Sustagen For Sport / Sustagen Sport Protocol
Sustagen for Sport Training
Many athletes struggle to eat something before a morning session. You are not alone. Perhaps you prefer to maximize your sleep? Maybe you are concerned about additional calories and weight gain? Perhaps you don’t like training on a full stomach after eating your usual breakfast?
After an overnight fast, liver glycogen stores become depleted. This can impact on your morning session. During exercise, the muscles rely on glycogen for fuel, and the brain requires glucose (from glycogen breakdown) for concentration.
By consuming a low fat carbohydrate rich drink 30-60minutes prior to exercise, you are able to top up liver glycogen stores so that you have enough energy for your session whilst maintaining blood glucose levels for supply of fuel to the brain.
Sustagen Sport is ideal as a pre-event or pre-training meal as it only requires 30-60 minutes to digest; this is much quicker than the 1-2 hours required for digestion of a usual breakfast meal.
Ideal characteristics of pre-exercise liquid meals include:
- Adequate energy from carbohydrate
One serve of Sustagen Sport provides 40g of carbohydrate, which, if consumed within a balanced diet, will be used as fuel for that session – it will not be stored as body fat so you do not need to worry about additional calories - Low fat to facilitate digestion
If you consume a meal or drink containing fat, this slows the digestion of the meal down. This means you will have to wait for longer before training to avoid indigestion. It is hard enough to get out of bed for that session, let alone get up earlier! Dietary fat is not the preferred fuel source for training – carbohydrate is the ideal fuel source. One serve of Sustagen Sport contains only 0.4g of fat so you are not consuming anything your body doesn’t need. - Moderate protein for ease of digestion
There is research to suggest that consumption of a small amount of protein before a strength training session may assist with bulking up. - Low fibre/residue
This minimises bloating, diarrhea, stomach cramps and abdominal discomfort during the session. Sustagen Sport is fibre free, giving you a flat stomach for your session and no worries about gastrointestinal discomfort - Adequate fluid to maximize hydration
Sustagen Sport provides 165ml of fluid when added to a glass of water or milk. - Low GI
For slow release of energy throughout the session. This is most relevant for sessions of 90 minutes duration or longer, particularly if it is difficult to consume foods or drinks within the session itself. - You may be feeling “flat”
Perhaps your training diet is not high enough in carbohydrate to fuel your training