Carbohydrate Loading to Enhance an Athlete's Performance

The concept of energy intake and expenditure refers to the amount of calories per day that an individual consumes, and is the chemical energy in foods which can be metabolized to produce energy available to the body. As stated before energy is obtained from the foods we eat and is used to support an individual’s Basal Metabolic Rate, energy is measured in calories or joules as both units are very small they are multiplied by 1,000 and referred to as kilocalories. Different foods provide us with different amounts of energy, and the potential fuel sources available to exercising muscles are fats – 1 gram fat =9.0kcal = 23kJ,

or the muscles. After a few hours whether in training or competition, the glycogen stores become low or depleted and exhaustion may quickly occur. The best way to avoid this effect is to eat the right type of carbohydrate, in its complex state. This will allow you to build up your glycogen stores rather than convert to glucose. When you are low on carbohydrates your brain does not function very well and you will not be as alert and may be more prone to injure yourself. Your body will replenish these energy stores more effectively right after your workout and the following hour. To improve your recovery, eat carbohydrates right after and again within 1.5 hours later. This will help you restore your energy (blood glucose and muscle glycogen)

As we eat protein, fat and carbohydrates, as the main energy source, carbohydrates or glucose (simple sugar) break down into complex molecules. We need steady supply of glucose in between meals and at times like doing extensive workouts, there is an elevated demand for

The endurance of exercise performance could be limited by the availability of muscle glycogen (Roberts PA1 2016).

Having taken a meal high in carbohydrates a couple of hours earlier, I embarked on my arranged exercise regimen. Right before starting the task (jogging several rounds around the field) I felt energized. After jogging for some time,

Overall, all the participants did not meet recommendations for CHO, Vitamin A, D, C, B1, and B6 during training and, in addition, women did not consume the recommendations for PRO, calcium, iron, and zinc.5 Furthermore, during the race 75% of the runners doing the 60- km race fell short on getting the recommend CHO. For the 120-km runners, 3 of the 4 men took in greater than 500 ml/h of fluid, which met recommendations, but only 1 runner took in greater than the recommended CHO during the race (108 g/hr). One major limitation of this study is that the four runners PRO, sodium, and fat intakes weren’t recorded during the 120-km

While exercising, your muscles both burn available fuel for energy and contract in response to a rush of electrical signals from the brain. It burns fatty acids, amino acids, and glucose. When the intensity of your workout increases, you depend less on fatty acids and more on your carbohydrates. This is because carbohydrates

Immediate ingestion of carbohydrate is important because insulin sensitivity causes the muscle cell membranes to be more permeable to glucose within 45 minutes post-exercise. This results in faster rates of glycogen storage and provides the body with enough

Danielson et al. (2006), aimed to investigate the physiological effects of water vs. Gatorade after a prolonged period of intense exercise. The predictor variable in this study was water or Gatorade consumption by each of the participants (Danielson et al., 2006). The response variable was the physiological effects during and after the performance (Danielson et al., 2006). As stated on their website Gatorade.com, increasing fatigue and fluid losses can impact performance negatively. In this study Danielson et al. (2006), defined performance as extended treadmill exercise

Brinkworth & Noakes et al, found that in obese subjects having a low carbohydrate diet would in fact increase the amount of fat being oxidised during submaximal aerobic exercise, suggesting that subjects would have a RER closer to .7 than one. Exercise intensities that are less than 65% VO2 max, will be affected little by the percentage intake of fat and carbohydrates. (Miller & Wolfe, 1999) This would suggest that lower intensities don’t rely completely on food sources, but fuel stores already in the body. Exercise at 65% VO2 max will have approximately 50% of the energy supplied by muscle glycogen and plasma together with intramuscular fatty acids will provide around 40% of the energy. At high intensity exercise of above 80% VO2 max, the major source of energy is

Lab Report – How do the fuels (carbohydrate and fat) we use change during exercise of varying intensity?

The dietary requirements of an athlete competing in the summer olympics will largely depend on the event they are taking part in and also the environment in which they are competing. An athlete who is competing in the decathlon event will need a high amount of blood glucose and full glycogen stores in the muscles and liver, to do this they will want to raise the intake of Carbohydrates (CHO) in preparation for the event and lower the intake of protein and fats. Previously, the belief with CHO loading was that there must be a 3-4 depletion phase, with high intensity training with low CHO intake, immediately followed by a loading period of 3-4 days with rest and a high CHO intake. However, today it is known that the depletion phase is not necessary, as 1-4 days of tapering the exercise and consuming a high CHO diet is sufficient in elevating muscle glycogen levels.

For example; increases in 100 and 200m swimming performance (22) and increases in 2000m rowing performance (18) as well as increases in cycling capacity (17) have been demonstrated (for reviews see Refs. 10, 16). However, the precise mechanisms by which carnosine may elicit increases in exercise performance and capacity remain to be fully elucidated. During high intensity exercise, hydrogen cation (H+) accumulation is significantly increased, which results in significantly decreased intracellular pH (23). Furthermore, H+ accumulation is reported to disrupt the ability of the muscle’s contractile machinery to function (8, 12). Due to carnosine’s imidazole ring having a pKa of 6.83, it is well acknowledged that carnosine is a perfectly suited intracellular pH buffer across the entire physiological range (4). Therefore, during high intensity exercise where H+ accumulation is likely to be the biggest contributing factor that limits exercise performance, carnosine’s ability to increase intracellular buffering capacity and maintain muscular function, is suggested to be the most pertinent mechanism by which carnosine evokes an ergogenic effect (27). Hill et al., (17) suggested increased intracellular buffering capacity resulting from an increase in muscle carnosine concentrations explained a significant increase (TWD: +16.2%) in cycling capacity following 10 weeks of BA

An individual engaged in vigorous exercise demands much more energy than a sedentary individual. The supplied energy during a 100 meter sprint or a marathon run comes at a cost, which is the production of ATP (Hill et al.). At the beginning of exercise the body relies on the glycogen stores in muscle that aids in ATP production. Eventually, glucose levels in muscles begin to decrease as the activity continues, it’s also thought that insufficient glucose causes tiredness (Hill et al.) . Glucose must be provided continuously in order to satisfy one’s energy demands. Consequently, glucose is delivered by blood to the muscles. Fatty acids also contribute to the process of generating energy when glucose levels are low, which are broken down to

As mentioned before in the case of our tennis player, carbohydrates are known to be a major source of fuel for the body. Carbohydrates fuel muscles during performance. With that being said athletes ought to consume a high quality of carbohydrates throughout the day in order to maintain their energy sources. Without a sufficient supply of carbohydrates, athletes may begin to feel fatigued throughout the day and in turn not perform to the best of their abilities on the field or in the weight