Aerobic metabolic systems

Just a reminder...

We are now dealing with the longer endurance units, so I would like to be more precise about long-term endurance.

Long-term endurance I	10 minutes to 35 minutes	Aerobic
Long-term endurance II	35 minutes to 90 minutes	Aerobic
Long-term endurance III	90 minutes to 6 hours	Aerobic
Long-term endurance IV	Over 6 hours	Aerobic

When it comes to energy provision, in the cycle of which oxygen flows, we also distinguish between two systems: carbohydrate (glycolysis) and fat metabolism (lipolysis). From the number of calories per g, we know that fats can provide almost twice as much energy (around 4.9 kcal/g carbohydrates to 9.6 kcal/g fat). For us endurance athletes, fat is therefore of great importance as an energy source, because carbohydrate stores are depleted and even with constant food intake, exhaustion would be foreseeable if we could not use the fats. But I don't want to give the impression that people with more weight can always achieve more because they have more fat... Such a conclusion is based more on the more muscle that inevitably results from higher body weight. Relatively speaking, the performance is not greater. This only applies to people with a trained fat metabolism.

Not all fat is the same!

What do we need to remember:

• Roughly speaking, we first have to distinguish storage fat from “mobile” fat and muscle fat; It takes a lot to coax the liver and tissue out of their cushions again
• The body knows how to convert carbohydrates into energy; Our fat metabolism, however, requires training:
  Long sessions, special interval training stimulate lipolysis and pimples are loosened; An increase in muscle leads to an increase in energy consumption when resting
• A calorie deficit (consuming more than you take in) and regular exercise are important; Too few calories signal the body to slow down metabolism, save energy and build up reserves
• Both the value of carbohydrates and fats largely determines how energy is burned:
  Long-chain carbohydrates provide energy over a longer period of time and are broken down slowly, (poly)unsaturated fatty acids are better cell building blocks and energy sources than saturated ones (we only need them in moderation)

In short, we can train our fat metabolism and take advantage of the large energy reserves. Here we can 'get more out of it' than with glycolysis. I'll look at what types of training are required in a next article.