How a Low-Carb Diet Can Boost Exercise Performance and Health | Professor Tim Noakes & Josh Clemente

High-carbohydrate diets and carbohydrate loading have been long-standing tenets of athletic training and competition, but newer research indicates a low-carbohydrate diet may be more beneficial for performance and overall health. Professor Tim Noakes and Josh Clemente discuss how a fat-adapted body can rely on fat as a fuel source at all exercise intensity levels, rather than burning mostly carbohydrates, and how such adaptation and dietary focus may reduce one’s risk of prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes.
Sign Up to Get Your Ultimate Guide to Glucose: levels.link/youtube?...
📍 What Tim Noakes, MD, PhD, & Josh Clemente discuss:
00:00 - Intro
02:50 - Dr. Tim Noakes explains his career trajectory
17:36 - An adapted body can rely on fat for all exercise intensities
21:04 - The body will never get to a state of no glucose circulation
22:03 - A delicate balance of macronutrients is likely necessary
27:49 - Before the high-carbohydrate craze, elite athletes were fat adapted
32:32 - Fat oxidation in muscle may have a protective effect against Type 2 diabetes
35:51 - Exercise does not cancel out the risk for metabolic disease if diet isn’t accounted for
46:21 - The body can cope with fasting
53:41 - The high-carb training trend has been perpetuated by the carbohydrate industry
👋 WHO WE ARE:
Levels helps you see how food affects your health. With real-time, personalized data gathered through biosensors like continuous glucose monitors (CGM), you learn which diet and lifestyle choices improve your metabolic health so you can live a longer, fuller, healthier life.
🔗 LINKS:
Transcripts & Show notes: www.levelshealth.com/podcasts...
Subscribe here on KZbin: kzbin.info?sub_...
Connect with Dr. Tim Noakes on Twitter: / proftimnoakes

[@tracy3812]

It’s so difficult to accept what Tim went through with the courts when he is so honest with great integrity. The same for Gary Fettke. Unbelievable.

[@doctorstotrust]

Real courage by a genuine hero

[@trianglejudoclub5873]

Prof. Tim Noakes stands for everything that is good about humanity in a world dominated by profit. The "food" industry will desperately want to protect their share prices and profits. This podcast and others like it need to become mainstream information to give the option of health (low carb) or disease (high carb).

[@JohnnyCarthief]

I have been trying to run marathons for 10 years. I never knew why I couldn’t get past 12 miles. I am prediabetic. That’s why. Now I know.

[@pillsber]

Regardless of number of views, this is hands down the best and most brilliant guest you have had on your channel. You have to have your thinking cap on to get a grasp of what he's saying but he is the penultimate research mind alive today on low carb physiology. Thanks for having him on.

[@user-qe5lg7ph3b]

Thanks Tim for your honesty and bravery. As a South African Comrades runner many years ago, I had inadvertently discovered that a low carb high fat diet worked much much better for me (I'm O+ blood type and converted to the blood type hypothesis that promoted the LCHF diet for O blood types). Subsequently 'hitting the wall' during marathons and ultras vanished, I lost around 10% of body weight without any change in training mileage and my race times at all distances improved substantially.

[@briand5047]

Josh, an entire video on blood sugar levels while training would be great.

[@Marathon5151]

I have run 29 marathons so far at the age of 39 and within the past three months, I have switched from high-carb to low-carb. My last blood test was showing my blood glucose close to pre-diabetes even though at 5’ 10” and 150 lbs, I considered myself healthy. Now I feel a lot better, have more stable energy and sleep better.

[@iss8504]

You know, I have been thin my whole life and yet looking back, i have been insulin resistant since I was a child. I have profound insulin resistance now. Cannot tolerate carbs at all.

[@patrycja2696]

Same here. Slim, active, fit my whole life. Eating "healthy" whole foods, cooked from scratch plant based but omnivore. Turned out I was prediabetic for long time... Reversed all with ketavore, carnivore diet. Now my blood work and performance are out of the world Fantastic Truglicerides to HDL ratio 0.5, HOMA IR 0.6, ruminant cholesterol 12, liver, kidneys work excellent, same with crap, organs scan, thyroid, whatnot! Kraft test , the main one, perfect.

