The DOI matches its Crossref record; the references it cites are not checked yet.
Carb-conscious: the role of carbohydrate intake in recovery from exercise
Open accessAbstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The present review summarized evidence on the role of carbohydrates in recovery from exercise within the context of acute and chronic effects on metabolism and performance. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent studies demonstrate that, in contrast to recovery of muscle glycogen stores, the recovery of liver glycogen stores can be accelerated by the co-ingestion of fructose with glucose-based carbohydrates. Three recent studies suggest this can extend time-to-exhaustion during endurance exercise tests. However, periodically restricting carbohydrate intakes during recovery from some training sessions to slow the recovery of liver and muscle glycogen stores may, over time, result in a modest increase in the ability to oxidize fat during exercise in a fasted state. Whether this periodized strategy translates into a performance advantage in the fed state remains to be clearly demonstrated. SUMMARY: To maximize recovery of glycogen stores and the capacity to perform in subsequent endurance exercise, athletes should consider ingesting at least 1.2 g carbohydrate per kilogram body mass per hour - for the first few hours of recovery - as a mixture of fructose and glucose-based carbohydrates. However, if a goal is increased capacity for fat oxidation, athletes should consider restricting carbohydrate intakes during recovery from some key training sessions. VIDEO ABSTRACT: http://links.lww.com/COCN/A15.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Liver glycogen resynthesis is inherently slower than that of muscle, possibly owing to its higher rate of glycogen turnover and/or distinct glycogen synthesis pathways that are contingent on hormonal fluctuations.
“Moreover, liver glycogen resynthesis is inherently slower than that of muscle, possibly owing to its higher rate of glycogen turnover and/or distinct glycogen synthesis pathways that are contingent on hormonal fluctuations (notably insulin, glucagon, and epinephrine) [45, 47].”
From Nutritional Strategies to Improve Post-exercise Recovery and Subsequent Exercise Performance: A Narrative Review (2025) · cites this paper as [45]
In “Understanding liver glycogen metabolism cannot be simply extrapolated from evidence collection on muscle glycogen metabolism” (page not provided), the paper describes different post-exercise repletion patterns: liver repletion is slower in the first two hours than in hours 2–5, while muscle repletion is fastest early. It also describes substantial liver glycogen turnover and hormonal regulation, but does not establish that liver resynthesis is inherently slower than muscle resynthesis, that liver turnover is higher than muscle turnover, or that distinct synthesis pathways explain the difference. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 34 · Cited by 9
Research works printed but not linked: 24
- Menzies, 2020, Frequent carbohydrate ingestion reduces muscle glycogen depletion and postpones fatigue relative to a single bolus, Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab, 30, 203, 10.1123/ijsnem.2019-0291 · DOI
- Barber, 2020, Pectin-alginate does not further enhance exogenous carbohydrate oxidation in running, Med Sci Sports Exerc, 52, 1376, 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002262 · DOI
- Gray, 2019, Postexercise glucose-fructose co-ingestion augments cycling capacity during short-term and overnight recovery from exhaustive exercise, compared to isocaloric glucose, Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab, 30, 54, 10.1123/ijsnem.2019-0211 · DOI · Paper page
- Rollo, 2020, Primary, secondary, and tertiary effects of carbohydrate ingestion during exercise, Sports Med, 50, 1863, 10.1007/s40279-020-01343-3 · DOI
- Smith, 2021, Muscle glycogen utilization during exercise after ingestion of alcohol, Med Sci Sports Exerc, 53, 211, 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002458 · DOI
- Narang, 2020, The effect of calcium co-ingestion on exogenous glucose oxidation during endurance exercise in healthy men: a pilot study, Eur J Sport Sci
- Odell, 2020, Comparable exogenous carbohydrate oxidation from lactose or sucrose during exercise, Med Sci Sports Exerc, 52, 2663, 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002426 · DOI · Paper page
- Edinburgh, 2019, Skipping breakfast before exercise creates a more negative 24-h energy balance: a randomized controlled trial in health physically active young men, J Nutr, 149, 1326, 10.1093/jn/nxz018 · DOI
