| Short term high fat intake, followed by a single day of a high carbohydrate diet has shown beneficial for performance cellular adaptations before, during, and after exercise. However, the impact on performance has not been consistent and this type of fat adaptation diet has never been investigated with repetitive consecutive exercise similar to team sport playoffs. Nine healthy, trained male subjects were randomly assigned to both diets in a single blinded, crossover design. The high carbohydrate (HCHO) diet consisted of a seven day protocol involving consumption of 65% of total daily energy (%E) from carbohydrate and 21%E from fat. The fat adaptation (fat-adapt) diet consisted of five days of a high fat diet with 21%E carbohydrates and 58%E fat. The next two days of the fat-adapt diet consisted of 64%E carbohydrates and 24%E fat. Diets were isocaloric and dietary protein intake was 1.2 g/kg/day for both diets. On day seven, subjects performed an interval treadmill test mimicking a soccer game with the distance covered ranging from 8--13 kilometers, dependent on self-determined exhaustion. Blood glucose and lactate were measured before and after exercise and performance was measured as distance completed. To estimate the influence of the diets on recovery, an identical treadmill test was performed after 24hours. Results. There was a significant decrement in the total distance to exhaustion after the fat-adapt diet, P<0.05. Lactate measured before exercise was lower on the second day (7.2+/-0.8 mM) than on the first day (7.4+/-0.9 mM) after the fat-adapt diet, P<0.05. Capillary glucose was elevated after exercise except on test two on the fat-adapt diet (pre-exercise fat-adapt test 1: 87.6+/-2.3, post-exercise fat-adapt test 1: 104.6+/-6.0, pre-exercise fat-adapt test 2: 90.6+/-2.1 post-exercise fat-adapt test 2: 95.7+/-6.3 mg/dL). |
