Marcus Aurelius wrote:531colin wrote:Marcus Aurelius wrote:………. and high force high Cadence pedalling forces the muscles to feed mostly from fat, so a rider with a low body fat percentage can’t afford to do high force High cadence pedalling for very long, and that’s why the skinny pros do it the way they do it.
No. The body stores fat as energy source. Even "skinny" people have enough energy stored as fat so that they can survive for days without eating.
The body stores relatively little carbohydrate, as glycogen (a polysaccharide) in muscle and liver.
The article you linked compares 2 different ways of achieving the same power output.....
High cadence/low force
Low cadence/high force.
High force requires the muscles to metabolise carbohydrate. Glycogen stored within the muscle fibre is rapidly used up, and this means more muscle fibres must be recruited to maintain force, glycogen rapidly runs out and the muscle fatigues. More glycogen can be mobilised from the liver, and the liver can synthesise carbohydrate from fatty acids (gluconeogenesis) ....but not quickly enough.
At low force, muscle can metabolise fatty acids, and the supply is virtually limitless, although the ability to mobilise fatty acids benefits from some "training"....for example, exercising before breakfast.
So high cadence is better simply because it allows the rider to develop power without using high muscle force thereby conserving the energy supply.
No you’re wrong there.
Read this.
https://www.active.com/cycling/articles ... =pepperjam
It explains the what and why with numbers.
That seems like it says more or less what Colin said, only it specifies which type of muscle is using the glycogen.