Carb loading.

Most think that eating a plate of pasta and a couple of beers (carb loading) the night before a physical event, i.e. a running race, a cycle race, PT test etc... is the answer to having enough energy to complete these tasks. When we take a look at the typical endurance 'athlete' that likes to carb load before a race, they usually are very skinny almost emaciated and have trouble finishing the race without literally crawling across the finish line.

The body stores carbohydrates in the organs for fuel for that organ to work properly. The body will only store about 1200 calories of carbohydrates for energy. (based on a 150lb male with 10% body fat.) 1200 calories is not a lot when we think about doing an endurance race. Think about, just running for 30 minutes can burn close to 700 calories. Now that leaves only 500 calories for energy after the race to last the rest of the day. Now when we 'carb load' the only thing you are loading is your insulin levels. High insulin levels turns into fat, and then you crave more carbs, and start a viscous cycle. Now look at fat, if this 150lb male has 10% body fat, as I said earlier, then that is about 15 lbs of body fat. We store about 3400 calories in each pound of body fat. So this means he has 15lbsBF x 3400CAL = 51,000 calories to burn for energy. Looking at that equation tells us that Carb loading is not the way to go. So for the person starting out with his/her CrossFit/Zone diet career, just keep eating your 3-5 block meals, and drop the weight until you are at the desired body fat range. When this level is reached then doubling the fat intake for energy is ok.
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