FTP #6: Jamie Pugh, PhD - Feeling lighter from start to finish: Minimizing gastrointestinal symptoms in cyclists

Fuel The Pedal podcast

As Sports Nutritionists besides having to properly fuel cyclists during training and racing, there is also an additional challenge we often face. And that challenge is to try our best to minimize GI symptoms in cyclists. We can prepare a rider for months but if one key meal in a moment surrounding or during the race goes wrong, we can jeopardize months of preparation and condition the rider’s performance for that day. On the other hand, we must make sure these athletes ingest a rather high amount of CHO-rich foods while on the bike in order to be able to sustain higher intensities in latter stages of the race. But this high exercise intensity and high quantity of ingested CHO are also some of the main factors that can also limit gastric emptying, CHO absorption and lead to some GI symptoms to occur, which may have serious consequences for cyclists. On this episode Dr. Jamie Pugh helps us understand the main causes and practical strategies to minimize GI symptoms in cycling. That is why the name of this episode is "Feeling lighter from start to finish..."