The basic outline of the experiment consisted of a control group and an experimental group; both groups contained endurance-trained cyclists who had fasted beforehand. The cyclists were required to maintain a constant 70% aerobic workload while they cycled. The control group was given a sweet drink that did not suffice as an energy source; the drink contained aspartame (NutraSweet) which has no nutritional value. The other drink contained nutritionally useful carbohydrate that had an equally sweet flavor. Cyclists were not told which drink they were receiving. This was done to avoid biases (such as cycling harder with the carbohydrate drink to "please" the scientists) from entering the experiment and thus corrupting the data.

Muscle biopsies to measure muscle glycogen were taken before excercise, after 2 and 3 hours of exercise, and at the time of fatigue (when the cyclists could no longer work at 70% of their aerobic capacity). Blood samples were also taken every twenty minutes and upon fatigue. These blood samples were used to quantitatively analyze the glucose levels in the blood at the various times.