Buy Walking VideosBonking
Bonking happens when you are exercising and your glycogen stores run out. It’s like running your car on fumes, except your car doesn’t have fat storages to draw from. It has been described as painful and long distance racers avoid it by loading up on high calorie supplements like Gu Energy Gel and PowerGel.
You can find out more information about bonking here:
Bonking is actually a very rare condition and usually only shows up during extreme exercise. Of course the marketing for products like Gu and PowerGel don’t want you to know that. They hype their products by providing them for free to the extreme athletes who need them, focusing the cameras on Lance Armstrong when he sucks down a mouthful of the sugary stuff.
Most of us are exercising to get rid of the fat in our bodies. Consuming mass quantities of sugary goo is counter-productive to that goal. If you are going to be exercising for more than an hour, eat half a banana before your workout. Longer than that should probably be broken up into two workout sessions.
There is also the idea that doing extreme exercise in the morning before breakfast, when glycogen levels are low, burns more fat than doing the same amount of exercise after eating. This hasn’t been proven and can lead to dizzyness and shaking. Be careful and listen to your body.
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September 3rd, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Does bonking not mean ‘having sex’ in the US? Here in Australia your housemate might bring someone home and you can’t sleep because of all the loud bonking in the next room.
September 5th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
First of all, one cannot burn fat without glycogen, its a fact. To assert that consuming gels is counter productive to burning fat is not only not true, but is actually ass backwards. You actually provide evidence for my argument in your article. If one exercises in the morning when glycogen stores are low, the athlete experiences ‘dizzyness and shaking’ as you put it. Because an athlete has no glycogen, the workout is cut short. An athlete with no glycogen cannot get in a quality workout to burn fat. You need to have glycogen to burn fat, fat cannot burn by itself. Gels provide a quick and easily digestible source of glycogen (sugar) to prolong a workout thereby maximizing fat metabolism.
This article makes no sense, and futher, simply contributes to the idea that eating is bad.