IT makes sense that growing another human takes a fair amount of strength – but it turns out that pregnant women are “living at the limit of human endurance”.
A new study has revealed just how much our bodies can cope with – and the results are truly shocking.
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An investigation by Duke University analysed runners competing in the 3,080 mile Race Across the USA – in which competitors must run six marathons per week.
Through analysing the sporting professionals’ metabolic rate before and after, the study – published in Science Advances – found that the upper limit of endurance was 2.5 times the body’s resting rate, which equates to around 4,000 calories per day.
A pregnant woman’s energy use reaches 2.2 times her metabolic rate – which is alarmingly close to the 2.5 endurance limit.
Meaning, women are incredibly resilient, basically.
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The study found while people can try and push the limit of their metabolic rate, it becomes unsustainable in the long term.
“You can do really intense stuff for a couple of days, but if you want to last longer then you have to dial it back,” Dr Herman Pontzer, from Duke University told BBC News.
He added: “Every data point, for every event, is all mapped onto this beautifully crisp barrier of human endurance.
