High Fat for Athletic Performance

1. High Fat for Athletic Performance • Research • Decreased total heat production by 14% • No effect on DE for maintenance • Left more energy for activity or energy storage, i.e., fat or glycogen

2. High Fat for Athletic Performance • Research • Unchanged DE intake • Decreased DE for maintenance • 60% more energy available

3. High Fat for Athletic Performance • Several benefits • Increases muscle glycogen content • Must be fed for > 3-4 weeks • Muscle glycogen increased with increasing fat, up to 10-12% fat

4. High Fat for Athletic Performance • Several benefits • Increases muscle glycogen use during anaerobic activity (sprint) • Glycogen & glucose major substrates for anaerobic energy

5. High Fat for Athletic Performance • Several benefits • Less muscle glycogen use during aerobic activity (endurance) • Helps delay fatigue

6. High Fat for Athletic Performance • Research • Muscle glycogen higher before exercise • At sprint – muscle glycogen use higher • 14/15 TB ran faster race times when fed fat-supplemented diet

7. High Fat for Athletic Performance • Research • Endurance – trotted 35 min before HR reached 160/min • w/o fat 160/min reached at 20 min • Cutting horses fed high-fat were able to work harder

8. High Fat for Athletic Performance • Recommendation • Fat enhances both aerobic and anaerobic performance • Fat delays fatigue • Feed fat 6 to 10 weeks prior to competition • Feed up to 10% fat

9. Heritability of Performance Traits

10. Energy Values of Feeds • Not found on feed label???????

11. DE & CF Relationship in Horse Grains Lewis, Lon D. 1996. Feeding and Care of the Horse.

12. Energy Values of Feeds • For dry forages, roughages, pasture, range plants, and forages fed fresh: • DE (Mcal/kg) = 4.22 – 0.11(%ADF) + 0.0332(%CP) + 0.00112(%ADF)2 • (NRC, 2007)

13. Energy Values of Feeds • For energy feeds and protein supplements: • DE (Mcal/kg) = 4.07 – 0.055(%ADF) • (NRC, 2007)

14. Energy Values of Feeds • To adjust energy content of high fat feeds: • Increase DE by 0.044 Mcal/kg for each 1 percent fat above 5 percent • (NRC, 2007)

15. Energy Values of Feeds • Use “horse” energy values • Energy values on feed analysis are usually calculated for ruminants • Horses digest forages less effectively than ruminants, so energy values for forages are not the same