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Updated: Oct 14, 2025

Determining the Contribution of the Energy Systems During Exercise
Published on: March 20, 2012
Diet-dependent entropic assessment of athletes' lifespan
Cennet Yildiz1, Melek Ece Öngel2, Bayram Yilmaz3
1Department of Food Engineering, Yeditepe University, Kayısdagi, Atasehir, Istanbul 34755, Turkey.
Abstract:
Life expectancies of the athletes depend on the sports they are doing. The entropic age concept, which was found successful in the previous nutrition studies, will be employed to assess the relation between the athletes' longevity and nutrition. Depending on their caloric needs, diets are designed for each group of athletes based on the most recent guidelines while they are pursuing their careers and for the post-retirement period, and then the metabolic entropy generation was worked out for each group. Their expected lifespans, based on attaining the lifespan entropy limit, were calculated. Thermodynamic assessment appeared to be in agreement with the observations. There may be a significant improvement in the athletes' longevity if they shift to a retirement diet after the age of 50. The expected average longevity for male athletes was 56 years for cyclists, 66 years for weightlifters, 75 years for rugby players and 92 years for golfers. If they should start consuming the retirement diet after 50 years of age, the longevity of the cyclists may increase for 7 years, and those of weightlifters, rugby players and golfers may increase for 22, 30 and 8 years, respectively.
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