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Starving your performance? Reduced preexercise hunger increases resistance exercise performance

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posted on 2022-12-05, 16:44 authored by Mohamed Nashrudin Naharudin, Ashril Yusof, David J. Clayton, Lewis JamesLewis James

Background: 

Preexercise food intake enhances exercise performance due, in part, to the provision of exogenous carbohydrate. Food intake also suppresses hunger, but the specific influence of hunger on exercise performance has not been investigated. This study aimed to manipulate hunger by altering preexercise meal viscosity to examine whether hunger influences performance. 

Methods: 

Sixteen resistance-trained males completed 2 experimental trials ingesting either high viscosity semisolid (SEM) and low viscosity liquid (LIQ) carbohydrate-containing meals 2 hours before performing 4 sets of back squat (85 [22] kg) and bench press (68 [13] kg) to failure at 90% 10-repetition maximum. Subjective hunger/fullness as well as plasma concentrations of glucose, insulin, ghrelin, and peptide tyrosine-tyrosine were measured before and periodically after the meal. Repetitions completed in sets were used to determine exercise performance. 

Results: 

Hunger was lower, and fullness was greater during SEM compared with LIQ immediately before and during exercise (P < .05). Total repetitions completed for back squat were approximately 10% greater in SEM (SEM 57 [9]; LIQ 51 [7] repetitions; P = .001) with no difference in bench press repetitions (SEM 48 [11]; LIQ 48 [10] repetitions; P = .621). Postprandial glucose concentrations were greater during LIQ (12% increase in peak glucose) but were similar throughout exercise. 

Conclusion: 

This study demonstrates that exercise performance in back squat was increased in the SEM trial concomitant to a reduction in hunger. Therefore, this study provides novel data that suggest that exercise performance might be influenced by hunger, at least for resistance exercise.

Funding

University of Malaya

CSES research grant (GPF020F-2020)

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance

Volume

17

Issue

3

Pages

458 - 464

Publisher

Human Kinetics, Inc.

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Rights holder

© Human Kinetics, Inc

Publisher statement

Accepted author manuscript version reprinted, by permission, from International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 2022, 17, 3, 458-464, available from: < https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.2021-0166>. © Human Kinetics, Inc.

Publication date

2021-12-06

Copyright date

2022

ISSN

1555-0265

eISSN

1555-0273

Language

  • en

Depositor

Dr Lewis James. Deposit date: 28 November 2022

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