[@Norman_Gunstan1]

@@iss8504 I think you mean insulin sensitivity

[@georgebarr5102]

Hi Do you manage ok doing marathons low carb, Im struggling with the miles past 14 on low carb

[@lilytea3]

0:00: 🏃 Low carb high-fat diets can be effective for improving metabolic health and athletic performance in recreational male athletes. 8:23: 🔑 The body can adapt from carbohydrate reliance to fat reliance at all intensities of exercise, and blood glucose is the limiting factor in exercise performance. 16:36: ✅ The body regulates blood glucose concentration and burns glucose to maintain it, but can also burn fat when carb intake is low. 23:29: 💡 The study found that the heart can burn glucose, insulin, ketones, and lactate for fuel, depending on what is given, and there is no difference in performance between high carb and low carb diets for recreational male athletes. 31:45: 🏃‍♀ The speaker discusses the effects of different diets on athletes, particularly female athletes, and their risk of developing type 2 diabetes. 38:49: 🏃 The speaker discusses their approach to balancing carbohydrates and exercise, emphasizing the importance of choosing the right carbohydrates and adjusting portion sizes based on activity levels. 46:26: 🔑 The speaker discusses the benefits of fasting and low-carb, high-fat exercise for improving metabolic function and reversing metabolic syndrome. 54:01: 📊 The most important question researchers need to answer next is to get people to accept the data on fuel adaptation and low carb diets by having researchers who previously promoted high carb diets prove that they were wrong. 1:00:30: ✨ The interview discusses the importance of fat adaptation and the ability to convert fat into glucose during exercise. Recap by Tammy AI

[@9929kingfish]

All you kale eating plant forward hippies take note. My glucose levels are consistently in the low 80’s since I slashed my carbs to nearly zero per day. I feel great with lots of energy.

[@patrycja2696]

Same here

[@jaynesegman7847]

I Resent the "Hippie" label, and I don't eat Kale

[@patrycja2696]

Cool, stick to your oxalate full spinach or lectins legumes etc Kisses

[@semi-mojo]

​@@patrycja2696legumes, beans in general are one of the healthiest things you can eat. Essentially all the lectins are gone when you cook your beans to be edible. Just because theyre not keto friendly doesnt mean theyre unhealthy or dangerous.

[@patrycja2696]

@@semi-mojo bullocks Healthiest foods are animals.

[@marilynroper5739]

So wonderful to listen to this conversation- Prof Noakes is amazing.

[@meatarianrunner]

This was a great interview. I love listening to Tim. I switched over to carnivore diet 8 months ago, which resolved some issues that prevented me from running for the past 20 years. I recently just got back into running again and I am going to be running a marathon soon for the first time. I'll definitely be thinking about this as I get closer to marathon day. In my current training I can almost immediately tell when my body switches over to fat burning. I sometimes feel a little sluggish at the start of a long run and after watching this I believe it's just because I need to deplete them glycogen stores so I start right at the fat burning. I always feel amazing by the end of the run as if I could just keep going and going.

[@patrycja2696]

Fantastic. Check carnivore doctors Sean OMara - he is showing what distance running is doing to people's bodies... MRI scans of his patients and what happens to visceral fat, even around the heart! in also slim runners, ones they start to do sprints!

[@scoobtoober2975]

Electrolytes maybe something to try for that feeling. Or to kick it in sooner. Or butter fasting before exercise to jump start it as well. Less protein amount closer to start of exercise.

[@TiMalice2009]

The first sentence this guy said is KEY.

[@yakoobyasseen2539]

Long term metabolic health and experience thank you for sharing this experience from Johannesburg South Africa 🇿🇦

[@jeanneestime1505]

He looks like he really knows 💯 what he is talking about, he is sounds sincere.

[@mariafrazer5264]

Totally love this interview. I have learned even more from it. Prof Noakes is a champion.

