When excercising high levels and you start to bonk, how long does it take an energy bar to become useful fuel

Answer 1

In a word... quickly. The bonk is caused by a depletion of readily available glucose for muscle fuel. The body has other fuels and stored glucose in muscle and in the liver, but it is not readily available and must be converted to glucose first.

Sports drinks and sports bars tend to have a pyramidal mixture of simple to complex sugars. Glucose is one molecule, and complex sugars are like having many glucoses linked together. The glucose acts rapidly (5-10 minutes) and the complex sugars are broken down into glucose for sustained energy.

A caveat to this is your hydration status. If you bonk, you're probably going full bore and are a little dehydrated. An energy bar may sit in your stomach a little longer than you want if you don't drink something with it. Energy drinks are preferrable if you're bonking... but bars are more convenient, and can work as well if taken with water before you crash.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

dude, a true bonk takes literally 4-5 days to recover from. the goal is to prevent a bonk which means loading before and eating during on longer excursions. if you have bonked, an energy bar will do you no good because a "true bonk" has depleted all of your reserves down to your absolute nothing. if your glycogen levels are low enough for you to start fatiguing, then an energy bar will definately help with in 15-30 minutes as long as you drink water with it. thats the point you need to start fueling before you go into a bonk which means bars or gels every 30 minutes at the first initial sign of performance drop.

again, stay out of a bonk situation by preventing it.

when you truely bonk, you will not be able to get out of bed easily for a week and your body will tell you so, even if you are in lance armstrong shape.

Answer 3

breakfast is the most important meal of the day, you want to avoid bonking by hydration both water and electrolyte and eating before, during and after your ride. You would not run a car with no gas right? Don't ride without fuel.

Answer 4

15 - 30 minutes depending on what you eat. Some of the more concentrated and quickly digested stuff goes quicker but not by much.

You want to eat before you boink. Everyone is different but most people are consistent. Figure out what your threshold is and keep yourself fueled, that's the trick.

Answer 5

2 hrs. i think

Answer 6

WHAT ?????