Scientists have finally answered the big question about whether there is a limit to human endurance.
According to a BBC report, scientists after analysing Tour de France and other elite events, concluded that the cap was 2.5 times the body’s resting metabolic rate (RMR), or 4,000 calories a day for an average person.
The research conducted by Duke University scientists, looked at athletes competing in a 140-day 3,080 mile run across the United States. The scientists measured the RMR, both before and during the race.
“You can do really intense stuff for a couple of days, but if you want to last longer then you have to dial it back,” Dr Herman Pontzer, from Duke University, told BBC News.
He added: “Every data point, for every event, is all mapped onto this beautifully crisp barrier of human endurance.
“Nobody we know of has ever pushed through it.”
The body can take advantage of other energy stores initially, giving that initial burst of calories burned, but once you burn up all the fat and excess muscle in the body, all that’s left is caloric intake, which is ultimately the limit of what the human body can do, energy-wise, an InterestingEngineering report read.
During pregnancy, women’s energy use peaks at 2.2 times their resting metabolic rate, the study revealed.
Dr Pontzer believes the findings could eventually help athletes.
“We’re talking about endurance over days and weeks and months, so it is most applicable to training regimens and thinking whether they fit with the long-term metabolic limits of the body.”
