There has been a lot of talk about the endurance levels of elite athletes and many amateurs. No wonder when we see the epic of the Tour de France events, or the six-hour tennis matches.

The doubt in such cases is usually how much these people can endure. What is the maximum resistance that we human beings present? Now, new research has come to answer these questions.

To this end, the researchers analyzed sporting events that demanded great resistance on the part of the participants. Among others, they analyzed participants of the Tour de France, the Race Across USA, which involves 140 days running about 5000 kilometers throughout the United States, triathlons or arctic trekking.

Among other things, the researchers analyzed metabolic expenditure at rest, both before and after the races. They also took into account the number of calories people burned during activity that required extreme exertion.

One of the things they found is that the longer the activity time, the harder it is to burn calories and get the necessary energy expenditure. This means that in a short effort we can go beyond our baseline metabolic rate for a short period of time, but it is not sustainable in the long term.

Thus, they find that an average person’s resistance limit would be 2.5 times their resting metabolic rate, or an expenditure of 4,000 calories per day. An effort greater than that would not be sustainable. According to these researchers, we normally walk away from this expenditure, and our body adjusts the energy expenditure when we make efforts for a long time.

But if there is anyone who comes close to daily resistance limits, it is pregnant women. These researchers point out that they approach 2.2 times their resting metabolic rate per day, staying very close to their body’s endurance limit.