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* '''Carbohydrate for the brain.''' Without sufficient blood sugar, mental functioning degrades. This can impact mood, creating depression, or cognitive reasoning, which impairs judgment. In some cases it can reduce motor skills, making trail running harder.
* '''Carbohydrate for muscle function.''' Muscles require both carbohydrate and fat to function, but it is the carbohydrate that is normally the limiting factor. Authorities estimate most people have about 2,000 Calories of stored carbohydrate (glycogen).
* '''[[Protein ]] to protect muscles.''' Consuming protein has been shown to protect the muscles from damage during exercise and to improve recovery. [[Protein ]] and carbohydrate together have also been shown to improve endurance more than carbohydrate alone.
* '''Fat for muscle function.''' The human body contains more stored fat than needed for even extreme endurance runs. However, I suspect that our bodies have a limited rate at which body fat can be burned, so consuming fat may be beneficial.
==Constraints==