Most amateur cyclists are taking too many carbohydrates per hour. Dr Tim Podlogar, nutrition consultant to Tudor Pro Cycling and PhD researcher behind the NDurance product line, says 90 grams per hour is the ceiling for 95% of amateurs. Going above that doesn't make you faster. It just leaves you short of carbohydrate budget for the rest of the day.
Key Takeaways
The gravel racing trend of 120-150 grams of carbs per hour works for professionals because their total daily energy expenditure is enormous. For an amateur doing a two-hour session at moderate watts, pushing 120 grams on the bike means the rest of your daily carbohydrate budget is gone. Glycogen stores still need to hit 6-7 grams per kilogram to support recovery and the next session. Podlogar's point is simple: you can absorb more than 90 grams, but absorbing it doesn't mean you're using it, and the daily math stops working.
On heat, the number most people miss is a 30% reduction in carbohydrate absorption when your skin temperature climbs toward 36-37°C. That's not just a hot summer day abroad. That's overdressed on a cold climb. Podlar's fix is to front-load carbohydrates before the session rather than trying to hit your on-bike target in conditions where absorption is compromised. The insulin concern you might have heard from Huberman or Attia applies to sedentary people with full glycogen stores. If you're depleting through training daily, the insulin spike after a session is doing exactly what it should be doing: pushing glucose back into the muscle.
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If this changes how you think about fueling, the World Tour Nutritionist episode on weight loss covers how daily carbohydrate targets interact with body composition in more detail. And if you're still working out how to actually hit those targets across a training week, the episode on fasted training gives you the cases where it's worth doing and where it costs you.