Does Triathlon Have a Sugar Problem?

Lionel Sanders recently dropped a video on YouTube titled “Breaking the Cycle of Bad Eating and Poor Sleep”. If you are a triathlete, you are probably somewhat familiar with Lionel Sanders. In addition to racking up over 30 wins in IRONMAN 70.3 and 140.6 races over the last decade or so, he most notably finished second to Patrick Lange at Kona in 2017. As successful as Sanders has been on course, he has been perhaps even more prolific as a YouTube content creator. I have followed Sanders' YouTube channel for years. And I like the guy - his background, grit, the courageous way he races, his authenticity… I like pulling for him and it makes for good content. But I have to say his approach to nutrition - especially in his diet - has baffled me. For an elite athlete, he has seemed to take an extremely cavalier approach to his diet. 

Not that Sanders’ approach is that unusual. Triathletes in general from average age groupers up through pros don’t observe strict diets. This is actually one of the more fun aspects of the tri community. We work out so much that as a reward we can eat and drink pretty much whatever we want.  Or can we?

It’s not that nutrition is not a point of emphasis for triathletes. Quite the opposite. Nutrition is widely considered the fourth discipline. And triathletes, especially the more experienced and accomplished ones, spend a fair amount of time working on their nutrition. Maybe more accurately, they spend a lot of time on fueling: fueling workouts, fueling recovery, fueling racing. And almost all triathletes base their fueling on strategies that are proven by the pros. On the surface this makes sense. After all, the pros have access to the best coaches, nutritionists, products, data, etc… So what does the recent data suggest about how triathletes should fuel their training, recovery, and racing? What is the single most important factor? The consensus answer is maximizing intake of carbohydrates. Hence the proliferation of the phrase “train your gut”.

I started triathlon as the result of a health scare in 2010. My wife competed in her first triathlon in 2003. We were plugged into a crew of highly competitive age groupers and my brother-in-law was a semi-pro trained by an Olympic medalist.  2010 was a great time to become a triathlete. The sport was growing at a rapid clip and had a ton of cultural momentum. Fueling during training and races was a consideration but not the focus (obsession?) it is today. There were two camps as I remember it. The one that most age groupers followed was something like this: “Make sure you have some gels and take one if you start feeling your blood sugar drop. But don’t overdo it because you’ll end up puking on the side of the road or making a pit stop at a porta-potty.” Led primarily by the Gatorade Performance Lab, the pros and elite age groupers were beginning to push hydration and carbs for performance with prescribed plans - to the point of drinking/consuming on rigorous schedules (such as consume 1 bottle of Gatorade Endurance per hour by drinking every 10 minutes etc…). 

The performances of pros and age groupers alike suggest that the fueling strategies of today play a part in producing better performances. But in this current push to adapt our bodies (to “train our guts”), to burn more sugar to fuel that performance, are we creating other problems? Problems that might have long term health consequences? And is there potentially a better way to fuel - especially for age groupers as they progress in their development?

Elevated blood sugar is the primary cause of metabolic disease. When blood sugar remains elevated consistently and when blood sugar spikes to extreme levels on a frequent basis, this results in insulin resistance. Insulin resistance leads to a plethora of health issues. Discovery of a pre-diabetic level A1C score is what led Sanders to release the video I referenced earlier. A1C is a blood marker that estimates your blood sugar level over the past 2-3 months - a high score indicates high average blood sugar levels. It’s worth noting that pros training 20-30 hours or more a week and fueling those sessions with carbs are naturally going to have periods of higher blood sugar that may drag their A1C up. But the fact remains that elevated average blood sugar is not good. And so the crux of the problem may just be that performance and health do not align. Similar to PEDs, maximizing sugar uptake may result in maximized performance (power output) but over time may lead to health issues - possibly even diabetes. 

So the question for the age grouper should be “Is there a better plan that will allow me to progress, to get fitter, faster etc… without consistently elevating/spiking my blood sugar?”. I think the answer to that question is a resounding “Yes”. And for most age groupers it probably won’t require a shift to a low carb approach (I am however experimenting with low carb training as I write this). For all but the most elite of age groupers (podium contenders), “training the gut” is not just a waste of time but probably a barrier to optimizing body composition. Attempting to maximize carb intake/uptake while training prevents most athletes from maximizing their fat burning potential (“FatMax” - it’s a thing). And then focusing on maximizing carb intake during races leads to a lot of disappointing days due to GI issues. 

Most age groupers would be better served to train on the lower end of their carb tolerance (except for a couple of sessions to practice their race nutrition plan). For the majority of athletes this is going to be in the 30-50 grams of carbs per hour. And they would be better served to match carb intake to effort - go lighter on zone 2 stuff, heavier on hard efforts (VO2, HIIT, etc…). Then for a race plan to target the high end of that range or maybe slightly over (60 grams for example). This approach will lead to a couple of good long term outcomes: better fat adaptation and better body composition (which leads to better power to weight ratios). It is important to note that whether you can ingest and metabolize 60 grams or 120 grams per hour of sugar during a race, if the duration of your race is over 2 hours, then your body will still need to burn basically an equal amount of fat to keep going. Maybe more importantly, though, moderating carb intake improves metabolic health.

One last, but critical thing. A key problem with the limitless carb approach that has long been a part of triathlon culture is that elevated carbs in training tend to lead to overeating carbs in the overall diet. According to Sanders, this is a big part of his problem. To help you manage carb intake when not training, focus on protein and quality fats. If you under-index on protein your body will continue to signal that you need to eat. So if you are training heavy, aim daily to get 1 gram of protein per pound of your optimal body weight. 

Does triathlon have a sugar problem? Yep. I think we do.