Carbohydrate ingestion eliminates hypoglycemia and improves endurance exercise performance in triathletes adapted to very low- and high-carbohydrate isocaloric diets
Philip Prins, Timothy D. Noakes, Alex Buga, Hayden Gerhart, Brandon M. Cobb, Dominic P. D’Agostino, Jeff S. Volek, Jeffrey D. Buxton, Kara Heckman, Emma N. Plank, Samuel DiStefano, Isaak Flaming, Lauren Kirsch, Bo Lagerquist, Emily A. Larson, Andrew P. Koutnik
Abstract
This study examines the belief that very-low-carbohydrate diets (LCHF) impair prolonged exercise performance during strenuous exercise by comparing it with high-carbohydrate diets in competitive triathletes. After 6-wk diet adaptation, time-to-exhaustion (TTE) performance was similar across both diets. Minimal carbohydrate supplementation (10 g/h) during exercise eliminated exercise-induced hypoglycemia and improved TTE by 22% on both diets. These findings suggest that LCHF diets do not impair exercise performance and require a 4-wk adaptation period for metabolic homeostasis.