Fuel for exercise
Some of you know, but others may not, I am work on my bachelor's degree in Sports and Health Science with a concentration in Exercise Sciences. It does not make me an expert in the field, but this is an area that I am very interested in studying--perhaps because of my weight struggles despite being pretty active dancing.
I had to write a short post for my exercise physiology class and while I was doing so, I found it helped me to better understand the line I'm walking when I'm dancing as much as I do and doing Ideal Protein and I thought it might help others. I don't think we have many dancers out there but perhaps those of you that are exercising can relate it to your type of exercise. I did wait for my instructors comments to make certain I hadn't said anything that was not correct based on current science.
So here you go... (I bolded what I think is a key point for us)
In some ways, I think this is something we all experiment with as we exercise. I know that for me, as a dancer who has been trying to lose weight, I am constantly seeking that balance of enough carbohydrates to fuel my activity, but not so much that it is stored as fat.
In exercise, carbohydrates are utilized during exercise if they are available. Carbohydrates are converted to glucose which is a type of simple sugar. When we are resting, the carbohydrates consumed are stored in muscles and liver in the form of glycogen which is a more complex sugar. Glycogen stores are limited and can be depleted during intense exercise unless enough carbohydrates are consumed at the right point before the exercise to be available (Wimore, Costill, & Kenney, 2008).
Fat provides a large portion of energy during prolonged, less intense exercise. Fat isn’t as easily available for metabolism because it must be changed to triglycerides, free fatty acids and glycerol. Free fatty acids are the only one of those three to be used to form ATP (Wimore, Costill, & Kenney, 2008). (Remember that ATP is what supplies energy to directly to our muscles to allow them to contract.)
Protein can be a minor energy source, but it must be converted to glucose first. During extreme energy depletion or starvation, protein may even be used to generate free fatty acids for energy. 5-10% of the energy needed for prolonged exercise may be supplied by protein (Wimore, Costill, & Kenney, 2008).
What does this translate to for my dancing? The complex part for me ,which I’m guessing is true of other sports, is that my intensity of dancing varies each time I step on the floor. I may have a 45 minute private lesson where I’m working pretty hard most of the time, it might be a one hour practice party where I’m dancing intermittently depending on whether I feel like dancing that dance, or a 3 hours dance with intermittent dancing. Finally, I could be dancing a 3 minute performance full out. Right now, when I go to a private lesson, I’m working consistently for 45 minutes. I’m not working at the level that I would be for a 3 minute performance the whole time, but I’m moving and I definitely need a shower afterwards. My primary source of energy is carbohydrates, but because I am limiting my carbohydrates in my diet, my body has to reach deeper. First it draws from the stores in my muscles and liver and then, it reaches into the fat. This is my goal! The balance of this all is that if I don’t eat enough carbohydrates and my body can’t convert the fat fast enough to meet my needs, I begin to use my protein stores, i.e. muscle. That is not the goal!
Ultimately when I can eat the enough to fuel my body, I can continue to lose weight while maintaining my performance, but when I do not provide sufficient carbohydrates, I don’t perform as well and I run the risk of losing muscle.
Works Cited
Wimore, J., Costill, D., & Kenney, W. (2008). Physiology of Sports and Exercise. Champaign : Human Kinetics.
Last edited by Marionm; 11-16-2011 at 11:14 AM.
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