[@Absolomthecarnivore]

Always a pleasure to listen to "Prof". Thank you Levels for this interview!

[@carolandersen2702]

I enjoyed this podcast with Dr. Noakes. I appreciated your clarifications of the conversation. Good podcast.

[@MsNWBS]

Excellent interview. Very useful information for me, T2 , using LCHF diet. My blood sugar levels have been confusing to me. This information has explained a lot. Thank you !

[@MonSamDan]

Great conversation. I like Tim Noakes.

[@nqumthemba]

After low carb im no longer usining Balzagar and Humaloc following Dr Noakes Scare on Carbohydrates. Thanks Doctor Noakes.

[@Mondaymorningbbq]

What always struck me about Prof Tim Noakes is how he is not afraid to admit he was wrong, he moves on adapts and grows. Where a lot of other scientists are too insecure to admit they are/were wrong.

[@dantefichera8787]

What you said about having to do hours of activity (cycling/running) in order to burn enough carbs to start feeling good.

[@arturwronski8652]

I’m skeptical to argument that elevated glucose in blood during high intensity exercises is a consequence of prediabetes. Demand-supply engineering view: higher intensity induces higher demand for energy, once anaerobic threshold is reached the demand for glucose is even higher (2 ATP molecules per glucose molecules vs. 38 APT potential when oxidized). The body predicts the consumption and builds upfront glucose buffer in blood stream to avoid hypoglycemia. I would argue the opposite, more efficient the muscles are in uptaking glucose from blood stream, higher glucose spike is expected, because the body predicts glucose will be used soon. Prediabetes should be rather assessed based on the levels before and after the exercise.

[@audaxity]

Agree. This needs more discussion/investigation. Didn’t hear any mention here of exercise induced cortisol increases that may accompany high intensity exercise. From my admittedly limited understanding, higher cortisol will prompt glucose to be released from the liver to get ahead of demand. Loved this interview but this is an area that need better illumination. The whole CGM craze with Sapiens should illuminate but who has seen their large amounts of data ?

[@arturwronski8652]

​@@audaxity Yes, this needs more clarity. To my understanding glucose level is also controlled independently from insulin (precisely, on top of current insulin level), possibly driven by brain which predicts energy consumption. When working, muscles uptake glucose from blood without insulin, so there must be an upper regulation mechanism. I’m fat adapted (I measure ketones in breath) but when trained on fasted state my glucose always went up, mostly depending on the intensity. I guess its independent from what you eat, and it doesn’t matter if you are fat of glucose adapted. I hypothesize that if you are fat adapted overall glucose consumption might be lower, but brain may decide to keep higher level of glucose. CGM will tell you the glucose levels, but not how much glucose is consumed in a unit of time. Same situation with phycological stress - blood level is rising because brain predicts energy consumption. I question the sentence “The only reason to burn glucose it to regulate blood glucose concentration.” But of course I really liked the interview, which was an impulse to think about it.

[@Dermsurg1]

I have been ketogenic for 3 years and during high intensity running my SBG spikes to 160-180/dl. It promptly returns to 100 after 30 min.

[@elliotthough765]

My question pertains to the last question Josh asked, which was what other molecules could be measured continuously. Tim mentioned a means of measuring fat oxidation. Seems to me, the byproducts of fat oxidation are carried in the blood back to the lungs. And maybe some byproducts are expelled in the sweat glands. Not sure what those would be for the sweat glands, but the blood gases carried in the veins back to the lungs could be measured by a device that taps into a vein. Patients are hooked up to IV’s in hospitals all the time for hours if not days with a needle taped into a vein. So doesn’t seem like a big stretch to develop a small device like a CGM that taps a vein and continuously measure the blood gases (CO2) from fat oxidation returning to the lungs?

[@user-rl3ef4ju9k]

How do you know which CO2 molecule is from burning fat and which from burning sugars? The level of fat/carbs burning can be calculated from the relation of O2 used and CO2 produced I think.

