The best exercise for health – Diet Doctor Podcast

The best exercise for health – Diet Doctor Podcast

Exercise can be an important component of overall health and healthy weight loss. But which type is better? Does traditional cardio really burn more fat? Or, is interval training the best for fat loss? And what does interval training even mean? Plus, if you’re fit, does that mean you are healthy?

In this episode, we cover these topics and more with leading HIIT researcher Martin Gibala, PhD, and leading aerobic exercise proponent Phil Maffetone, founder of the MAF Method.

Table of contents:
0:00 Introduction
2:25 Phil Maffetone
3:42 Aerobic trainings for health and fitness
9:45 The general advice for exercise progression
18:39 The correlation of exercise and fat mass
24:41 About ketosis, fat burning and exercise
28:49 The intersection among food, training and unhealthy athletes
38:54 About Phil Maffetone’s research
40:53 Martin Gibala, PhD
41:38 High-intensity interval training (HIIT) for health
49:46 Minimum recommendation for a HIIT duration
56:42 About overtraining, after-burn effect, and fat burning
1:04:18 Avoiding overtraining and the importance of exercise metrics
1:10:22 The relationship between glucose and insulin
1:12:41 Conclusion

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42 Comments

  1. Philly3458 on February 16, 2023 at 3:19 am

    Love spin class for just this reason. 40 min interval training.



  2. theskyehiker on February 16, 2023 at 3:20 am

    Everyone talks about running but my goals are to backpack 15ish miles a day, for 6 days, then repeat for 6 weeks. I don’t know of any trainers that can address the mileage issue on top of the day after day issue. Oh, while carrying everything I need to survive and succeed on my back. Anyone know of a method that can train me for that?



  3. William Dennis on February 16, 2023 at 3:21 am

    I always appreciate your podcasts: insightful, lucid, and “heart friendly”— a true class act. But sadly, a vanishing one on the world stage.



  4. Iss on February 16, 2023 at 3:22 am

    I am confused. You can burn fat before depleting glycogen?



  5. Kathryn B on February 16, 2023 at 3:25 am

    Personal experience, rebuild muscle mass in the gym, then go out with others to walk, cycle, swim, yoga just for the pleasure of being with others and enjoying movement. No stress, no competition. It will allow you to get up out of the sofa, pick thing’s up off the floor and do basic boring stuff that everyone takes for granted. Importantly listen to your body.



  6. Feel the Meat on February 16, 2023 at 3:25 am

    Thanks for this, but for me, you hit the nail on the head when you said, *"You can’t out-run a poor diet"*
    And that’s what the majority of overweight people can’t get their heads around.
    I’m a strength and conditioning coach with many years of experience, from elite athletes to the average man/woman on the street.
    Every single average man/woman without fail could not believe my opening statement to them as a new client (if their goal was weight loss)
    I’d always start with, "You’re not going to lose weight in the gym training with me" They were gob-smacked at that statement.
    And then I’d explain why, and that I would educate them about eating healthier, but more importantly, LESS FREQUENTLY! There’s the key right there, *FREQUENCY*
    I personally eat in a 2-hour window ONLY. I’ve lived the OMAD, Low-Carb lifestyle for the past 6 years, NO EXCUSES! 365 days a year, YES, even Christmas day.
    I provide all the visual proof. I Walk the Walk not just talk it! Head over and see everything from explanations, food prep, exercise. But what you’ll see most in bucket loads is, No Excuses/Commitment/Discipline/Zero Delusion!
    Remember, *There is no tomorrow*
    Good luck – Leo Low-Carb Lion



  7. Kelly Beard on February 16, 2023 at 3:26 am

    I wonder how DD weighs the differences between some of these guests. This fellow talks about putting people on "very low carb, high fat, moderate protein" diets but then you have Ted Naiman who is all about high-protein, low energy. There’s always some discrepancies between these experts.



  8. Trippingonfaith ! on February 16, 2023 at 3:26 am

    Wonderful video can we have this same discussion focusing mainly on overweight people with IR just starting on their journey



  9. Missy Gee on February 16, 2023 at 3:28 am

    What you say is true, but gotta say, so many young and truly healthy athletes around the world are dropping dead after rolling up their sleeves.



  10. Christopher Ellis on February 16, 2023 at 3:30 am

    In the seventies, a doctor, in his early forties, dropped dead while jogging. So, it’s nothing new, but it seems to have been swept under the carpet. Some people don’t want to know.



  11. Lewis Schaffer on February 16, 2023 at 3:38 am

    Brilliant way of looking at doing exercise: Exercise ‘snacking’!



  12. Dave W on February 16, 2023 at 3:39 am

    Thanks – Easy listening and all a common sense approach to a healthy lifestyle. Pleased that the importance of good nutrition was included.
    Regarding exercise – ‘variety is the spice of life’ or an earlier saying, ‘variety is the soul of pleasure’



  13. Joe Cabezas on February 16, 2023 at 3:40 am

    do you have a video on the best exercise, recommended, for normal-weight type 2 diabetics?



