Research

Energy balance

Dietary nitrate supplementation (e.g., beetroot juice) improves oxygen uptake kinetics and reduces the O2 cost of submaximal exercise, leading to performance improvements in time-to-exhaustion tasks (4-25%) and intermittent team-sport exercises (3-5%).

Consume 310-560mg of nitrate (typically via beetroot juice) 2-3 hours before your event. This improves efficiency and can boost performance by 3-5% in team sports or up to 25% in time-to-exhaustion tasks. It may take 3+ days of consistent intake for cumulative benefits.

GoodSupportsMEDIUM confidence
a ~5% reduction in O2 cost of submaximal exercise following nitrate supplementation... has been associated with large (4–25%) improvements in time to exhaustion... improved performance (~3–5%) shown during bouts of high-intensity, intermittent, team-sport exercise
Peter Peeling et al. · International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism · 2018

Why this rating

Supported by a meta-analysis of 76 trials, though evidence is equivocal for very short durations (<12 min) and elite athletes.

Source

Evidence-Based Supplements for the Enhancement of Athletic Performance

Peter Peeling et al. · International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism · 2018

DOI 10.1123/ijsnem.2017-0343

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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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