Carbohydrate and fat metabolism of unacclimatized men during and after submaximal exercise in cool and hot environments

Summary Changes in levels of plasma lactate, pyruvate, glucose, free fatty acids (FFA), glycerol and 3-hydroxybutyrate during muscular exercise and recovery in cool (ambient temperature T_a = 23 C and water vapor pressure P_w = 13 mb) and hot environments (T_a = 40 C, P_w = 30 mb) were measured in six subjects. Arterial blood samples were collected at fixed time intervals during an initial resting phase of 75 min, an exercise period of 20 min and a recovery period of 125 min. Exercise consisted in pedaling a bicycle ergometer in the supine position at a work load that raised the heart pulse rate to nearly 140 beats min^–1 in the cool condition. Heart rate and rectal temperature were significantly higher during exercise and recovery in the hot environment. For samples collected at corresponding times in the cool and the hot conditions, the deviations of the observed blood parameters from their mean values during the whole resting phase seldom differed. However, for the exercise phase as a whole, the mean increases of lactate, pyruvate and glycerol were significantly greater and the mean decrease of glucose significantly smaller, in the hot condition, while the mean decreases of FFA and 3-hydroxybutyrate did not differ significantly. Related to their corresponding mean resting values, the mean changes in all six blood parameters measured were significantly larger during recovery in the hot condition than in the cool. These results verify the enhanced anaerobic metabolism in hot environment already described by previous authors, and show an adipokinetic and hyperglycemic effect of acute exposure to heat.