Exercise often is focused on burning fat, which is helpful in managing body weight as well as improving body composition. However, your body burns calories from both fat and glycogen during typical aerobic workouts. Training your body to burn glycogen more efficiently can be beneficial whether you're training for speed or endurance. The intensity of your workout determines how much glycogen your body uses during exercise.
Identification
Glycogen refers to stored carbohydrates. When you eat carbohydrates, your body converts them into glucose, which travels through your bloodstream to meet the energy needs of various tissues and organs. Once immediate energy needs are met, excess glucose gets stored as glycogen in your liver and skeletal muscles. From there, glycogen can be used later to meet your energy needs when circulating glucose is not enough.
Burning Glycogen
Your body burns the most glycogen when you perform anaerobic exercises, such as sprinting, heavy weight lifting and other short bursts of intense exercise. Aerobic exercise also burns glycogen, although at lower percentages. For example, if you walk, jog or bicycle at 70 percent to 75 percent of your maximum heart rate, 50 percent to 65 percent of the calories you burn come from glycogen. The remainder come from stored fat.
Intervals
Maximize the amount of glycogen you burn by incorporating interval training into your workout schedule. By alternating between slower and faster intervals during jogging, for example, you can reap the glycogen-burning benefits of both high- and lower-intensity exercise. Timed intervals also can help you extend the amount of time you exercise at high intensity by giving you a chance to recover between bursts of speed.
Considerations
To burn glycogen and maximize your performance during high-intensity bouts of exercise, maintain an adequate carbohydrate intake. This replenishes your glycogen stores so that your body's preferred fuel source is available to meet demand. The general recommendation for carbohydrate consumption is 45 to 65 percent of total calories. If you consume more carbohydrates than your body can store as glycogen, the excess gets stored as body fat. Your capacity for glycogen storage is roughly 500 grams or 2,000 calories.
References
- Iowa State University Extension: Eat to Compete: Carbohydrate
- University of Iowa Universities and Clinics: Anaerobic Exercise: Energy Without Oxygen
- Brian Mac; Exercise Intensity and Energy Source; Brian MacKenzie
- American Council on Exercise: Interval Training
- MayoClinic.com; Healthy Diet: End the Guesswork With These Nutrition Guidelines: Carbohydrates; February 2011
- MayoClinic.com; Carbohydrate-Loading Diet; November 2010
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