Lately, records once thought impossible have been falling one after another in endurance sports. Behind this remarkable progress lies a major shift known as the high-carb fueling strategy. In the video, expert Göran explains the scientific basis of the high-carb approach and shows how world-class athletes like Kilian Jornet and Tadej Pogačar put it to use. He also walks through the mistakes many runners commonly make and how to apply this strategy in your own training. Understand and apply this well, and you can dramatically improve your endurance performance! 💪

1. The Rise of High-Carb Fueling and Astonishing New Records 🏆

In recent years, records once hard to imagine have been broken one after another in endurance sports. The video argues that it all comes down to one big change: the high-carb fueling strategy. Göran—a runner, coach, and physiotherapist—dug deep into the scientific background of this innovative strategy, and even tested it on himself by consuming more than 100g of carbohydrates per hour. The results, he says, genuinely amazed him.

The video shows how top-tier athletes like Kilian Jornet and Tadej Pogačar use this high-carb strategy, explains the science behind it in detail, and points out the common mistakes many runners make. Finally, it lays out concrete ways viewers can apply the strategy to their own training and racing. Göran stresses that, understood and applied correctly, this strategy can bring an enormous change to your long-distance performance.

"I tested it myself, consuming more than 100g of carbohydrates per hour. And the results genuinely amazed me." 😮

2. How Pro Athletes Fuel with High Carbs 🚴‍♂️🏃‍♀️

Even though Göran mainly coaches runners, he says he pays close attention to how cyclists train. The reason is that cycling tends to be a step ahead of running when it comes to science and training optimization. He explains this is probably because cycling is the endurance sport with the most money and resources poured into it.

Tadej Pogačar, currently the best cyclist in the world, has openly stated that he consumes 120g of carbohydrates per hour. On hard stages, he needs about 120g of carbohydrates per hour. This kind of hyper fueling has now become commonplace in cycling, with athletes consuming on average about 106g of carbohydrates per hour. Göran marvels that just a few years ago, this amount was considered an "absurd figure."

"Just five years ago, 120g per hour? That was impossible!" 😲

In running, he points to Kilian Jornet, one of the greatest mountain and ultra runners of all time. He, too, has admitted to consuming up to 120g of carbohydrates per hour during ultra events. To give a sense of just how much that is, Göran offers this comparison:

"A regular can of soda, which we're always told has too much sugar, contains about 37g of sugar. Yet these athletes are consuming more than three times that amount in a single hour." 🥤

And they're doing it while climbing mountains at a high heart rate or racing through grueling cycling stages. Over the past few years, elite endurance athletes have become able to consume enormous amounts of carbohydrates during these extreme efforts, and Göran stresses that this is a huge boost to performance.

3. A Breakthrough Discovery: The Secret of Carbohydrate Absorption 🔬

So why couldn't athletes consume this much carbohydrate in the past? Göran says this is where a huge secret is hidden.

For decades, sports nutrition guidelines recommended 30–60g of carbohydrates per hour for exercise lasting more than two hours. This figure came from early research showing that this was roughly the amount the gut could absorb using glucose alone. In other words, the guideline didn't arise because people thought athletes wouldn't perform better by absorbing more than 30–60g—it arose simply because they believed anything beyond that couldn't be absorbed. Trying to exceed this limit was thought to cause GI distress and ruin your race.

"The reason behind this old recommendation wasn't simply that people thought athletes wouldn't perform better if they could absorb more than 30–60g. It was simply that they thought it was impossible to absorb more than that." 🤔

But researchers discovered something astonishing. Our bodies can absorb carbohydrates through two different transporters in the gut—one for glucose and another for fructose. By consuming both together, you can go far beyond the old 60g limit.

A 2008 study showed that cyclists who consumed glucose and fructose together not only could use more carbohydrate, but also improved their time-trial performance more than when consuming glucose alone. This finding was backed up by numerous subsequent studies, and now consuming up to 90g per hour has become the standard recommendation for long-distance endurance events.

What's even more interesting is that in recent years, new research has shown that when athletes consume a mix of fructose and glucose, they can take in far more carbohydrate—even more than 120g per hour. This is possible because "gut training" can teach the digestive system to process larger amounts.

A 2022 laboratory study found that cyclists consuming 120g per hour had markedly higher exogenous carb oxidation. That sounds complicated, but put simply, it means more of the carbohydrate consumed was used as muscle energy.

These results have been proven not only in lab data but also in real-world settings. In a randomized controlled study of a trail marathon, runners who consumed 120g had less muscle damage and a lower internal training load compared to groups consuming 60g or 90g. In other words, the more carbohydrate they consumed, the better their bodies held up—not only during the race but also afterward.

Other research showed similar results in cyclists. Consuming large amounts of carbohydrate during exercise was found to preserve neuromuscular function and improve high-intensity exercise capacity the following day.

Göran stresses that this evidence is crystal clear.

"The evidence here is very clear. The more carbohydrate you can tolerate, the more fuel your muscles get, and not only can you perform better—you can also recover better from that performance." ✨

4. The Importance of "Gut Training" and Common Mistakes 🤦‍♀️

But Göran warns there's an important pitfall here. If you suddenly try to jump from 30g to 120g of carbohydrate per hour, you'll most likely suffer serious GI problems in your next race. This is exactly why researchers began focusing on the concept of "gut training."

