Sport catabolism

Sport Fitness
I was curious..we all know that during cardio exercise the body breaks down a certain amount of muscle tissue to use as energy...My question is, if I consume a large portion of carbs right before (maybe hour and a half to two hours) running for an hour (like a good sized cheat meal, some pizza and an alcoholic beverage or two) does my body burn less muscle than it would have seeing as how it has that large stash of carbs to convert into energy?
 
consuming nutrients before training decreases catabolism, yes. I use a protein + carb shake during my workouts to reduce catabolism. That's for weight training though.
 
I was curious..we all know that during cardio exercise the body breaks down a certain amount of muscle tissue to use as energy...My question is, if I consume a large portion of carbs right before (maybe hour and a half to two hours) running for an hour (like a good sized cheat meal, some pizza and an alcoholic beverage or two) does my body burn less muscle than it would have seeing as how it has that large stash of carbs to convert into energy?

If you're only running for 1 hour, you needn't worry about burning muscle for energy IMO.

Keep in mind that your body is going to rely primarily on pre-existing glycogen stores in your muscles and fat stores ( and a very small amount of protein / amino acids ) to fuel your run. One of the reasons your body will sometimes turn to muscle for energy is when your glycogen stores are significantly depleted. So, in an ideal world, you want those glycogen stores topped right up before you start any run in order to ensure optimal performance.

Since your muscles can only replace your glycogen stores at a rate of about 5% an hour or so ( i.e 20 +/- hours ) it is perhaps more important to ensure you're taking an adequate amount of carbs day(s) - i.e the night before - you run, ( versus hours before ) so those carbs have enough time to get " converted into energy " in the form of glycogen. So, there's nothing wrong with a pre-run snack, but a carb snack an hour and a half to two hours beforehand will likely only make a minor contribution to glycogen stores.

So, there is nothing run with a pre-run snack - in fact, everyone should have a pre-workout snack. But, the primary purpose of a pre-run snack is stabilize your blood sugar, and it won't serve as the primary fuel source to sustain you for a 1 hour session of cardio.
 
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you guys lol..I normally eat very clean, this was a CHEAT meal I had last night and I figured rather than let my body store all that crap as fat that I might try and use the calories as energy in a hour run...But yes I know alcohol = bad carbs...lol
 
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