Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Carbo Loading?

Seems like the big thing a few years ago was to eat a big meal of pasta the night before a big hike (or other endurance sports activity). Now no one on the board ever mentions Carbo loading. Is it in or out of Vogue these days?

I think it is still a reasonable practice. Without attention to what you use to sustain yourself during your hike the effort could be wasted. I also think the benefit of carbo loading was lost by many who practiced it for only that one night before a big event such as a marathon or Whitney day hike. Starting with a "full tank" is great but assuming you can overcome poor eating habits (I'm not suggesting your habits are poor) and fill your tank with one meal is not going to happen.

Lately, I've been hearing a lot that you shouldn't fill up on carbos unless you are going to burn through them. Carbos are really bed for you if you don't exercise, because on guy's the exess carbs will go straight to your gut and make you fat. Just my two cents.

The idea behind carbo loading before a marathon (or similar endurance event) is that the body cannot store enough glycogen to provide fuel for 2+ hours. The body switches over to burning fat, which cannot support the high level of activity required for a 26 mile race (or similar event). Carbo loading is aimed at maximizing glycogen storage.

Climbing Mt. Whitney is not done at the level of intensity of a marathon race. I am not a physiologist and claim no great expertise, so take my opinion with a grain of salt: I don't see any reason why carbo loading would hurt a Whitney climb, but it doesn't seem to me to offer any real help. For one thing, at the pace of a typical Whitney hike, one can eat and digest a fair amount of food.

I have found that a large pie and a pitcher of Sierra Nevada from Pizza Factory the night before a hike is all the carbo loading I need.

OBS and I are on precisely the same wavelength. That's what I did before going up last month!

Well, all I can tell you is that I've got many century bike rides, a couple of half marathons, and lots of hard hikes and climbs under my belt, and I always start loading up a night or two ahead of time with dinners consisting of pasta and baked potatoes. The morning of the event, my tank is fueled and I'm good for a full-day's workout, and I've never been let down. Not a very scientific analysis, but it works for me! I wouldn't recommend this diet on a daily basis, but for keeping one foot in front of the other for miles on end, it seems to work pretty well!

If you are doing endurance exercise, most of your caloric intake should be carbohydrates. If you are eating normally prior to an event, your liver has stored the glycogen it can handle. Carbohydrate loading refers to getting the stored glycogen to spike to a level beyond what the liver can normally handle, which is arguably pretty useful for a person trying to run, say, a 2:10 marathon. Glycogen depletion is key to getting that to happen. I don't believe that very many people do this or that one should do it before a Whitney hike. Carbo loading is then just a misused term for a big pasta dinner before an event. And there's nothing wrong with that (within limits, of course).

Thanks for the info. Now I can feel OK about that spaghetti dinner I have planed the night before I do my uncoming one day Whitney hike.

I recently heard that it's better to protien load than carbo load, but that was only 1 time hearing it, don't even recall where, vs. lots of time etc. for carbo. My recepie for sucess: A high protien diet during my training months (I train year-round but made a point of going high protien about 3 months before Whitney). I carbo load that week, which is VERY easy to do while camping (all those yummy sauces in jars from Trader Joe's over bread from a nearby town...heaven!) and continue with the protien (who can argue with steak over a campfire?). The night before Whitney...Pizza Factory for lunch & a WPS burger for dinner. NO ALCOHOL! I can have a beer & be ok, but if I even think of how wine tastes, I'm worthless the next morning. But everyone's recepie is different. This year I shared those WPS fries with a lady who was having plenty of wine to help her sleep. She's summited several times & looked darn strong on the trail the next day! So how did I do? Started at 2am, The hike up was EASY EASY EASY! My boyfriend & I were the 1st ones to summit that day. Got back by 6 for showers & burgers, next morning we pondered doing 1/2 dome, but chose to play tourist at Bodie instead since we can do 1/2 dome any weekend. This was my 3rd time up. 1st was a too-difficult dayhike, next 4 days from Horseshoe (not bad but I whined a lot) and this time was a peice of cake. Next will hopefully be the JMT.
Got off subject, sorry. I train year-round with "Team Wolfpack." We're mostly marathoners & triathletes (then there's little me, wandering off into the hills!) Protien & 'quality' carbs are what we eat. We're quite sucessful with this.