How Timing Carbs Makes You Unstoppable: My Formula

G'day Legend,

Hope you enjoyed a proper feast over the weekend. My standouts? Chicken pot pie, mac n cheese, and a dangerously good focaccia — each built on the macro we love to fear: carbs.

For something we eat every day, carbs remain wildly misunderstood. Even elite athletes get them wrong. So today we’re dialing in the Smart Carb Formula — the clear, practical framework that helps you fuel smarter without overthinking it.

Let’s get into it.

In this week’s newsletter (4 min read):
⚡️Why your energy and pace suffer when your carbs don’t match your day
 🍚 The 3 carb mistakes even fit people make (and how to fix them)
 🧠 The Smart Carb Formula — slow, fast, and fiber carbs made simple

f you’ve got a mate who’s always “feeling flat” or confused about carbs, send them this — it might be the fuel fix they’ve been missing.

Why We Need Carbs (and What Happens When We Miss the Mark)

So why do we actually need carbs?
A quick recap is simple: when people talk about feeling “flat,” this is what they mean. The run that normally feels automatic now feels like work. Even mentally, you procrastinate more, decisions feel heavier, and motivation dips. That’s your body signaling a lack of readily available energy — and most of the time, that means carbohydrates.

Carbs are your fastest, cleanest fuel. When you fall short, your brain takes priority and the rest of you runs on whatever’s left. Work feels harder, recovery slows, and you start leaning on caffeine to fill the gap.

Too many carbs can create issues too, but it’s usually a timing problem, not a carb problem — spikes, crashes, late-night hunger, disrupted sleep.

The goal isn’t to avoid carbs or drown in them —
it’s to match the right carb to the right moment.

The Most Common Carb Mistakes

Mistake #1: Saving carbs for the end of the day.
Many people eat light all day, train on fumes, then sit down to a big bowl of pasta at night and wonder why training feels harder than it should. Your body isn’t a savings account — you can’t deposit fuel at night and expect it to power you in the morning.
Front-load the fuel, not the dinner.

Mistake #2: “I don’t eat carbs.”
Most people who say this are eating carbs constantly — fruit, snacks, lattes, cocktails, granola bars, sauces, sports drinks. They’re not low-carb; they’re accidental high-carb eaters with terrible timing.
Track one day honestly, it can reveal the hidden carbs you did not know about or give you quantifiable understanding on how many carbs are in something.

Mistake #3: Treating all carbs like they’re interchangeable.
Slow-digesting carbs during a run? Gut disaster. High-fiber carbs before sprints? No thanks. Using the wrong carb for the wrong moment is putting cinnamon in a dish when you meant to grab chili powder. Both technically spices — vastly different results.
Use a simple rule: slow carbs early, fast carbs for training, fiber carbs at night. Match the carb to the job.

Side note — a few people asked about keto after their feasting last week, so next week I’m covering why you should NOT do it.

How to Know How Much You Need

Ahhhh the age old adage, how many carbs should I be having?! Naturally it is different for everyone, as we all move differently, act differently, have varying metabolic frameworks and perform differently. There is no single formula that exists, but there is a tool that can take a lot of the guesswork out of it. 

Alma personalizes your carb targets based on your goals, and it also adapts your targets based on your activity, which is huge. If you want some help with carbs, definitely give it a go.

How to Do Carbs Right

Now I am the first to admit this is not always perfect on my end, but by using this framework, it becomes an unbelievable compass. 

The Smart Carb Formula:

A) Slow carbs early (AM → midday)

Examples: oats, quinoa, sweet potato, sourdough, whole grains, beans, root veg.
Why: slow carbs = slow glucose release = stable energy.
Perfect for morning performance and appetite control later in the day. Federer lived on porridge before Wimbledon for this exact stability.

B) Fast carbs around training

Examples: banana, gels, sports drink, rice cakes + honey, white rice, potatoes.
Why: quick glucose = better power, focus, and pace.
Your gut adapts to fast carbs just like muscles adapt to load — which is why HYROX athletes take 30–40g carbs pre-sleds.

C) Fiber carbs at night

Examples: vegetables, lentils, berries, beans, whole fruit.
Why: fiber blunts glucose, feeds gut bacteria, boosts SCFAs, and improves sleep.
High-fiber dinners support digestion and help bump HRV — your gut is your recovery partner.

Legendary Action of the Week

Tomorrow morning, build your first meal around ONE slow carb — oats, sourdough, quinoa, whatever you enjoy. Notice how your energy feels by midday.

And quick one — our December referral reward is live.
Refer a mate to Legendary this month and you could win an AG1 prize pack . Perfect timing for the winter.

1 Referral = 1 entry

Click the referral link at the bottom to get going.

Quick Notes

🎬Eric Hinman and I got first in our age group at Dallas HYROX and are going to the World Championships. Full race day vid is live on YouTube. WATCH IT HERE.

#EatGoodFeelGood

— DC