Postexercise increase of free fatty acids. A qualitative indicator for free fatty acid utilisation during exercise?

Full Abstract

AIM: The purpose of this study was to verify the hypothesis that the postexercise increase (PEI) of plasma free fatty acid (FFA) concentrations after cessation of exercise is a suitable qualitative indicator for the FFA utilisation during the foregoing exercise. METHODS: Fourteen, 17 and 23 healthy subjects participated in 3 test series performing several prolonged exercise protocols (PEP) on a bicycle ergometer. During and after cessation of the PEP heart frequency, lactate and FFA were measured. RESULTS: Fasting resulted in an increase of PEI (90%, p<0.05) and the synergistic use of upper body muscles during cycling caused a significant rise of PEI compared to "regular" cycling (39%, p<0.01). Increasing workload step by step produced continuously rising PEI (p<0.05), only from 42% to 50% of maximal workload PEI decreased by 17% (p=n.s.). CONCLUSION: The results support the hypothesis that PEI is a suitable qualitative indicator for FFA utilisation during a foregoing exercise. Furthermore the results indicate that there is a maximum of FFA utilisation in the legs at 40% of maximum workload during cycling and that the upper body muscles contribute substantially to total body FFA turnover at high inten-sities, an aspect to which possibly too little attention has been paid to when quantifying FFA turnover during cycling.

Author information

Author/s: Vobejda, C (C); Simon, G (G); Zimmermann, E (E);

Affiliation: Sportmedizin, University Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany. christian.vobejda(-atsign-)uni-bielefeld.de

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Validation Studies

Journal: The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness (J Sports Med Phys Fitness), published in Italy. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2004-Mar; vol 44 (issue 1) : pp 44-8

Dates: Created 2004/06/07; Completed 2004/08/06; Revised 2008/11/21;

PMID: 15181389, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00)

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