According to one review study, the evidence on gut training is fascinating. Just as muscles adapt to training, the entire digestive system also adapts to training. When you practice consuming carbohydrate regularly during exercise, your body increases the number of transporters in the gut. These transporters act like "little doors" that let glucose and fructose into the bloodstream. So more transporters mean you can absorb and use more energy without GI problems.

Research found that athletes who did gut training not only had fewer GI problems, but could also tolerate far higher fuel intake in races. This means you can use more energy when it matters most.

"More transporters mean you can absorb and use more energy with fewer GI problems."

Göran admits that while this evidence sounds great, many athletes still make mistakes—and that he himself made the same mistakes for a long time. The two most common ones he committed were:

1. Consistently running underfueled in long races. He couldn't even keep up with the now-outdated recommendation of 30–60g per hour, and early in his athletic career he sometimes consumed just 30g of carbohydrate over a two-hour race.
2. More importantly, holding a mistaken belief about training. He thought that consuming carbohydrate during hard or long training would reduce the adaptations he'd gain from the workout. He believed that minimizing fuel and "training low" would make him stronger, but in reality this was what held back his progress.

Göran emphasizes that fueling during training is never a sign of weakness—on the contrary, it enables higher intensity and higher quality training. According to the scientific evidence, the high-carb fueling strategy helps you recover faster after exercise, so you can start your next session sooner. Over time, this makes an enormous difference in the quality and quantity of your training, ultimately determining how far you can grow as an endurance athlete.

He says that, talking with runners of all levels, he realized the mistakes he made weren't his alone. Many runners, especially beginners, never practice fueling during training, or only try it during long, slow workouts. Because they don't test fueling at race pace, they aren't prepared to handle large amounts of carbohydrate while running fast, which can lead to serious GI problems on race day.

"Fueling during training doesn't make you weak. It lets you train at higher intensity and higher quality in specific sessions." 💪

Göran says that, just like training, fueling becomes familiar once you practice it. He also points out that many runners are underfueled throughout the day, especially those pursuing fat loss or weight loss. A study of Boston Marathon participants found that runners with lower overall energy intake performed worse and were nearly three times more likely to need medical assistance during or after the race.

Of course, there's some truth to the saying "lighter is faster," but Göran stresses that the bigger truth is that athletes who fuel adequately over time become faster. Some athletes—including the old Göran—even tried the "train low, race high" approach. This means restricting carbohydrate intake during training to boost fat adaptation, but this approach showed no clear performance benefit for trained athletes and often ended up lowering training quality instead.

5. How to Apply the High-Carb Strategy and Practical Advice 💡

Göran says that over the past few months he worked on increasing his carbohydrate intake during hard training, and last week, while climbing Norway's second-highest mountain in pursuit of a Strava record, he tried consuming more than 100g of carbohydrate for the first time. He started so optimistically that he expected to burn out and collapse halfway, but to his surprise, he felt fantastic during the final 30 minutes of a 1 hour 40 minute effort. He could keep generating power even on steep, technical terrain at high altitude, and finished very strongly. He's convinced this wouldn't have been possible without that high-carb fueling.

That said, he raises the question of whether, while this high-carb strategy is great for elite athletes, consuming this much sugar is really good for ordinary amateur runners. So he offers some practical advice for amateur runners who want to perform well but also care about their health.

5.1. Distinguish Between Routine and Key Training/Races 🎯

• Everyday easy training: For your daily easy sessions, you don't need to consume 100g of carbohydrate per hour. In fact, for most easy workouts it's better to consume little or no fuel during the activity. This way you avoid unnecessary sugar intake and save money while still getting the same aerobic benefits.
• Key training and races: For athletes doing a lot of training, or regular athletes facing important workouts and races, fueling can be a real game changer. In other words, when your goal is to maximize performance—long endurance runs, hard interval sessions, mountain record attempts—you should aim for more than 100g of carbohydrate per hour. Göran says the difference he feels in the later parts of these sessions is "unbelievable." Not only does performance improve, but training becomes far more enjoyable and he feels fresh throughout.

5.2. The Essential Practice of Gut Training 🏋️‍♀️

• If you try to suddenly consume 100g of carbohydrate per hour in your next race without practice, you'll probably ruin the race with serious GI problems.
• Start small. Begin with 40–60g per hour, and gradually increase the amount during each week's key workout (high-intensity or long sessions).
• Consuming large amounts may feel difficult at first, but remember that research shows the gut, like muscles, adapts to the stimulus and learns to process it better.

5.3. Don't Get Too Hung Up on Products 🧪

• It's true that well-known sports drinks and gel products are effective and well-validated. But Göran honestly believes that most sports fuel products work well, as long as your gut is trained to handle them.
• What matters most is consuming the right kind of carbohydrate mix (ideally a combination of glucose and fructose). You can do this through gels, drink mixes, or—if you want to save money—even a DIY mix.

5.4. Stick to the Fundamentals 🏃‍♂️

• Of course, you can't make up for bad training with fueling. Göran closes by recommending his other video on how the Norwegian training method has transformed endurance training.

Wrap-up

This video explains in detail the revolutionary change the high-carb fueling strategy has brought to modern endurance sports. Through scientific evidence and real examples from pro athletes, it showed how important this strategy is—not just for improving performance, but also for raising training quality and recovery. Above all, Göran's personal experience and honest confessions resonate deeply with many amateur athletes, and practical tips like "gut training" provide useful information you can apply directly to your own training. If you want to capture both health and performance, give the high-carb fueling strategy and gut training a consistent try! 🌟