  14. Loving It On Keto on February 16, 2023 at 3:43 am

    (Harry here) I tend to stick with 20 carbs a day and I try to stay below that as well.



  15. Dr Lang on February 16, 2023 at 3:44 am

    Nice to see Phil! (my classmate at Chiropractic school)



  16. Julia M on February 16, 2023 at 3:44 am

    Tried the Maffetone method, and somehow ended up with my heart rate going higher with slower pace. Probably user error though.



  17. Michael Lowe on February 16, 2023 at 3:44 am

    I worry about scientistic theorists who never change their theory. The age based max rate calculation has been proven to not work. For me, MAF is a lot of slow running.

    Training methods vary depending on the goal. But if the goal is to run as fast as possible, MAF isn’t it. You need to run fast to run fast.



  18. Trish Trace on February 16, 2023 at 3:45 am

    Walking works the best for me and I enjoy it. I can’t stand interval training, it makes me so hungry that I just eat back the calories that I burned. Walking actually makes me less hungry.



  19. Rainer Maelger on February 16, 2023 at 3:46 am

    Danke



  20. 250txc on February 16, 2023 at 3:47 am

    Has the human body changed since all these different training ideas are pushed-forth a few decades ago? Nope, no changes to the human body but the way ~experts get $ out of your pocket and into theirs has changed with all these fades.

    Understand what both of these guys are talking about, ESP FOOD INTAKE, and you will be OK. Just do almost anything and the heart will respond according. But cut CARBS downward … It is that easy and simple 🙂



  21. Senthilnathan Palaniswamy on February 16, 2023 at 3:52 am

    Dr,fantastic discussion as always



  22. Shad O'Banned on February 16, 2023 at 3:53 am

    If you ( for example ) weigh 500 pounds and just trying to get out of bed and stand up causes you respiritory distress and massive pain in your ankles, knees, hips and spine … then your aerobic baseline is to all intents and purposes going to be ZERO and you are nowhere near fit enough to be even worrying about which kind of exercise is best for you right now !!! What YOU need to do is to stay in bed and eat a hardcore Carnivore diet restricted to 1,000 calories per day ( for what good the figures on product labels are ) making sure to get adequate protein ( 1.6 to 2 grams per kg of your ideal weight ) and using the fat content to adjust the calories down to 1,000 … this way, you will burn approximately 500 calories per day without having to lift a finger because we use around 1,500 calories a day just for everyday, staying-alive metabolic processes like breathing and staying warm and brain activity etc’ even if we are completely sedentary ! Once you have shed enough weight and started to reverse your insulin resistance thereby taking you out of cell-starvation / energy-conservation mode … THEN you can start with some very light excercise such as walking to the end of the bed and back to get your heart rate up a little bit and get some super-filtrated blood imbibed into those joints that don’t have a vascular blood supply and eventualy, one day, you may indeed perhaps come to a point where you need to consider whether to do aerobic or or interval or resistance training !!!



  23. WorldNomad on February 16, 2023 at 3:53 am

    So why is Rich Roll (a skinny vegan who eats carbs all day) able to do ultra marathons at a high level at middle age if you need to be in a fat burning state to go fast?



  24. Steve C on February 16, 2023 at 3:55 am

    `A year ago I lost 40 pounds in 2 months on keto and have kept them off for a year. That’s about all the weight I needed to lose. The problem is that I also lost muscle mass as well and ended up noticeably, to me, less strong than I had been before the weight loss. I’m healthier but although a year ago I got off 4 hypertension meds I now need to go back on one of them with my BP in the 170/100 range. I would have been better off losing the weight more slowly.



  25. Gregarious Antithesis on February 16, 2023 at 3:56 am

    When i started my new lifestyle in October i started going to aerobics classes and water aerobics one time a week. It was a great way to get back into exercise. I have since moved to walking 3 miles 3 times a week and going to the gym doing a all upper body machine workout doing 10 reps on all machines quickly moving between machines also including band assisted pullups, push ups, leg lifts, floating situp, then imediately doing 10 minutes on treadmill with 10 percent incline in the middle. I do three sets of this and its worked well. Im still trying to understand what is optimum blood sugar levels one should be shooting for when working out and how long should it take for blood sugar to return to basal. Even more baffling is what is a optimum basal blood glucose level for someone who is in good healthy with a good diet. To me what my basal blood glucose should be when not exercising and between meals is far more telling than fasting blood glucose.



  26. Upduh Whazoo on February 16, 2023 at 3:56 am

    Baloney!
    Doc said If you run 7 miles in the morning, then sit at a desk all day, you can’t call yourself an active person. THAT is a gut-punch to me as a wannabe fit someday guy. If I could run 7 miles before work I’d tell you to kiss my a#$. BUT, if doc is correct, I personally, have to up my game and get a plan!



