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Published on: May 18, 2018
Effect of fasting after exercise on blood lactate clearance in untrained male volunteers
Momen Mohammad Ahmad Almomen1, Qusai Loay Abdullah Alsaleh, Ali Mohammad Ahmad Almomen
1College of Medicine, Dammam University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
Objectives:
To determine the effect of fasting immediately after exercise on blood lactate clearance.
Methods:
This study was conducted at College of Medicine, Dammam University, KSA. Untrained male volunteers (n = 26) between 18-23 years of age were divided into two equal groups; fasting and non-fasting. After an overnight fasting both groups were made to exercise on a bicycle ergometer starting with 100 watt resistance with 25 watt increment after every 2 minutes until voluntary exhaustion. The fasting group was then asked to continue fasting 30 minutes after exercise, while the non-fasting group was given 600 ml of carbohydrate-rich (about 16g per 100 ml) drink immediately after exercise. We measured the blood lactate level before, immediately after, and 30 minutes after exercise in both the groups.
Results:
A significant (p < 0.001) increase in mean blood lactate level was observed in both the groups immediately after exercise as compared to the baseline means. Similarly there was a significant (p < 0.001) drop of lactate level in both the groups 30 minutes after exercise as compared with the blood lactate level immediately after exercise. There was a significant (p < 0.001) difference between the number of subjects with a blood lactate drop of more than 50% between the two groups (84.61% of subjects in the fasting group, versus 46.15% in the non-fasting group).
Conclusion:
Fasting after exercise accelerates lactate clearance from blood, probably by utilizing gluconeogenesis pathway.
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