[@chazwyman8951]

So I take it that glucose is necessary but not essential. If it is obligatory for health then as long as we are eating something, our bodies can make exactly the amount we need through gluconeogenesis. Both fat and protein can be converted into serum glucose. According to Richard Johnson we also make small amounts of fructose. But we have no need to eat any carbohydrates.

[@iss8504]

Glucose is essential but the body makes it. Not essential to eat it.😊

[@chazwyman8951]

@@iss8504 That's a contradiction. "Essential" means needed and not able to make it. If the body can make it then it is by definition not essential.

[@mallyoconnor5087]

@@chazwyman8951 wrong

[@chazwyman8951]

@@mallyoconnor5087 Run along an d find a book. Can you read?

[@pointshealthcoaching8474]

Us "normies" (non-elite athletes) know from our N of 1 - that we convert both protein and fat to glucose in the liver - thx- very informative

[@miroslavmarkov5161]

Very good questions!

[@scoobtoober2975]

Ty Dr nokes. Truly interesting and helpful. I'm guessing like you said, glucose shoots up because the insulin drops down. even when fasted. During HIT Thanks

[@MikePashko]

Спасибо вам за подкаст! На углеводах я мог щаниматься в тренажерном зале 2 часа с объемом нагрузки 12000 kg. На диете хищника мой рекорд 34000 kg за 4.5 часов тренировки. И я мог еще тренироваться. Я не устал. Мой вес 70кг, я делаю становую тягу 140кг. А еще у меня был перелом позвоночника и у меня не болит спина на диете хищника. Я ем от 800 до 1400 gr говядины.

[@kayn6858]

Speak english

[@MikePashko]

@@kayn6858 you can't Google translate?

[@kayn6858]

@@MikePashko no

[@MikePashko]

@@kayn6858 Thank you for the podcast! On carbohydrates, I could work out in the gym for 2 hours with a load volume of 12,000 kg. On a carnivore diet, my record is 34,000 kg in 4.5 hours of training. And I could still train. I'm not tired. My weight is 70kg, I'm doing a deadlift of 140kg. And I also had a spinal fracture and my back doesn't hurt on a predator diet. I eat from 800 to 1400 grams of beef.

[@kayn6858]

@@MikePashko good boy

[@adamscott217]

Thoroughly enjoyed the video A lot of the top 1% of athletes use performance enhancers, I know it would be difficult to factor this in due to people lying etc

[@Apocryphon1]

My question is this: is a high carb loaded diet, with carb adaptation, better for activities requiring explosive muscle contractions such as sprinting or powerlifting weights? Or can a fat adapted body excel at these explosive type demands?

[@RanjanNag-bz6vo]

Fascinating ❤

[@neilhansen49]

Thanks Fellows! I'm going carnivore soon. Question: How long is a basic guide to do the switch/conversion over to strictly meat, fat, salt and water? TY

[@user-hv1fm4ug7e]

My uncle is a runner for 60 yrs , he was in a team of six men, there are only two left alive.. They all had heart Attacks, they ended up with a extra heart beat which he has.. When I read his book , about his life as a runner, they ate tons of food and everything not a very healthy diet... Back in those days, it was all about Carbs.

[@gemschaeffer7291]

Question prof Noakes, I'm carnivore and very lean and muscular aged 52,train 3-4 times a week and eat twice a day,steak,fatty ground beef eggs butter and that's pretty much it,my question is if I'm already very lean and burn fat as fuel will this effect my size and weight? My idea is to continue to stay lean and muscular but if my fat levels are very low to begin with where will I get the fat from to use as fuel?

[@andreab616]

You gotta eat the fat. Time to butter up!

[@sneakysky6398]

Do you drink milk 🥛?

[@emh8861]

Very very interesting 🧐.

[@user-rl3ef4ju9k]

If in fact the liver can turn fat into glucose (for brain function etc.), then it's the end of carbs intake for me before and during any exercise. This is huge!

[@georgebarr5102]

If we need 50-100g carb during marathon - what’s the best source to take with you ?

[@darlafitzpatrick8770]

My hero.

