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Question by Edward88: Why are low gi foods better the night before strenuous exercise?
Everyone says to eat pasta the night before a race.

Since food takes only a matter of hours to be broken down and absorbed into the bloodstream, why would it matter what gi index our foods are that we eat the day before a race (say, a triathalon)?

Thanks

Best answer:

Answer by cyn_texas
You’ve got me confused because pasta is not low gi lol.

Pasta the night before a race is called carb loading to fill glycogen stores as full as possible. You don’t want to do carb loading the day of the race because you don’t want your body’s strength being diverted to digestion. Some athletes work to expand their glycogen stores.

Carbs are converted to glucose, glucose is converted to glycogen (a reserved energy store) carbs are not converted to fat unless glycogen stores are full.

When athletes “hit the wall” they have depleted glycogen stores and the body switches to using fat as a fuel source. It takes the body 6 weeks to become fully fat adaptive, I can’t imagine doing this during an athletic event.

What do you think? Answer below!

You might be able to find out an answer in this Low Glycemic Index Video