The effects of Ramadan fasting on physical field-expedient measures in army cadets (ahead of publication)

Limited research exists regarding Ramadan fasting and military performance. The purpose of the present study was to compare fitness test values between fasting and non-fasting cadets.
Methods and Materials: Twenty army cadets (fasting and non-fasting) performed various military physical conditioning tests (pull ups, sit ups, swimming obstacle course, push ups, obstacle course and one mile run).
Nutritional parameters and fitness test performances tests were similar for both groups (p>0.05). However, performance percentage differences between fasting and non-fasting group in each test tended to be higher towards the end of the testing procedure (3.0%, 3.2%, 6.0%, 3.1%, 7.5% and 8.4% for pull ups, sit ups, swimming obstacle course, push ups, obstacle course and one mile run respectively).
Coclusions: Ramadan fasting does not affect fitness test performances in army cadets. However, it seems that fasting cadets can not handle efficiently repeated maximal exercise testing possibly due to a reduced recovery between tests.