- Impey, 2020, Glycogen utilization during running: intensity, sex, and muscle-specific responses, Med Sci Sports Exerc, 52, 1966, 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002332 · DOI
- Roden, 1996, The roles of insulin and glucagon in the regulation of hepatic glycogen synthesis and turnover in humans, J Clin Invest, 97, 642, 10.1172/JCI118460 · DOI
- Maunder, 2018, Postexercise fructose-maltodextrin ingestion enhances subsequent endurance capacity, Med Sci Sports Exerc, 50, 1039, 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001516 · DOI · Paper page
- Podlogar, 2020, Impact of post-exercise fructose-maltodextrin ingestion on subsequent endurance performance, Front Nutr, 7, 82, 10.3389/fnut.2020.00082 · DOI
- Hengist, 2020, The effects of glucose-fructose co-ingestion on repeated performance during a day of intensified rugby union training in professional academy players, J Sports Sci
- Stellingwerff, 2019, A framework for periodized nutrition for athletics, Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab, 29, 141, 10.1123/ijsnem.2018-0305 · DOI
- Podlogar, 2020, High rates of fat oxidation are maintained after the sleep low approach despite delayed carbohydrate feeding during exercise, Eur J Sport Sci, 21, 213, 10.1080/17461391.2020.1730447 · DOI
- Edinburgh, 2020, Lipid metabolism links nutrient-exercise timing to insulin sensitivity in men classified as overweight or obese, J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 105, 660, 10.1210/clinem/dgz104 · DOI
- Edinburgh, 2021, Impact of preexercise feeding status on metabolic adaptations to endurance-type exercise training, J Physiol
- Hearris, 2019, Graded reductions in preexercise muscle glycogen impair exercise capacity but do not augment skeletal muscle cell signaling: implications for CHO periodization, J Appl Physiol, 126, 1587, 10.1152/japplphysiol.00913.2018 · DOI
- Hearris, 2020, Graded reductions in preexercise glycogen concentration do not augment exercise-induced nuclear AMPK and PGC-1α protein content in human muscle, Exp Physiol, 105, 1882, 10.1113/EP088866 · DOI
- Hammond, 2019, Postexercise carbohydrate and energy availability induce independent effects on skeletal muscle cell signalling and bone turnover: implications for training adaptation, J Physiol, 597, 4779, 10.1113/JP278209 · DOI · Paper page
- Hulston, 2010, Training with low muscle glycogen enhances fat metabolism in well trained cyclists, Med Sci Sports Exerc, 42, 2046, 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181dd5070 · DOI · Paper page
- Areta, 2020, Achieving energy balance with a high-fat meal does not enhance skeletal muscle adaptation and impairs glycaemic response in a sleep-low training model, Exp Physiol, 105, 1778, 10.1113/EP088795 · DOI
- Burke, 2020, Crisis of confidence averted: impairment of exercise economy and performance in elite race walkers by ketogenic low carbohydrate, high fat (LCHF) diet is reproducible, PLoS One, 15, e0234027, 10.1371/journal.pone.0234027 · DOI · Paper page
- Burke, 2020, Crisis of confidence averted: Impairment of exercise economy and performance in elite race walkers by ketogenic low carbohydrate, high fat (LCHF) diet is reproducible, PLoS One, 15, e0235592, 10.1371/journal.pone.0235592 · DOI
Metadata
- Authors
- Gonzalez, J. T., & Wallis, G. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Bath (GB)
- University of Birmingham (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Gonzalez, Javier T.
- Venue
- Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care
- Published
- 2021-05-10
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 364-371
- ISSN
- 1363-1950 (ISSN-L)
- 1473-6519
- OpenAlex
- W3134628466
- Cited by
- 9
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 0.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Pure (University of Bath) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Dairy Management
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Muscle metabolism and nutrition
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Orthopedics and Sports Medicine › Sports Performance and Training
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology (medical) › Cardiovascular and exercise physiology
- Keywords
- carbohydrate intake, post-exercise recovery, liver glycogen, muscle glycogen, endurance exercise, time to exhaustion, fat oxidation, carbohydrate restriction, athletic performance
- MeSH terms
- Dietary Carbohydrates, Eating, Glycogen, Humans, Physical Endurance, Exercise, Muscle, Skeletal
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