  27. Darla Fitzpatrick on February 16, 2023 at 4:01 am

    Phil Maffetone is a national treasure. It’s heartening to see my favorite low-carb doctors start to recognize his contributions and I can’t wait to listen to this one! I’ve adhered to a fairly strict LCHF, whole-food way of eating since 2015 entirely due to Dr. Maffetone and his "2-week test." I had just turned 50 at the time and had begun following his training approach for recreational long-distance running, and although I wasn’t too concerned with my diet at first, I did have a vague awareness that my love for pasta and other carbs might be causing me to gain a little weight. Boy, did his 2-week experiment open my eyes! I’ve been voraciously reading, listening and learning everything I can about metabolism ever since. I think the original DD website was one of the first resources I found online in 2015 and I continue to be a DD member to help support this important work.



  28. Michael on February 16, 2023 at 4:01 am

    I too found Phil in the 1990’s Ironman training!



  29. Sharron Klein on February 16, 2023 at 4:01 am

    I’m very interested in this because I am 79 years old and in very good shape physically, despite having had cancer twice this year. Neither required either chemo or radiation because they were caught early. During this process I have lost weight and now have a BMI of about 21. I do Silver Sneakers aerobics classes 4 days a week plus yoga one day a week plus walk my dog over a mile each day. I would like to go on a keto diet for the sake of my brain and also because I had cancer. Most people use the keto diet to lose weight, but I’d like to actually gain some weight. Would this be a practical thing to try?



  30. Gregarious Antithesis on February 16, 2023 at 4:03 am

    I just wish you guys would do a video with a number of different professionals and experts that discuss what the optimum basal daytime between meals, between exercise, blood glucose levels. Additionally what should be the recovery time to the basal rate after eating a healthy low carb meal and after exercise assuming a person is consistent. Would be so beneficial knowing what someone at a certain age and health level should be seeing in blood glucose. I try to eat enough low glycemic vegetables and fruit to keep my glycogen stores maintained and still maintain a moderate level of ketosis. This method with exercise keeps my fasting blood sugar in the 80s but during the afternoon my basal rate tends to run in the low 100s to high 90s then drops down around bedtime.



  31. David Adames on February 16, 2023 at 4:07 am

    The first guest mentioned Applied kinesiology. Per wiki "Applied kinesiology (AK) is a pseudoscience-based technique in alternative medicine claimed to be able to diagnose illness or choose treatment by testing muscles for strength and weakness."



  32. Todd Gulizia on February 16, 2023 at 4:09 am

    Sprinting (2-3 x 20-second sprints a few times per week) definitely helped improve my HRV and resting HR tracked with Oura ring. I haven’t really tried longer/slower cardio



  33. Sunday Runday on February 16, 2023 at 4:11 am

    I started Maffetone Method training 11 weeks ago. When I started, I had to go so slow that I was barely jogging, and mostly walking. Averaged over 10:00/km and could only do about 3 or 4 km. I am now jogging for up to 10km and my times are around or below 9:00/km. Still slow, but getting faster while keeping my heart rate at or below 142.

    Today I did 6km and my average pace was 8:41/km!

    I’ve been documenting my progress on YouTube. ☺️



  34. Christopher Ellis on February 16, 2023 at 4:12 am

    Should be able to walk 5km/3miles in an hour.



  35. Thala Mahadevan on February 16, 2023 at 4:12 am

    Useful, valuable information.to absorb and to learn and practice. thank you DIET DOCTOR.



  36. Mar J on February 16, 2023 at 4:13 am

    I grew up in Europe and I was amazed when the parents at my kids school told me that we have to get drinks and snacks after the games. I asked them why, the answer was so simple: they will be hungry. But we were not given the kids food, only cookies and the sugary drinks. I just didn’t get it.



  37. Stan Dupp on February 16, 2023 at 4:13 am

    Just follow the advice of Jack LaLanne. He has more 1) awards, 2) honors, 3) inventions and 4) patents than any of these guys put together in an entire group!



  38. Pal Tek on February 16, 2023 at 4:14 am

    very valuable information thanks



  39. Wild Zen on February 16, 2023 at 4:14 am

    I enjoy walking, but is it enough to help preserve muscle as you age? I have been told to lift weights, should we be doing both then?



  40. Muhammad Taufik on February 16, 2023 at 4:18 am

    Thank you Diet Doctor Channel



  41. Leelee Loves to Shop on February 16, 2023 at 4:19 am

    Wheaties cereal boxes with Olympic athletes on them…



  42. Keith on February 16, 2023 at 4:19 am

    Something is better than nothing, choose sustainable activity you can handle and progress from there, dont drink calories or snack on carbs—fry an egg or 2, beef jerkey, sunflower seeds , carbmaster yogurt etc…