Carbo loading without Calorie Loading?

Is this a contradiction in terms?

I have been diligently following this program with a wife who has been assisting me tremendously with extra effort in buying healthy foods, weighing and measuring. So far I have been losing between 200gm and 500gm per day for about 10 days. Whoopee!!

Today I rode a cycle race. My first in almost a year so I only did 55km, but yesterday I thought I should carbo load a bit, so had wholewheat spaghetti with lean mince bolognaise sauce (which I've had before) followed by a mid evening snack of Pringle light chips 50g. In total I was way under my daily Calorie goal, but...

Today was the first day I didn't lose any weight at all. Is it possible to carbo load before a race without effecting how you lose weight? Or have I hit a plateau?

Does anyone have any good suggestions for suitable carbo loading foods. PLease keep it relatively generic as I'm based in South Africa and don't have all the european and American options.

It's really difficult to carbo-load without gaining weight. It is assumed that you will gain some weight during a carbo loading phase, just because you end up storing extra water while you accumulate glycogen (which comes from the extra carbs that you consume). It's only temporary; you should see your weight start to drop again once you've done loading.

In terms of foods, I try to keep it simple when I carbo-load: pasta, brown rice, and potatoes are staples for me. Sometimes I'll treat myself to pretzels or bagels. But there's no need to find or rely on fancy stuff to help with loading.

It is a contradiction in terms.

'Carb loading' is actually more complex than it sounds. Done properly it's about a 7 day process where for the first 3 days you eliminate all carbs from the diet creating a state where your body is screaming for carbs. Then for the next 4 days you eat, and eat, and eat as much good carbs (read brown rice until you can't stand the sight of brown rice) which causes your body to store as much in the muscles as possible. The improvement in performance from carb loading is much debated. Mostly, unless it's a very important race you're better off just to have a regular sized pasta (whole wheat) dinner the night before and not worry about it. (Don't over do the pasta or you might have problems the next day that keep you in the porta potty instead of in the race).

That being said, the reason you didn't lose is most likely the pringles - pringles have salt, and salt makes you retain water ... generally any type of chip or salty carb is a no no for 3 or 4 days before race day.

Happy racing

Your muscles will also retain water after a race.  I myself am a runner and it is not unusual for me to gain wait after i run a long distance event. 

What Sybil said. Most people just use it an excuse to pig out the day before the race. Which actually can have a negative effects. I think it is much more important to eat properly during a race, then to do "carbo loading". If your diet is well balanced you should have enough glycogen stored, and eating enough during the even will take care of the rest. Now the question that comes up is how much to eat/drink. That is a personal thing, and usually discovered during training.

On a side note. Racing and loosing weight just do not go well together. You will not be performing at your best by running a deficit. Time to loose weight is during the of season when you are doing tons of LSD rides. When intensity picks up during training, racing period you need to keep that engine well fueled.

Good luck with racing, it's addictive. :)

UD

Thanks a million. All of the responses from my very first post were extremely helpful. They all made a lot of sense.

I think the long carbo loading is not for me, just making the night before meal a pasta or brown rice meal should be enough for me.

I'm not actually pushing it too hard on these 55km races. When I start moving up to the 100km races again, then I may need to relook this. By this time though I will hopefully be out of the weight loss phase by then, and just be in maintenance phase. That should help on its own.

One more word:  Eating a meal like rice or pasta before a race should happen TWO days before, not the night before.  You do it the night before and it'll only be partially digested the day you race.  Your body needs time to assimilate it.  (All of the big tri's do their carbo-load meal on the Friday, now).

Have a super race!