If you eat before working out and don’t do more than 10 sets per muscle group, your muscles won’t run out of sugar.
Scientific Claim
Glycogen depletion during resistance training is negligible in non-fasted individuals performing ≤10 sets per muscle group per session.
Original Statement
“If you're not training fasted and you're not doing ten plus sets per muscle group per session, then glycogen depletion is generally not a factor.”
Context Details
Domain
exercise
Population
human
Subject
glycogen depletion
Action
is negligible in
Target
non-fasted individuals performing ≤10 sets per muscle group per session
Intervention Details
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (2)
The Effect of Carbohydrate Intake on Strength and Resistance Training Performance: A Systematic Review
The study found that if you eat before lifting weights and do 10 or fewer sets per muscle group, eating more carbs doesn’t help you lift more — meaning your muscles don’t run out of energy (glycogen) during those workouts.
The Effect of Carbohydrate Intake on Strength and Resistance Training Performance: A Systematic Review
This study found that if you're not fasting and do 10 or fewer sets of a muscle group, eating carbs doesn't help your strength — meaning your muscles don't run out of energy (glycogen) enough to matter.
Contradicting (1)
Acute effects of resistance exercise on skeletal muscle glycogen depletion: A systematic review and meta‐analysis
Even if you're not fasting and do only 10 or fewer sets of weight training, your muscles still lose a lot of glycogen — the study proves it, so saying it's 'negligible' is wrong.