[stevenwoo]

IIRC the study that led to people carbo loading for endurance events was first only done with males and that follow up studies found no effect in women. So we don't know the reason for the gender response difference but it exists. For a separate semi tangential on gender differences, the presence of testosterone in males appears to increase the red blood cell count and oxygen carrying ability slightly (versus testosterone deficient or females who doped in a prior era without testing versus clean females) so there is definite precedent for there being a difference in response to diet/ability due to gender/gender specific hormones.

[nessup]

I'm with you there -- it's possible there could be some gender difference and it could be environmental/genetic/etc. But the author spent no more than a single sentence on what is a very glaring issue. That's sketch.