For years, endurance athletes have been preached to like a prayer wheel: eat lots of carbohydrates and little fat! In the magazine "Leistungssport", the renowned nutritionist Dr Alexandra Schek now shakes up this manifesto: she quotes sports medicine studies according to which the much-maligned fat is now proving to be an important source of energy during exercise, namely in the form of so-called intramuscular triglycerides, a form of fat storage in the muscles. During basic training, but also during intensive exercise, muscle fat supplies the cells with energy. If these fat stores are empty, they can no longer be replenished during exercise. It is therefore important to satisfy your hunger for fat after exercise.
Muscular fat stores then need two days to recharge; if you abstain from fat, they are no longer replenished to 100 per cent. Until now, a maximum fat-energy ratio of 30 per cent in the diet was propagated, preferably even less. This led many athletes to avoid healthy foods such as olive oil or nuts, which contain vital unsaturated fatty acids. Schek now "allows" endurance athletes to consume 35 to 40 per cent of their energy in the form of fats and oils, which corresponds to around 18 to 20 per cent by weight due to their high calorific value.
