1 to 3% performance out on course
• The five common mistakes that leave you bloated and heavy (you are almost certainly doing at least one)
• Why the number on the scales going up is a sign you have done it right, not a reason to panic
• Whether women really do carb load worse than men, and what the research actually says

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 The pasta party myth

01:44 Why no triathlete carb loads properly

03:38 What carbohydrate loading actually is (glycogen, the fuel tank and supercompensation)

06:07 Free speed: why it delays fatigue instead of making you faster

07:21 The evidence: 90 minutes and a 1 to 3% gain

08:44 The five mistakes that leave you bloated and heavy

14:20 Do women carb load worse than men?

18:23 How to build your own carb loading plan

22:37 The five big takeaways

STUDIES MENTIONED

- McLay, R. T., Thomson, C. D., Williams, S. M., & Rehrer, N. J. (2007). Carbohydrate loading and female endurance athletes: Effect of menstrual-cycle phase. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 17(2), 189-205. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsnem.17.2.189

- Tarnopolsky, M. A., Zawada, C., Richmond, L. B., Carter, S., Shearer, J., Graham, T., & Phillips, S. M. (2001). Gender differences in carbohydrate loading are related to energy intake. Journal of Applied Physiology, 91(1), 225-230. https://doi.org/10.1152/jappl.2001.91.1.225

- James, A. P., Lorraine, M., Cullen, D., Goodman, C., Dawson, B., Palmer, T. N., & Fournier, P. A. (2001). Muscle glycogen supercompensation: Absence of a gender-related difference. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 85(6), 533-538. https://doi.org/10.1007/s004210100499

- Wismann, J., & Willoughby, D. (2006). Gender differences in carbohydrate metabolism and carbohydrate loading. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 3(1), 28-34. https://doi.org/10.1186/1550-2783-3-1-28

BUILD YOUR OWN CARB LOADING PLAN

You cannot copy a carb loading plan from your training buddy, your coach or the internet, because it is so individual. So Taryn has taken everything she teaches inside the Triathlon Nutrition Academy and put it into a complete carb loading masterclass, open to the public. Three video lessons, just over an hour, plus the exact tool she uses with her athletes to calculate your specific numbers and build your plan. Grab it here: dietitianapproved.com/carb-loading

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