January 1990
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The effects of excess dietary leucine on rats undergoing a strenous swimming exercise programme were investigated over a six weeks period on 36 male Wistar rats who were randomly divided into three groups - experimental, exercise control, and sedentary control. Variables measured were weight gain, swim time, and percentage of body weight of the gastrocnemius muscle. Analysis of variance for unequal groups with planned comparisons was used to compare the data. Results showed a significant difference (P<0.05) in weight gain between all groups and a non-statistically significant average swim time improvement of 2.55 minutes for the experimental group versus controls. No differences were observed in the weight of the gastrocnemius. The findings suggest that leucine plays a role in maintaining lean body mass and is an oxidizable substrate in muscle during intensive aerobic exercise.