During a heavy training session or competition lasting over 90 minutes, you are advised to eat 30 to 60g of carbohydrates per hour. This corresponds to:
- 500ml sports drink (with 6-8% carbohydrates)
- 1 energy gel
- 1 energy bar
- 1 ripe banana
- 1 slice of bread with honey, jam or syrup
If you always eat the same energy bars or a banana during training, it may become boring. However, you can also make these energy-rich snacks yourself so that you have more variation during training and competitions. They are also cheaper and, if you choose the right ingredients, often healthier as they do not include preservatives or colourants and are lower in fat.
When training, don’t wait until you’re hungry before eating. When the feeling of hunger sets in, you’re often too late as your body has already started using its carbohydrate reserves. The longer you can delay this by topping up your carbohydrates by eating, the better you will perform.
The most important ingredient for an energy snack during exercise is carbohydrates. These carbohydrates are found in dried fruit, flour, muesli or oats (but not too much as they are full of fibre), maple syrup, agave syrup, ordinary syrup, honey, cane sugar, eggs, bananas, white bread and grain drinks that contain carbohydrates but are low in fat, such as oat, spelt, almond, hazelnut and rice milk, etc.
