Effect of exercise on postprandial gastric secretion and emptying in humans

The effect of strenuous physical exercise on postprandial gastric acid secretion and gastric emptying was evaluated in untrained healthy volunteers. Subjects exercised for 45 min on a stationary bicycle at 50 or 70% of their maximal work load, beginning 45 min after a steak meal. Compared with a control study during which subjects sat on the bicycle without exercising, exercise had no significant effect on the gastric acid secretory response to the meal (control, 31.9 +/- 8.3 mmol/120 min; exercise, 32.2 +/- 7.8 mmol/120 min) or on the amount of nonabsorbable meal marker that emptied from the stomach in 120 min (control, 88 +/- 3%; exercise, 87 +/- 4%). Increases in serum triglyceride levels after the meal were also unaffected by exercise, suggesting that absorption of dietary lipid was unimpaired by exercise. These studies indicate that strenuous exercise shortly after a meal has little effect on postprandial gastric secretory or motor function in humans.