For athletes competing in sports where quick thinking and rapid reactions are necessary, caffeine can provide a huge edge. However, these results are much more inconsistent than the experiments done on caffeine in endurance sports. In athletics three theories have been presented that support caffeine s use in athletics. The first theory focuses on caffeine s ability to cause the body to burn more fat and fewer carbohydrates. Glycogen is the principle fuel for muscles, but fat is the most abundant resource that the body uses for energy.
Caffeine enters the body and forces the working muscles to utilize as much fat as possible.
This delays the immediate depletion of glycogen. Studies show that in the first fifteen minutes of exercise caffeine has the potential to reduce the loss of glycogen by fifty percent. When this happens, the saved glycogen can be used for the remainder of the workout where normally it would be entirely depleted. However, a study involving 9 trained athletes set out to provide proof of caffeine s ability to work as an ergogenic aid before and during the workout. In this study involving a 2 hour cycle endurance test, Ivey et al.