What’s harder: doing a triathlon, or carrying a baby? It turns out they’re equally difficult!
In a new study at Hunter College in the US, researchers measured the calorie output of six athletes completing the 2015 Race Across the USA – a massive 14-week event featuring a marathon per day (40 kilometres!) six out of seven days a week (I’m exhausted just thinking about it).
They noticed a clear trend. As the elite athletes got more used to exerting themselves at this extreme level over the weeks, their metabolism slowed to a more stable rate – but remained at around twice the normal rate for someone who isn’t exercising.
But when the researchers compared this to data to the number of calories women burn while pregnant and lactating, they found the rates to be roughly the same.
The research team says this is because both pregnancy and extreme sport force the body to hit its ‘metabolic cap’, the maximum calories we can burn in a day (roughly 4,000) – a number often considered the peak of human performance.
As if pregnant women weren’t already doing enough for us to be impressed by!
