Special Episode – Ketones and Bicarbonate with Dr. Chiel Poffe - Science of Getting Faster Podcast
Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast - Presented by TrainerRoad
TrainerRoad
4.9 • 4.6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2021
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Exogenous ketones are lauded by many for their endurance performance enhancing properties, but their impact on blood acidity is detrimental to performance and can even counteract their otherwise positive effects. Dr. Chiel Poffe and his partners conducted a study to learn if Bicarbonate Unlocks the Ergogenic Action of Ketone Monoester Intake in Endurance Exercise, and what they learned was surprising. Tune into this episode to learn the science behind ketones and bicarbonate, and how to introduce them into your training regimen to get faster.
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TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE:
00:00 Intro
01:17 Podcast Begins
01:58 - Dr. Poffe’s background and the story of his research on Ketones
02:52 - His research with Dr. Peter Hespel of Deceuninck Quick Step
03:11 - What are ketones and ketone esters?
04:44 - Why would someone want ketones in their blood while exercising?
05:43 - The difference between ketone salts and ketone esters
06:52 - Dr. Poffe’s study and why he decided to combine ketone and bicarbonate
08:55 - Performance of Ketone vs. placebo in the studies
09:55 - What does he think happened in the first study?
10:38 - The new study: introducing bicarbonate and what the purpose is.
11:12 - Why Chad finds the study methodology to be valuable
11:36 - Why his research always seeks to mimic real-world conditions
12:32 - What is Bicarbonate?
13:17 - Buffering systems in skeletal muscle
13:56 - How do you get/ ingest bicarbonate?
14:39 - The study method: How big was it?
15:27 - The study methodology and controls
17:24 - Nate summarizes the study’s efforts, cost of dosage, and amount of dose
19:29 - Timeframe of the test: dinner, morning, and timing of exercise
19:53 - Why was it important to control the amount of carbs ingested?
21:32- What was the dinner given to the subjects?
22:15 - What were the study’s results?
23:19 - Conclusions about how this might apply to a race (and timing limitations)
24:52 - Avoiding gastrointestinal issues with sodium bicarbonate
25:56 - Perception of hunger and appetite in the study groups
28:07 - Asking the subjects to identify what they’d taken (placebo vs. esters, etc)
29:11 - The purpose of blinding power and HR data
30:35 - What the study does and doesn’t suggest about ingesting ketones
31:36 - Blood ketone levels and perception of fatigue
32:04 - Should you always supplement ketones with bicarbonate?
33:11 - Outro
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to a different episode of the Ask a Cycling Coach podcast because this week it's actually |
| 0:04.0 | the Science of Getting Faster podcast. We're going to listen to episode three of this new podcast |
| 0:08.7 | that we've just launched and it's with Dr. Heel Pofet and it's about ketones and bicarbonate. |
| 0:13.5 | Seemingly strange things that probably aren't connected. We've heard about bicarbonate helping |
| 0:17.6 | with lactate buffering and we've heard about ketones. Acting is an alternative fuel source, |
| 0:22.1 | but can they work together is the question that they wanted to find out and can they be helpful |
| 0:25.9 | to each other? So enjoy this episode where we talk to Dr. Pofet all about what he and his |
| 0:31.1 | researchers learned along the way, how they structured the study, the things they didn't observe |
| 0:35.6 | that they expected to, and honestly some surprising results from this one. It's a really cool |
| 0:40.1 | episode and we're going to be going into ketones in more depth later on with this podcast as well. |
| 0:44.9 | And speaking of that every month, we'll be recording a new episode with researchers that are in |
| 0:50.4 | the bleeding edge of science in terms of how it makes us faster as cyclists. Doing research or |
| 0:54.9 | doing studies, performing research and the actual ones that are in the trenches. So it's a fantastic |
| 1:00.9 | podcast. If you listen to Ask a Cycling Coach podcast, you're going to love it. So there's a |
| 1:04.5 | link down below. You can click to find that podcast and subscribe to it. Please do that. We're going |
| 1:09.7 | to have a ton of great episodes like I said and I think you'll really enjoy it. So without further ado, |
| 1:14.0 | here is Nate, Chad and Dr. Pofet. Welcome to the Science of Getting Faster Podcast. This is the |
| 1:20.2 | podcast. So we get past the headlines and talk directly to the research to find out what |
| 1:24.5 | their studies suggest and what they don't. I'm your host Nate Pearson and we have Chad Timberman |
| 1:29.5 | with us. Hi everybody. And today, everyone's going to love this one. We have Dr. Heel Pofet. |
| 1:38.2 | We are going to talk about ketone esters, two episodes in a row. I don't think we've ever |
| 1:42.8 | talked about this on the Ask a Cycling Coach podcast because the research is really still new. |
... |
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