Research

Energy balance

Carbohydrate ingestion elevates post-exercise blood lactate and glucose levels, but this metabolic response may come at the cost of extended recovery time due to the increased training volume performed.

Expect higher blood lactate and glucose after carb-fueled workouts. This is normal and reflects the higher volume you completed. Be aware that this increased volume may lead to longer recovery times, so adjust your training frequency or intensity accordingly.

ModerateQualifiesLOW confidence
Post-exercise blood lactate is elevated following CHO ingestion but may come at the expense of an extended time-course of recovery due to the additional training volume performed.
Andrew King et al. · Sports Medicine · 2022

Why this rating

The paper reports significant elevations in lactate and glucose but explicitly states it is 'unclear if [blood glucose] has an impact on RT performance' and frames the lactate elevation as likely due to volume rather than a direct metabolic benefit.

Source

The Ergogenic Effects of Acute Carbohydrate Feeding on Resistance Exercise Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Andrew King et al. · Sports Medicine · 2022

DOI 10.1007/s40279-022-01716-w

Meta-analysis · 21 studiesCited 41×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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