It has been a common experience in mountain climbing, especially with prolonged exposure to high altitudes, for climbers to lose weight secondary to a loss of appetite (69). Clearly, if a large portion of this weight loss were muscle, it would have a negative impact on the climber’s ability to scale the mountain. Some research work from both simulated and real as- cents of Mount Everest provides some insight into what changes are taking place in muscle and what may be responsible for those changes. In the Operation Everest H 40day simulation of an ascent to Mount Everest, the subjects experienced a 25% reduction in the cross-sectional area of type I and type II muscle fibers, and a 14% reduction in muscle area (49, 76). These and other observations (e.g., shifts in myosin from fast to slow isoforms) were supported by data from real
high-altitude ascents that combined exercise with severe hypoxia (35, 60, 64). What could have caused these changes? The Operation Everest II data on nutrition and body composition showed that caloric intake decreased 43% from 3136 to 1789 kcal/day over the course of the 40-day exposure to hypoxia. The subjects lost an average of 7.4 kg, with most of the weight from lean body mass, despite the availability of palatable food (111). This and other studies (135) showed that hypoxia itself suppresses both hunger and food intake, resulting in weight loss and changes in body composi- tion. Whether such changes in muscle mass are linked directly to changes in V02 max, they would clearly affect performance. (See A Closer Look 24.3 for how acute, versus chronic, exposure to altitude can affect the lactate response to exercise.)