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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Exercise Testing for Metabolic Flexibility: Time for Protocol Standardization
Sports Medicine - Open, Vol.11(1), pp.1-8
2025
PMID: 40164840
Abstract
Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a combination of risk factors that contribute to the development of many of today’s chronic diseases. Rates of MetS continue to increase and it is now considered a worldwide epidemic. As with many chronic diseases it may take years for symptoms and the effects of MetS to manifest into severe health problems. Therefore, early detection is paramount A recently proposed method for the early detection of MetS is the assessment of an individual’s metabolic flexibility during exercise. Metabolic flexibility is defined as the ability of the body to switch between energy substrates, primarily fats and carbohydrates, to produce energy and meet metabolic demand. This provides an indication of mitochondrial health, the possible beginning point of early insulin resistance and the development of MetS.
Although there is widespread use of exercise and expired gas analysis to determine metabolic flexibility, there is no consensus on the appropriate guidelines, protocol, or interpretation of the subsequent data. Studies have used a variety of different protocols involving maximal and submaximal tests with step protocols ranging from 2 to 10 min, differences in data averaging, analysis, and stoichiometric equations, as well as variations in nutritional status of participants, and mode of exercise. This has led to considerable variation in reported results. Although the use of exercise to determine metabolic flexibility and act as a possible marker of early mitochondrial dysfunction holds significant promise, more work is required to determine the optimal protocol for clinical and research purposes.
Details
- Title
- Exercise Testing for Metabolic Flexibility: Time for Protocol Standardization
- Authors
- Dale Lovell (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Health - Sports & Exercise ScienceMax Stuelcken - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Health - Sports & Exercise ScienceAlexander Eagles - Timeless Medical Australia (Australia)
- Publication details
- Sports Medicine - Open, Vol.11(1), pp.1-8
- Publisher
- SpringerOpen
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.1186/s40798-025-00825-w
- ISSN
- 2198-9761; 2199-1170
- PMID
- 40164840
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Data Availability
- Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
- Organisation Unit
- Healthy Ageing Research Cluster; School of Health - Sports & Exercise Science
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991113250902621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Sport Sciences