Female athletes can use more carbs during marathons than guidelines suggest – this brand-new study reveals all

July 6, 2026

You could argue that mid-marathon fuelling has never been placed more heavily under the spotlight. For regular runners, the gold standard tends to be 60g of carbohydrate per hour for runs lasting 90 minutes or more. But now, research is showing that runners could take on much more – we’re talking 90g or even 120g of carbohydrate per hour during long runs and races like marathons, trusting your stomach can handle it.

But what are these fuelling recommendations based on? Well, most of the time, male data. If you’re a male runner, this is, of course, helpful – and although fuelling for endurance events is not a one-size-fits-all thing, these guidelines provide a solid framework from which to create a solid fuelling strategy of your own.

As for women? There’s the gap. As it stands, only 5% of sports nutrition research is based exclusively on female data, which means that female athletes – including those competing at the highest level – are following fuelling plans based on male-led studies. RUNNER’S WORLD