Research

Hormonal

Following an oral glucose load, skeletal muscle oxidation is the predominant metabolic fate of the glucose taken up by muscle, whereas glycogen storage accounts for less than 10% of the total oral load.

When you eat carbohydrates, your muscles primarily burn them for energy (oxidation) rather than storing them as glycogen. Only a small fraction (<10% of the total load) is stored in muscle. This challenges the common assumption that muscle is the main storage site for post-meal glucose.

GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
We conclude that muscle and splanchnic tissues take up a comparable percentage of an oral glucose load and that oxidation is the predominant fate of glucose taken up by muscle, with storage in muscle accounting for < 10% of the oral load.
David E. Kelley et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 1988

Why this rating

High-quality experimental design using dual isotope techniques, indirect calorimetry, and forearm balance in healthy volunteers, though extrapolated to whole-body muscle.

Source

Skeletal muscle glycolysis, oxidation, and storage of an oral glucose load.

David E. Kelley et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 1988

DOI 10.1172/jci113489

mechanism_only · n=9Cited 321×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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