The Limits of Human Energy Expenditure with Herman Pontzer PhD and Drew Best PhD | Koopcast Episode 157

View all timestamps and show notes on the KoopCast website.

Episode overview:

Herman is a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University, where he focuses on the evolution of human energy expenditure and metabolism. He is also the co-founder of the Human Evolutionary Ecology Lab, where he and his team study the effects of diet, physical activity, and modern environments on human health and disease.

Herman’s latest book, "Burn: The Misunderstood Science of Metabolism," explores the latest research on metabolism and challenges long-held beliefs about weight loss and metabolism. His work has been featured in numerous publications and media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR

Andrew Best is a biological anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts; he is also a respectable endurance athlete in his own right. Ancdrew is currently conducting a research project on ultramarathon and ultra endurance athletes that further tests the limits of the human metabolic scope.

Episode highlights:

(15:23) The hypothesis: when you exercise you expend less energy to inflammation, stress, hormone regulation

(25:18) Reevaluating performance: energy expenditure may be the limiting factor in ultramarathons, if so training can be structured to target metabolic scope

(51:37) Training applications: strategically exceeding your metabolic ceiling during important moments in training and repaying metabolic debt when it matters least

Additional resources:

Contact for Andrew-

Website: www.therunningprimate.com

Instagram: @therunningprimate 

Twitter: @RunningPrimate 

Strava: The Shreddy Professor

Buy Training Essentials for Ultrarunning on Amazon or Audible

Information on coaching-

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