Can You Take More Than 90g of Carbs Per Hour? The 120g Question

For years the ceiling for carbohydrate intake during endurance exercise was 60g an hour. Then research on multiple transportable carbohydrates pushed it to 90g, and now elite triathletes and Grand Tour teams are talking openly about 100g, 110g and even 120g an hour. If you have ever wondered whether you can take more than 90g carbs per hour, the short answer is yes, some athletes can, but only if the rest of the system is ready for it.

The longer answer is more interesting, and more useful. Whether 120g makes sense for you depends on your event length, your intensity, your body size and, above all, how well your gut has been trained. Let's go through what the evidence says and how to approach it without ruining a race.

Why 60g Used to Be the Limit

Glucose is absorbed in the small intestine through a transporter called SGLT1, and that pathway saturates at roughly 60g per hour. Eat more glucose or maltodextrin than that and the excess sits in your gut, pulling in water and causing bloating, cramps and the dreaded porta-loo stop.

Fructose uses a different transporter, GLUT5. When you take glucose and fructose together, you open two lanes instead of one. Studies from the Loughborough and Birmingham groups showed that a glucose to fructose mix at around 2:1 or 1:1 allowed oxidation rates of up to 1.5g of carbohydrate per minute, which is where the 90g an hour figure comes from. That is why the ratio of your fuel matters as much as the quantity.

What the Research Says About Going Beyond 90g

The evidence for more than 90g carbs per hour is real but narrower than social media suggests. A few key points:

• Oxidation rates plateau, but gut comfort can improve. Even at 120g an hour, not all of that carbohydrate is oxidised. Some studies show peak exogenous oxidation tops out around 1.7 to 1.8g per minute in well-trained subjects, which is about 100 to 108g an hour.
• Performance gains are modest and individual. Trials comparing 90g with 120g an hour in long cycling efforts have shown small improvements in some athletes and no difference in others. The benefit tends to show up in events longer than three hours.
• Body mass matters. A 90kg rider working at 280 watts has a very different demand from a 55kg runner at marathon pace. Many coaches now scale intake loosely to size and workload rather than quoting one number for everyone.
• Gut tolerance is the limiting factor. The athletes who report success at 120g have almost always spent months practising it in training.

Who Might Actually Benefit From 100g Plus

If you are racing for under 90 minutes, you do not need anything close to this. Up to 30 to 60g an hour is plenty, and even a mouth rinse can help at the shorter end. The case for 90g and above starts to build when sessions pass two and a half to three hours at a high enough intensity that fat oxidation is already suppressed.

That means half and full-distance triathletes, gran fondo and sportive riders aiming for a time, road racers, ultra runners on runnable courses, and anyone doing back-to-back long days. Bigger athletes also have a stronger case, because their absolute energy expenditure is higher. If you are a recreational athlete riding at a steady, conversational pace, 60 to 75g an hour is probably already ample.

How to Build Up Safely

Do not turn up to race day and try 110g for the first time. A sensible progression looks like this:

• Weeks 1 to 2: Establish a baseline of 60g an hour in long sessions and note how your stomach feels at hour three.
• Weeks 3 to 4: Add 10g an hour, aiming for 70g, and keep fluid intake steady.
• Weeks 5 to 8: Climb in 10g steps towards 90g, only moving up when the previous level is comfortable across two or three sessions.
• Beyond 90g: Only experiment in your longest sessions, and keep the 1:1 or 2:1 glucose to fructose ratio. Use a mix of formats so you are not relying on a single product.

Spread your intake in small, regular doses, every 10 to 15 minutes, rather than big hits every half hour. Smaller, frequent feeds are far easier on the stomach and keep blood glucose steadier. Keep drink mixes dilute too, because a concentrated carbohydrate solution above about 8 percent slows gastric emptying.

Practical Tips for Race Day

Once you have trained the gut, the execution matters. Start fuelling in the first 15 to 20 minutes rather than waiting until you feel hungry, because by then you are already behind. Set a repeating timer on your watch or bike computer so that eating becomes automatic and not something you negotiate with yourself at hour four.

Sip water alongside your carbohydrate, particularly with solid or chewable formats, as fluid helps move the carbohydrate through the stomach. In hot conditions you will need more fluid and sodium, so adjust both together. If your stomach starts to complain, drop back to 60g for 20 to 30 minutes, take plain water, and then build up again. Most gut trouble settles when you reduce intake briefly, whereas pushing through usually makes it worse.

Finally, keep a simple training log noting grams per hour, the product used, intensity and how you felt. After a few weeks the pattern is obvious, and you will know your personal ceiling rather than borrowing someone else's.

What We Use at FTP Endurance Fuel

We built our pastilles around exactly this problem. Each pastille delivers a measured dose of carbohydrate in a glucose and fructose blend, so hitting 60, 90 or more per hour is simple arithmetic rather than guesswork. They are small and firm enough to eat in tiny, regular portions, which is the format that works best for high-intake fuelling. You can count them out into a top-tube bag or pocket before the start and know exactly where you are at hour four.

If you like a sharper flavour, our Tart Cherry Pastilles 1kg are a favourite for long training days, and the Mixed Fruit Pastilles 1kg help when flavour fatigue sets in late in a race. Not sure yet? The Taster Pack lets you test them in a few sessions before committing.

The Bottom Line

You can take more than 90g of carbs per hour, and for long, hard events it may well give you an edge, but it is a trained skill rather than a hack. Start where you are, build in small steps, keep a glucose and fructose blend, and let your gut tell you when it is ready. If 75g feels brilliant on race day, that is a better result than 120g and a stomach in revolt.

Ready to start practising? Browse our bundles and stock up for your next block of long sessions.