[@inogenmackenzie5397]

Very interesting, thank you. Can I just make the case for our non-human cousins though - we do not need to kill to find protein and fat! We can live a kind and compassionate life, while still having great health.

[@maricamaas2326]

Well-known that lots of animals of different sizes are killed in order to establish and maintain plant agriculture; this besides for the fact that the plants are dying also. Interesting how it had been proven that plants have feelings, and that they communicate; this even without having a nervous system. If provided, plants will feed on animal remains. It simply is how the circle of life works: For living creatures to be sustained, there always is death of others involved.

[@livelearnandteach7402]

The fact they attacked him so badly says to me he is right. They kinda shot themselves in the foot there.

[@bobcocampo]

Expose the names of these doctors who attacked Tim Noakes

[@richardmiddleton7770]

I'm interested to know what happens if you go completely keto and fat adapted and if this hinders your ability to use carbs for performance when needed? When I'm fully fat adapted and introduce carbs mid workout, I actually feel/perform worse! I need a few days of consuming carbs to see the benefits but then I obviously lose my fat adaptation! It's kind of annoying!

[@etfremd]

He does not talk much about the role of ketones! When your body is running on fats and ketones it needs very little carbohydrate. Fat adaptation is amazing. I fasted for 5 days with water and electrolytes then went for a 5 hour bike ride at moderate intensity. I felt amazing! With my fasting experiments I found eventually the need for protein or amino acids catches up to you. I have been on a keto diet for 7+ years and I experiment with carb loading from time to time. This should be an area of research deep fat adaptation and carbohydrate use? Which types of carbs are most healthy and results in the least amount of inflammation? I am drawn to eating sushi and fruits on occasion. I have tested sushi a very large bolus and pushed ketones the very next day so it’s like my body just soaked up the carbohydrates and continued to use fat for energy.

[@damienmartinezcoro7765]

Contact me for that research. I could be on a treadmill for 6hours. I love your work and I’ve been training with your philosophy.

[@richardmiddleton7770]

I can't remember where I heard it but there were some tribes who would eat/drink massive amounts of honey, like upto a liter a day! This was obviously before and during a hunt/gather where thay would be walking, running and climbing trees all day.

[@pedro.almeida]

That's the Hadza tribe. They normally eat some kind of tubers and meat when the hunts are successful.But if they find a bee hive they'll gorge on honey, consuming as much as one would in a year. 😅

[@KarlKrassnitzer-mm8wb]

I ear ketogen for approx. 3 years.

[@61651092]

But what about the cyclocross guy mentioned in the beginning. He would still be needing carbs if he did a cyclocross race, because the intensity is too high for fat burning.

[@wmp3346]

What about intermittent fasting ? (covered at 46 min.) Tim also said glucose can be helpful during a race or competition in another interview. Avoid high carb diets - I am assuming Tim means processed carbs

[@danielmccarthyy]

Note to runners: start your run in a state of glycogen depletion in order to ensure fat burning

[@pinkycerebro22]

Totally agree...but before that, yo have to be fat adapted. It took me years to not fear NOT to fuel my muscles with carbs the night before thg races. And the days before too. Once I got it, it was huge diference, never bonked

[@georgebarr5102]

@@pinkycerebro22 what do you use for carb during race/ training

[@pinkycerebro22]

@@georgebarr5102 I don't use carbs, usually I have nothing but water and coffe. In one race I managed to buy a burguer with bacon and eggs (no bread), somewhere passing 300km. Sometimes I have a bite of butter, or half of a boiled egg...pemmican if I can have in my drop bag. Not a single carb

[@georgebarr5102]

@@pinkycerebro22 thanks I’ve been low carb since Christmas - just started marathon training again, done about ten marathons in the past on full carbs - now training fat adapted with a coffee at the start, noticed prof noakes said he thought it would be an idea to have 50g of carbs half way through an event Wondered if you thought that was an Idea

[@pinkycerebro22]

@@georgebarr5102 he also said "carbs are for the brain". I don't think they are needed, I understood they are for pleasure. But you have to be adapted to runnon your stored fats. I run ultra, so the pace is very different than a marathon. But anyway I don"t think you neede 50gr if carbs if you are properly fat adapted. The 25gr of carbs you need are obtained easily from gluconeogenesis. The glicogen im the muscles is just for manteninig stable glucose in the blood

[@diggingshovelle9669]

What is a high-carb diet?

