Exercise Physiology: Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance 9th Edition by Scott Powers, Edward Howley

Exercise 4

Does carbohydrate ingestion during exercise slow down muscle glycogen depletion? Does it improve performance?

Step 1 of 3

If carbohydrate is taken well in advance before an athletic performance, it leads to accelerated glycogen breakdown. In contrast, feeding carbohydrate during the performance/exercise is shown to delay fatigue and enhances performance. However, this improvement is not related to sparing the muscle glycogen, but related to sparing the liver glycogen.