Scientists find ultimate limit of human endurance

The ultimate limit of human endurance has been worked out by scientists analysing a 3,000 mile run, the Tour de France and other elite events.

They showed the cap was 2.5 times the body's resting metabolic rate, or 4,000 calories a day for an average person.

Anything higher than that was not sustainable in the long term, BBC News reports, citing the study.

The research, by Duke University, also showed pregnant women were endurance specialists, living at nearly the limit of what the human body can cope with.

The study started with the Race Across the USA in which athletes ran 3,080 miles from California to Washington DC in 140 days.

Competitors were running six marathons a week for months, and scientists were investigating the effect on their bodies.

Resting metabolic rate - the calories the body burns through when it is relaxing - was recorded before and during the race.

And calories burned in the extreme endurance event were recorded.

The study, in Science Advances, showed energy use started off high but eventually levelled off at 2.5 times the resting metabolic rate.

The study found a pattern between the length of a sporting event and energy expenditure; and that while running a marathon may be beyond many, it is nowhere near the limit of human endurance.