If you suffer from persistent GI issues while training or competing, or if you just can’t eat enough, training the gut is for you! Eliminate the bathroom stops, the discomfort, the embarrassment and the general irritation of just not being able to focus on competing!
What is training the gut?
Getting the gut used to consuming carbohydrate during endurance exercise.
Consuming enough carbohydrate is important because while endurance athletes get most of their energy from burning fat, humans need the byproducts of burning carbs to burn fat. Endurance athletes can deplete their carbohydrate stores before finishing a race or a training session, so taking in carbohydrate during the training delays or eliminates this problem.
What kinds of carbohydrate can be consumed? If you can eat it while biking, running, hiking, swimming, kayaking, cross-country skiing or any other endurance sport, it counts.
There’s a class of sports foods designed just for endurance athletes, including sports drinks, bars, blocks, gels, waffles and more. Try any or all of them that look interesting to you.
How does it work?
When an athlete exercises, blood is preferentially moved between the lungs (oxygen in, carbon dioxide out) and the muscles (oxygen in, waste products out). This blood must come from somewhere, so systems less essential to sports performance get less blood. The gut is one of those systems, with a variable reduction of blood flow depending on intensity of exercise.1 Less blood flow means less function and possibly more discomfort around eating and drinking while exercising.
To train the compromised gut to be able to absorb fuel, the athlete begins a gradual progression of consuming carbohydrate, expressed in grams of carbohydrate/hour of exercise. A small starter dose might be 10-15 grams/hour (g/hr). Once the athlete knows they can tolerate that, they increase. The standard recommendations guide an athlete toward 30-60 g/hr, but many people can go higher.2 80-90 g/hr isn’t unusual in pro endurance athletes. Some ultra-endurance athletes get even higher.
Who needs gut training?
Endurance athletes who are new, are moving to a longer distance, or who want to try new products. Maybe they’re doing a race in a different series or country and the on-course offerings are unknown. Don’t wait until race day to give them a shot!
Team sport athletes that play multiple games or have multiple training sessions a day with little time between meals and practices or scrimmages.
Athletes with very limited food options or poor team food culture. This can occur due to disordered eating or eating disorders, such as anorexia or orthorexia. It can also be due to budget issues, where food selection is limited. And it can occur because a key player decides not to eat, setting a poor precedent and showing poor leadership, or the coaching and team staff don’t know the appropriate guidelines for their players. It can even happen because of peer pressure: a team heard that a rival team is doing X, therefore they’ll do X.
How can it help sports performance?
Being able to eat a broader range of foods and still compete well is always a win. It’s really hard to get and stay fueled with a very short list of options that are hard to source.
An athlete will not win if they’re not fueled, and long or frequent training and competition sessions require significant energy and targeted recovery and fueling practices. The specific endurance-targeted guidelines starting at 30 g/hr is a starting goal.
What other ways could this idea be used?
Easing into eating breakfast for those not used to it, especially on days they must physically perform right away. Start with a cracker, then go train. Then two crackers. Then half a dozen. Then two with peanut butter. Then 6 with peanut butter. Then half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then half a sandwich with a glass of milk. You get the idea. Expand as interested, consuming foods that travel well and will always be available on competition days.
Hydration. Not drinking enough because your stomach sloshes? Train it up by drinking on a schedule.
Eating before high-stress competitions. Make a list of foods that you KNOW work, even if you’re incoherent with nerves and strain.
Testing new foods because you have more money, changed teams, found a great new product, were diagnosed with a food allergy, are playing internationally, are NOT at home for the first time so Mom can’t do it for you, unexpectedly had to stay in a crappy motel because of a sudden snowstorm…
What if you already have issues and want to resolve them?
Reach out. A systematic process of trying different foods during your training can eliminate a lot of problems! Plan for this in the off season.
If you can’t keep energy levels high during long training sessions or endurance events, training the gut could help!
Reach out to Dr. Schubert for a specific-to-you carbohydrate progression that will elevate your game!
Need other options? Check out an athlete’s overall carbohydrate guidelines, ways to include carbohydrate with dairy, apples,berries, coffee drinks, smoothies, overnight oats, energy bites or balls, the Mediterranean diet, the vegetarian diet, and more!
References
1. Erdman KA, Jones KW, Madden RF, Gammack N, Parnell JA. Dietary Patterns in Runners with Gastrointestinal Disorders. Nutrients. 2021;13(2):448. doi:10.3390/nu13020448
2. Thomas DT, Erdman KA, Burke LM. Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine: Nutrition and Athletic Performance. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 2016;116(3):501-528. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2015.12.006