Fatigue Factors
Human performance requires constant energy, much of which is already stored within us waiting to be metabolized.
Dr. Phil Maffetone
Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms heard from patients and the primary reason for poor athletic performance. All levels of exercise, from competitive athletes to those minimally active, require large amounts of energy each day and all night. Otherwise we face devastating consequences.
Despite our unique individuality, athlete or not, every human has the potential for metabolic flexibility—the ability to generate high amounts of energy. Exercise science is not just for athletes.
Newly published sports research refines guidelines for optimizing this energy usage during longer and more intense exercise.
Where does our energy come from?
The answer is interesting: the sun. Light energy travels to Earth and is converted by plants into stored chemical energy through photosynthesis. Animals eat plants, and when humans consume plants and animal products our metabolism releases this energy (as ATP), powering our brains and bodies.
Specifically, we obtain energy by burning calories of both carbohydrates (including sugar in the form of glucose) and fats. The ability to burn more body fat for energy is a hallmark of better health and fitness.
Developing a strong aerobic system, starting with low heart rate exercise and avoiding sugar and other processed food, is accompanied by metabolic flexibility to obtain more energy from stored fat. The result is reduced fatigue and hunger, faster exercise at the same heart rate, normal fat stores, and improved brain function.
We can obtain twice the energy from fat as the same amount of calories from carbs and protein combined. But not if we consume refined carbs, including sugar, because these foods suppress fat burning.
It's not just about burning calories—the game is really about burning more fat calories. Otherwise stored body fat remains too high despite hours of exercise.
The potential energy from fat is enormous: consider that a lean individual has sufficient stored body fat to power a 500-mile walk or jog. Our sugar stores, however, won’t take us more than 18 miles—the infamous “hitting the wall” point of a marathon.
While fat provides high energy during low and moderate physical activity, it also can contribute energy during high intensity physical activity as well, including competition.
Burning more fat allows one to exercise longer without reductions in blood sugar and fatigue. But during longer and harder exercise, blood sugar eventually falls triggering the brain to slow or stop you. The latest research shows how only a very small amount of carbohydrate supplementation can keep blood sugar from falling.
New research
A newly published study (linked below) by Tim Noakes, Philip Prins, Alex Buga, Dominic D’Agostino, Jeff Volek, and Andrew Koutnik shows that very small amounts of carbohydrate during long exercise, as opposed to large amounts traditionally recommended, can prevent blood sugar drops and fatigue. The authors reviewed more than century of evidence taking a fresh look at exercise metabolism and physical performance.
The study demonstrated that the primary reason for fatigue during exercise is low blood sugar, rather than low glycogen, the stored sugar in muscles. And the amount of carbohydrate effective to prevent low blood sugar is as low as 10 grams (about 2 teaspoons of white sugar) per hour during long athletic events. This is radically different from the traditional view that the more carbs consumed the better—like 100 grams per hour (about a half cup of white sugar). Even the old moderate recommendation of 60+ grams of carbs per hour is unnecessary to stabilize blood sugar.
However, consuming this extra and unnecessary carbohydrate can stress the gut, a common problem in athletes that can significantly impair performance. Gut stress from too much carbohydrate food can impair anyone.
Likewise, even at rest, anyone can develop low blood sugar slowing the body down. The brain too, resulting in poor creativity, learning, memory, and increased human error. This typically occurs because we don’t burn enough body fat for energy to prevent reduced blood sugar.
For shorter exercise, including competitive events up to an hour or two, body fat stores alone may provide enough energy while keeping blood sugar stable, and without the need for sports drinks, bars, or bananas.
This requires a healthy diet, void of refined carbs, including sugar. It allows you to burn a lot of fat for energy before and during exercise. While during longer exercise our metabolism welcomes small amounts of carbohydrates, this is not the case at rest.
The new research further challenged the belief that sugar is an obligatory fuel during prolonged endurance efforts, when in fact fat serves as a powerful energy source along with carbs. And that no dose-dependent improvement in exercise performance occurs beyond small amounts of carbohydrate supplementation of between 10 and 30 grams per hour, emphasizing that the prevention of low blood sugar is the primary benefit.
Which carb supplements work well and are without side effects?
- Best carbs: For use during exercise, simple sugars are best. Typically from diluted fruit juice or honey that provide glucose and fructose not requiring digestion.
- Worst carbs: Most sugars from soda, sports drinks, gels and other complex carbs require digestion and often cause gut stress—a common problem in sports that can adversely affect performance.
The sugar industry and all the companion junk food companies have been deceiving consumers for decades claiming sugar is our primary energy. These companies spend billions to advertise during sports events handing out free samples not unlike the old marketing practices of tobacco companies. They lobby politicians too. Governments subsidize junk food and allow companies to deceive the global population, helping to make billions of adults and children overfat and sick.
Everyone who consumes refined carbs—including virtually all flour-based products and sugar in its many forms—risks impairing metabolism reducing fat burning for energy, increasing fatigue, reducing performance and keeping fat in storage.
It's sad to see so many people with reduced athletic performance—runners, golfers, triathletes, soccer, basketball and baseball players, those in racket sports, and even those who just workout for fitness and weight loss.
About 80% of the world’s population now has excess stored body fat—a serious health condition called overfat. Athletes are not exempt. This is primarily the result consuming a diet full of refined carbohydrates; normally about half the carbohydrates we consume is converted to fat and stored.
Low carbohydrate eating from natural unprocessed food with higher fat and moderate protein is essentially how our early ancestors ate. Scientists know that this ancestral diet enabled the development of powerful bodies and creative brains, and without burning high amounts of fat for energy humans would not have survived as a species. Hopefully we’ve come full circle, and the world will start eating the same healthy way again.
Scientific links:
Carbohydrate Ingestion on Exercise Metabolism and Physical Performance (Noakes T, et al.)
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