Nutrition is an important tool in the sports universe. Among all sport modalities, nutrition has great influence on the "challenge sports", also known as ultra-endurance competitions. The energetic cost of an ultra-endurance event can vary from 5,000 to 18,000 kcal a day. The diet recommendation for ultra-endurance athletes is 70% or more, or 7 to 10 grams per kilogram of body weight, of carbohydrates. It is fully accepted that the ingestion of carbohydrates before and during prolonged exercises will delay fatigue, saving the hepatic and muscular glycogen and providing glucose directly to the active muscles. However, although well-planned nutrition shows improvement, some researchers continue to develop new ways of improving performance, like lipid supplementation through the ingestion of medium-chain triglycerides during exercise or a high-fat diet during the days before competition. Therefore, the aim of this revision is to elucidate how carbohydrates and lipids can influence performance in ultra-endurance exercises.
Nutrition; Performance; Ultra-endurance exercise; Carbohydrates; Lipids