What if I just cycled for 10 hours.

I am not in particularly good shape but I am stubborn and I can push myself. Right now on my exercize cycle I can do about 700 calories in an hour of exercise. I have been wondering what would happen if I just forced myself to keep going all day. Would I tear my body apart or would I burn up a lot of fat after I had finished depleting my glycogen stores, both? Would the stress help my overall fitness after I recovered or would the cortisol released leave me in worse shape? How long does it take to deplete glycogen stores anyway?

Strictly in the interest of science give it a go and let us know what happens... a web cam link would be useful so we could all share the experience

You would bonk if you didn't eat. You might be able to mentally force yourself for a while, but you would eventually crap out. I'm an avid cyclist, and I find that if I don't eat something every 3 hours I will bonk and be physically unable to continue. Go ahead and give it a try, though. Let us know the results...

You'd have to eat something after about 2 or 3 hours, or you'd bonk. You'd probably not be able to do much for several days after, and it wouldn't be productive as a result.

If you want to get fitter more quickly, go up to maybe 2 hours cycling, and do it every day.

your better off doing proper cycling (or setting a variation on the exercise bike) rather than constant tension setting.

It depends on the pace he goes at. Bonking is when you've blown your carb energy sources. Keep going at a slow pace and you can, in fact, continue. Now, whether you're burning fat or lean tissue or ? I don't know. I've unintentionally done this before. I went out on a real bike, ran out of food/money, and had no choice but to ride a couple hours home. I was going unbelievably slow but I could keep riding. There was a bit of the desire to survive thing going on though (which you wouldn't have on an exercise bike).

Its called 'bonking' in cycling and 'hitting the wall' in running. This happens when you burn about 2000 kcal in 4-6 hours. The feeling ranges from extreme fatigue to indescribable pain. You can train to control it, i.e. smoothing start burning fat with the sugar.

myself. : > Right now on my exercize cycle I can do about 700 calories in an hour of : > exercise. I have been wondering what would happen if I just forced myself to : > keep going all day. Would I tear my body apart or would I burn up a lot of fat : > after I had finished depleting my glycogen stores, both? :

just my $0.02 fwiw.......I've done two hours solid on a cross trainer and burned 2400 calories and I dare say I could have dropped the resistance right down and continued for a lot longer but................unless your initial resistance setting is negligible, you'll pay for it (as I did because the resistance setting I was using was demanding) over the following 48hrs even though I stuffed myself silly with bananas and stacks of protein.

I'd be interested to know your outcome though.