Cited by 46Muscle metabolism and nutritionCardiovascular and exercise physiologySports Performance and Training

Factors Influencing Substrate Oxidation During Submaximal Cycling: A Modelling Analysis

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Rothschild, Jeffrey A., Kilding, Andrew E., Stewart, Tom, Plews, Daniel J.·2022·Sports Medicine

Abstract

Background: Multiple factors influence substrate oxidation during exercise including exercise duration and intensity, sex, and dietary intake before and during exercise. However, the relative influence and interaction between these factors is unclear. Objectives: Our aim was to investigate factors influencing the respiratory exchange ratio (RER) during continuous exercise and formulate multivariable regression models to determine which factors best explain RER during exercise, as well as their relative influence. Methods: Data were extracted from 434 studies reporting RER during continuous cycling exercise. General linear mixed-effect models were used to determine relationships between RER and factors purported to influence RER (e.g., exercise duration and intensity, muscle glycogen, dietary intake, age, and sex), and to examine which factors influenced RER, with standardized coefficients used to assess their relative influence. Results: The RER decreases with exercise duration, dietary fat intake, age, VO 2max, and percentage of type I muscle fibers, and increases with dietary carbohydrate intake, exercise intensity, male sex, and carbohydrate intake before and during exercise. The modelling could explain up to 59% of the variation in RER, and a model using exclusively easily modified factors (exercise duration and intensity, and dietary intake before and during exercise) could only explain 36% of the variation in RER. Variables with the largest effect on RER were sex, dietary intake, and exercise duration. Among the diet-related factors, daily fat and carbohydrate intake have a larger influence than carbohydrate ingestion during exercise. Conclusion: Variability in RER during exercise cannot be fully accounted for by models incorporating a range of participant, diet, exercise, and physiological characteristics. To better understand what influences substrate oxidation during exercise further research is required on older subjects and females, and on other factors that could explain additional variability in RER.

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Crossref · 10.1007/s40279-022-01727-7

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  • The variation in observed prepost correlations may reflect small differences in biopsy site, tissue handling and weighing, muscle fiber-type composition, and/or individual differences in substrate utilization.

    “This variation may re fl ect small differences in biopsy site, tissue handling and weighing, muscle fi ber-type composition, and/or individual differences in substrate utilization (81 -83).”

    From Carbohydrate ingestion during prolonged exercise and net skeletal muscle glycogen utilization: A meta-analysis. (2026) · cites this paper as [82]

    The Discussion’s “Non-Modifiable Factors” section reports that muscle fiber-type percentage influences respiratory exchange ratio, a measure of substrate utilization during exercise. The Methods’ “Data Extraction” section describes pre- and post-exercise biopsies, but the paper does not link variation in prepost correlations to biopsy site, tissue handling, or weighing. No page numbers were available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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Authors
Rothschild, J. A., Kilding, A. E., Stewart, T., & Plews, D. J.
Affiliations
Auckland University of Technology (NZ)
Corresponding author
Rothschild, Jeffrey A.
Venue
Sports Medicine
Published
2022-07-12
Volume
52
Issue
11
Pages
2775-2795
ISSN
  • 0112-1642 (ISSN-L)
  • 1179-2035
OpenAlex
W4285395887
Cited by
46
References
199
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 3
FWCI
5.07
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Sports Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Auckland University of Technology
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Muscle metabolism and nutrition
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Cardiovascular and exercise physiology
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Orthopedics and Sports Medicine › Sports Performance and Training
Keywords
substrate oxidation, respiratory exchange ratio, submaximal cycling, exercise duration, exercise intensity, carbohydrate intake, sex differences, type I muscle fibers, muscle glycogen, dietary fat intake, exercise metabolism
MeSH terms
Bicycling, Dietary Carbohydrates, Dietary Fats, Female, Glycogen, Humans, Male, Oxidation-Reduction, Oxygen Consumption

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