The Surprising Reason Extra Carbs on Training Days Might Not Be Ideal for Your Performance
- Pia Marangoni, Owner & Coach at Fiercely Fueled Nutrition
Wait—hear me out.
Firstly, if you want an easy way to increase your performance in the gym? Grab my free pre/post-training meals guide.
Secondly, it's a common misconception that you need more energy on lifting days than on rest days. It makes sense, right? You work hard, you’re sore and tired, and you’re hungry. Surely, you need to eat more to support your training?
Saldy, no.
When I first got into powerlifting, I was convinced there was a magic formula or a specific “carb cycling protocol” that would fast-track my strength gains and body recomposition.
While we kind of know that resistance training doesn’t burn as many calories as you would if you were cycling or running for the same amount of time, our type of training also doesn't burn nearly as many calories as we’d like to think*.
Here’s the kicker though: RECOVERY from resistance training burns more calories than we realize, and can take anywhere between 48-72 hours. And guess what? Recovery comes with a metabolic cost, and we pay that cost with ENERGY in the form of CALORIES.
We know training needs to be fueled, but recovery is almost always overlooked. Maintaining consistent food (and specifically carbohydrate) intake can radically improve your rate of recovery. Proper nutrition is a powerful, legal performance enhancer!
I see this play out with almost every single client: no matter how experienced: keeping food intake consistent day-to-day leads to significantly reduced recovery time (meaning you’re ready to train harder, and get stronger, faster). This strategy, along with simple pre and post-training meals [grab my free pre/post-training meals guide here], is why Fiercely Fueled athletes consistently outperform their competition.
In addition to the performance aspect, we are busy people, life does - well - life does life things. Making nutrition easy to implement is what I’m all about. Consistent food intake day to day means it's easier for you to plan your meals, and you have more bandwidth for other things.
There are a few instances (such as weight loss) where we might want lower calories on a rest day. I’ve found that after years of coaching and working with hundreds of athletes this strategy is something we should use as a last resort (and can usually be avoided altogether if we start working together with enough time).
So in summary:
- Keep your calories consistent each day.
- Simplicity is key.
- Properly fueling recovery helps you get stronger faster.
Get the exact framework I use with some of the world’s top lifters to boost their training performance and recovery.
*For those interested in the details, research shows resistance training burns a minimal amount of daily calories—often as little as 2-3% of your daily intake. For more information, check out this article from Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
About Pia:
Pia is the owner and coach at Fiercely Fueled Nutrition, specializing in optimizing nutrition for high-performing athletes. With years of experience and a passion for simplifying nutrition strategies, Pia helps athletes get stronger, faster through personalized, evidence-based nutrition approaches. She has coached numerous lifters to their greatest performance at both a national and international level.