Exercise metabolism: the key to performance

While evidence exists for metabolic changes after exercise, little is known about metabolic alterations during exercise. Therefore, we aimed to assess real-time changes of metabolism during exercise tests via exhaled breath. We measured exhaled metabolites using real-time secondary electrospray ionization high-resolution mass spectrometry (SESI-HRMS) during cardiopulmonary exercise tests on a bicycle ergometer. Simultaneous SESI-HRMS and breath-by-breath gas analysis enabled us to collect high-resolution data on metabolism from rest to maximal exercise. Mass spectrometric data was processed and analysed with MATLAB. Exhalations were extracted automatically and features clustered over time. 13 subjects (median age 31y, 7 females) participated. Median peak aerobic capacity was 50 ml/min/kg. The SESI-MS analysis revealed changes in metabolism of subjects during exercise and with increasing load. We identified 346 features with matching courses in comparison to the breath-by-breath gas analysis, possibly allowing identifying key changes in energy metabolism during incremental exercise. Figure 1 shows the time course of the features for each of the 13 subjects. SESI-HRMS of exhaled breath is a non-invasive, real-time method that allows to track changes in key metabolites involved in energy supply during exercise and to get information about various metabolic changes during exercise.