[@janeknight3597]

Would this mean that insulin resistance is the natural condition?

[@davidclark2592]

The winners of most marathons the Kenyans eat 80% starch. The men Kenyans have won the Boston marathon 25 times.

[@lifeisforlivinghereandnow877]

And no keto lowcarb runners will ever beat the Kenyans i have been on keto diet and i never had the same energy as when eating carbs and my performance in the gym went down alot too very sceptical if all these claims are true or made up to.sell.books and earn these people money

[@alexconnors1027]

You can't just swap fuels and expect a miracle straight away. Your body has to re-learn to burn fat as energy.. Key takeaway.... fat has double the energy as carbs per gram.. Once you become pre diabetic....Big Pharma kicks in and can sell you 5 meds a day.. I will only add one thing..make sure the protein you eat is not eating GMO grains before you eat them.

[@etfremd]

The question is how much fat do they burn? Professor Noakes just said you can have a high rate of fat burn even though you eat high carb based on the distance and intensity of the exercise? Mostly observed in elite cyclists. Personally I think dual fuel would be optimal taking both glucose and ketones.

[@davidclark2592]

@@etfremd I never heard of anyone winning a marathon on a keto diet. Rich Roll completed 5 iron mans in less than a week on a high carb vegan diet with a little added fat.

[@defeqel6537]

And yet, all running advice, which the Kenyans seem to follow, is to run a lot of your runs in Zone 2, in order to improve your fat metabolism

[@scoobtoober2975]

Another note, maybe don't take the CGM as gospel for those readings. I've seen or heard of a few times they may not be the whole picture.

[@richardmiddleton7770]

TDF riders used to eat steak, even on the bike! They also used to smoke and took cocaine! 😅

[@61651092]

The brain does not need glucose, but the red blod cells do.

[@Ian-vv6tf]

Correct. The brain is perfectly fine running on ketones.

[@pedro.almeida]

The brain can function on ketones, even deriving up to 75% of its energy from them during ketosis. However, some parts of the brain still prefer glucose for certain functions. In such cases, the body can produce glucose through a process called gluconeogenesis, using amino acids from protein or glycerol from fat stores.

[@janeknight3597]

Note: if your fat comes from cheese you may need to think about the protein if you are already diabetic 😢

[@diggingshovelle9669]

60% carbs and 20% protein???

[@yeahhhhh9209]

Interesting, but i cannot completely agree with what He says...you cannot rely just on fat especially during long endurance events.. 5 k is too short.. i bet the test didn't show any major difference... try to run a marathon , a long 5 hours cycling race on low carbs... there is not way you are going to excel....

[@pedro.almeida]

Yh he seems sorta of over himself with data he collected, but the fact is that no one is using exclusively fat and/or ketones to fuel races, at least not at a professional level. Even during ultra running races, some of them over 100 miles, low carb athletes WILL consume carbs to be able to keep up with the competition. Seems more of "train low carb, run with carbs" type of thing, then just going through with it just running with fats/keetones.

[@Dan-dg9pi]

I found this discussion very hard to follow.

[@bonjovi7120]

I guess this is not the only time😂😂😂

[@Dan-dg9pi]

@@bonjovi7120 You are right. During my education (BS, MS, Ph.D., and JD) I have had plenty of occasions where I didn't understand things. How about you, Einstein? I bet you know it all.

[@bonjovi7120]

@@Dan-dg9pi i bet you did very well in BS😂😂😂

[@Dan-dg9pi]

@@bonjovi7120 None of my degrees are in substituting emojis for thinking. But then again, kindergarten was a long time ago for me.

[@bonjovi7120]

@@Dan-dg9pi you are actually very good at this BS stuff. Keep talking BS kid