Carbohydrates and exercise.

Muscle glycogen and blood glucose are important substrates for contracting skeletal muscle during exercise and fatigue often coincides with depletion of these carbohydrate reserves. Carbohydrate utilization during exercise is influenced by several factors including exercise intensity and duration, training status, diet, environment and gender. In view of the importance of carbohydrates for exercise performance, active individuals should ensure their diet contains sufficient carbohydrate. For athletes engaged in heavy training the daily carbohydrate requirement may be as high as 9-10 g carbohydrate per kg body mass in order to guarantee adequate carbohydrate availability prior to and during exercise and to allow full recovery of carbohydrate reserves following exercise.