Athlete summary
How much carbohydrate you need today depends on today’s session and tomorrow’s — not a flat weekly number. Koyaro periodizes day and meal availability. The number on the bike computer (g/h) is a different question; that stays on in-ride CHO bands.
| Day type | Daily CHO (ACSM band) | Pre | During (policy) | Post / evening |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quality / race / long HIT | high 6–10 or very high 8–12 g/kg | HIGH 3 g/kg | fuel (g/h) | HIGH 3 g/kg; evening may drop if tomorrow is easy train-low |
| Easy LIT, train-low off | ACSM from duration | moderate / high | fuel | ACSM recovery |
| Easy LIT, train-low on | high if tomorrow is quality (reload) | LOW 0–0.5 g/kg | delay 2 h (long) or omit (≤2 h) | HIGH 3 g/kg |
| Rest | light 3–5 g/kg | — | omit | — |
Train-low is opt-in and never on quality days
Deliberate train-low (start the easy ride with low CHO, delay on-bike carbs, then reload) is allowed only when:
- you opted in (
train_low_willingness= easy days / open, or that day’s session is markedtrain_low/fasted), and - the session is easy LIT (endurance / recovery, not hard), and
- REDs / low energy availability is not screening adaptable or problematic.
Sleep-low dinner the night before uses tomorrow’s opt-in, not today’s. A quality day tagged train_low stays HIGH (vetoed) and does not drop evening CHO unless tomorrow itself is an opted-in easy LIT. On a train-low start, session fueling uses the LOW T−2h band (0–0.5 g/kg), not the ACSM 1.0–1.5 g/kg meal.
VO2, threshold, race, openers, tests, and any hard IF cannot be train-low. That is the gap this page closes: amateurs were accidentally starting quality days under-fueled.
Glycogen bands are labels
Literature classifies muscle glycogen as low (<250 mmol/kg dry weight), moderate (250–600), or high (>600). Koyaro uses those as names for the meal plan, not as a number computed from your body mass. We do not invent oxidation grams from weight either — that is, and it needs a lab measurement.
Protein floor (not a second engine)
Morton 2025 calls out 1.6–2.1 g·kg⁻¹·day⁻¹ protein for remodeling. Daily macros still default to 1.6 g/kg; this range is a soft floor on the availability payload, not a new macro splitter.
Coach
Table 2 in Morton et al. (UCI SNP, IJSNEM 2025/26) is the authoring illustration for a 70 kg pro (Day 1 HIT 5 h → HIGH meals then LOW dinner; Day 2 5 h LIT → LOW pre, delay in-ride 2 h, HIGH reload; Day 4 1 h recovery → LOW pre/during, HIGH reload). Amateur daily totals stay on the ACSM/Burke midpoints (4 / 6 / 8 / 10 g/kg) so we do not silently promote 13–16 g/kg.
Resolver: daily_cho_availability in coach.domain.nutrition.cho_availability. Attached on DailyNutrition (GET /nutrition/daily, Today, Week). When train-low delay is prescribed, session fueling zeros during g/h without changing in_ride_carbs_g_per_hour.
Literature
- Morton JP, Hearris M, Fell MJ, Owens DJ, Halson S, Trommelen J. UCI Sports Nutrition Project: Nutritional Periodization. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2025/26;36(3):279–304. doi 10.1123/ijsnem.2025-0073.
- Impey SG, Hearris MA, Hammond KM, et al. Fuel for the Work Required. Sports Med. 2018;48:1031–1048.
- Thomas, Erdman & Burke — ACSM/AND/DC position stand, Med Sci Sports Exerc 2016 (daily g/kg bands).
- Mountjoy et al. — IOC REDs 2023 (adaptable vs problematic LEA; periodization is not a license for chronic LEA).