Your plan, built from the fuel you already train with
Tired of a fueling plan that says take a gel, when the gel in your pocket has 40 grams of carbohydrate and the one it was written for has 22?
CarbRate is built on 163 gels, chews, drink mixes, bars, real food and electrolytes, every one of them checked against its own label.
Pick what you actually carry and CarbRate recalculates your whole plan around it: how many, at what times, and how much of your carbohydrate is already in your bottle.
Why “take a gel” is the vaguest line in your fueling plan, and how it leaves you short on carbs or bloated
Gels range from about 22 grams of carbohydrate to 40. A plan that says a gel every 30 minutes can be off by nearly half depending on which gel you use.
Then there is your drink. Most runners take water at the aid stations and carry their own carb mix in a bottle.
If your plan does not count the carbohydrate already in that bottle, it adds gels on top of it and you take in too much.
That is how you can follow your plan exactly and end up thirty grams an hour short, or thirty over and bloated.
And if you have to swap products in race week because your usual gel sold out, you find all of this out on race day.
Luckily the answer is printed on the label, and CarbRate has the labels.
Your body absorbs some carbohydrates faster than others
Your body can use a single source of carbohydrate at . Above that, the limit is how fast your gut can transport it.
Blend glucose with fructose and the limit rises toward 90, because the two are absorbed by different routes.
In the heat the difference is bigger. , a glucose and fructose blend was oxidized at 1.14 g/min against 0.77 for glucose alone.
So the product you carry decides how many of its grams your body can actually use.
Some ingredients work against you too: protein in a during-race product slows how fast your stomach empties, and a large single dose of fructose or a sugar alcohol is a common cause of an upset stomach from a gel.
Reading all of that off a label, for every product you are considering, takes an afternoon.
That is why CarbRate scores every product in its catalog against the research, and tells you the reason in plain English.
CarbRate counts your actual product, not a generic gel
Search for what you use and pick it. Your gel sets the real carbohydrate in each feed, and your drink sets the concentration in your bottle.
Your schedule then says take two of your gel, instead of take a gel.
CarbRate also asks how much of what you drink is your own carb mix, and how much is water from the aid stations.
Half water and half a 6% mix is an effective 3%, and that changes the count.
CarbRate subtracts the carbohydrate in your bottle from your gel count, so you never take in too much.
You carry the right number of the right product, and you know it before you buy them.
CarbRate tells you why a product scores what it does
Every product carries a score out of 100, built only from published, verified fields.
Each product is scored against its own category, so a gel is scored on how fast its carbohydrate absorbs and an electrolyte tab is scored on its electrolytes.
Every score comes with a plain-English reason and a list of ingredients that can upset your stomach: sugar alcohols, juice concentrates, large single doses of fructose.
Affiliate relationships never move a score, and anything sponsored is labelled as sponsored.
You can see exactly what a product is made of and exactly why CarbRate scores it the way it does.
CarbRate shortlists the fuels most likely to agree with your stomach
If gels have upset your stomach, the cause is usually one ingredient in one product.
Answer three questions and CarbRate gives you the three fuels to test next, the ones to avoid, and the reason for each.
Then CarbRate schedules those tests on the long runs you have left before race day.
You only have so many long runs left, so CarbRate makes sure each one tests something.
It is free, and you do not have to sign up for anything.
CarbRate adds the product you use when it is not in the catalog yet
Paste a link to the manufacturer’s page and CarbRate reads the nutrition panel, saves the source, and adds the product to your plan in about a minute.
If CarbRate cannot read a field with confidence it leaves that field empty, and tells you.
You can also enter a product by hand, and it is marked unverified.
You should not have to give up the gel you have trained on for two years because it is not in a database.
Homemade mix? Changing products mid-block?
The best fuel is the one you have already proven on a long run
Nothing in your race should be new, least of all the gel you have to swallow at mile 20.
CarbRate builds your plan around what you already train with, and tells you when a product in the catalog scores higher.
- Fueling plan built on your exact course
- Personalized to your sweat rate, weight, and goal
- Adjusts when the race-day forecast changes
- Week-by-week gut-training practice schedule
- One prescribed change after every rough run
- The dress-rehearsal run, scheduled early
- Live guidance through every gel and drink
- All 163 gels, chews, and mixes built in
Julie Beaudoin“This app helped me test products throughout my training for Grandmas and put together a plan with more drinking. It was the first time I’ve finished with no stomach issues.”
See how CarbRate handles the rest of your race
A page for each one: