Finally got around to reading the full study on this, as got a big endurance event coming up and want to get the fuelling right.
On closer inspection, it seems the study does little, if anything to show a benefit of a high fat meal over a high carb meal prior to an endurance event.
The study tests 3 different breakfasts:
1) High Fat + Carb Gel 2) High Fat + Placebo 3) High Carb + Placebo
There was no significant difference between the high fat or carb breakfasts + placebo.
Yes, as the scientist point out, 7 out of the 8 participants did very slightly better on the high fat, but it was nothing impressive, and the reason we use statistical analysis is because with a sample size so small, this could just have been random chance.
The high fat + maltodextrin gel did significantly improve performance, but as this breakfast contained an extra 400kCal, and we had no high carb + carb gel group to compare it with, we don't know whether this increase in performance is due to the maltodextrin or the extra calories.
I think a more useful conclusion from this study would be:
1) It makes little to no difference whether your pre-race calories come from fat or carbs providing your glycogen stores are full from a 3 day carb load.
2) Taking an additional 400 calories in the form of a maltodextrin gel can significantly improve your time to exhaustion. (Though we don't know whether the same effects could be achieved from an additional 400 kCals in any other form)
I think based on the above the best strategy is just to eat whatever you enjoy eating for breakfast and agrees with your digestion!
2 comments:
High fat meal is probably good for fighting cancer, too.
Finally got around to reading the full study on this, as got a big endurance event coming up and want to get the fuelling right.
On closer inspection, it seems the study does little, if anything to show a benefit of a high fat meal over a high carb meal prior to an endurance event.
The study tests 3 different breakfasts:
1) High Fat + Carb Gel
2) High Fat + Placebo
3) High Carb + Placebo
There was no significant difference between the high fat or carb breakfasts + placebo.
Yes, as the scientist point out, 7 out of the 8 participants did very slightly better on the high fat, but it was nothing impressive, and the reason we use statistical analysis is because with a sample size so small, this could just have been random chance.
The high fat + maltodextrin gel did significantly improve performance, but as this breakfast contained an extra 400kCal, and we had no high carb + carb gel group to compare it with, we don't know whether this increase in performance is due to the maltodextrin or the extra calories.
I think a more useful conclusion from this study would be:
1) It makes little to no difference whether your pre-race calories come from fat or carbs providing your glycogen stores are full from a 3 day carb load.
2) Taking an additional 400 calories in the form of a maltodextrin gel can significantly improve your time to exhaustion. (Though we don't know whether the same effects could be achieved from an additional 400 kCals in any other form)
I think based on the above the best strategy is just to eat whatever you enjoy eating for breakfast and agrees with your digestion!
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