.jpg)
A warm welcome to the first issue of 2025! If this month's issue is anything to go by, we can look forward to a wealth of outstanding scientific contributions to further our understanding of sport, exercise and health throughout this calendar year. I would encourage you to submit your best research articles to MSSE and to assist us in maintaining our high scientific standards by agreeing to peer-review manuscripts if you are invited by one of our dedicated Associate Editors. To pique your interest in this month's offerings, please find details of my three highlighted articles below.
Negative energy balance drives anabolic resistance, specifically reduced muscle protein synthesis (MPS). This may be due to insufficient energy availability and increased essential amino acid (EAA) requirements. In “Consuming Whey Protein with Added Essential Amino Acids, not Carbohydrate, Maintains Post-Exercise Anabolism while Underfed," Gwin and colleagues report the effects of supplemental energy as EAA or carbohydrate, combined with an EAA-enriched whey protein, on post-exercise MPS and whole-body protein balance (NET) during energy balance and energy deficit. Consuming EAA-enriched whey with supplemental energy as EAA, rather than carbohydrate, resulted in greater MPS during energy deficit. Regardless of energy condition, NET was also greater with supplemental EAA versus carbohydrate. Collectively, EAA-enriched whey with additional EAA supports a greater protein anabolic response during energy deficit. Muscle-focused nutrition strategies for populations experiencing energy deficits, including military personnel and weight-class athletes, may be informed by these results.
A heat tolerance test (HTT) is a standardized exercise-heat exposure, often used to evaluate thermoregulatory responses in military or athletic populations. It can be used as part of the decision regarding return to duty or play (RTD/P) following a diagnosis of exertional heat stroke. In “The Significance of Body Surface Area to Mass Ratio for Thermal Responses to a Standardized Exercise-Heat Stress Test," which involved a retrospective analysis of data from >500 HTTs, Akavian and colleagues found that a lower body surface area/mass ratio was significantly associated with HTT results that led to “failure" of the test, which is interpreted as heat intolerance. The results improve understanding of the role of body anthropometry in the response to a standard exercise-heat task and have implications for clinical decision-making about RTD/P of soldiers, athletes and others after exertional heat stroke.
Exercise-nutrient timing is a topic of interest for scientists, clinicians, and people living with type 2 diabetes due to the potential to improve glycemia and/or other adaptations to exercise. In “HbA1c and Liver Fat Following 16 Weeks of Fasted versus Fed Exercise Training in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes," Rees and colleagues examined the effects of 16 weeks of exercise performed after an overnight fast versus after breakfast in people with type 2 diabetes. Key findings from the study include greater reductions in HbA1c and MRI-derived measures of abdominal visceral fat and thigh intramuscular fat when exercise was performed after an overnight fast. Changes in hepatic and pancreatic fat showed a similar pattern, but did not reach statistical significance. The authors also observed greater reductions in muscle volume with fasted training, which could not be explained by reductions in muscle fat alone.
Andrew M. Jones
University of Exeter
