Why You Need FAR Less Carbs Than You Think (Especially During Exercise) & Ketones As An "Alternate Fuel", With Dr. Andrew Koutnik - Part 2
Boundless Life
Ben Greenfield
4.6 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2026
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Full Show Notes: bengreenfieldlife.com/drandrew2
In this episode, Dr. Andrew Koutnik returns for part 2 of our deep dive into metabolism and nutrition. We explore why you need far fewer carbohydrates than you think—both during daily life and intense exercise—and how sustained blood glucose levels for brain energy metabolism matter more than muscle glycogen stores. Andrew breaks down the different types of exogenous ketones, debunks liver toxicity concerns, and shares groundbreaking research on ketones for sleep quality and sleep apnea treatment from his NASA astronaut studies.
Dr. Andrew Koutnik is a research scientist whose career bridges cutting-edge science, elite performance, and personal experience living with type 1 diabetes for over 17 years. His work focuses on how nutrition, metabolism, and lifestyle can be leveraged to maximize human health, performance, and resilience across diverse conditions—from chronic disease to extreme environments.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | My name is Ben Greenfield, and on this episode of the Boundless Life podcast, when the body consumes |
| 0:06.4 | carbohydrates, Ben, and you actually release insulin in response to the elevation in blood glucose, |
| 0:14.0 | the first place that insulin goes, Ben, is not to the muscle. |
| 0:19.9 | Welcome to the Boundless Life, with me, your host, Ben Greenfield. |
| 0:24.4 | I'm a personal trainer, exercise physiologist, and nutritionist, and I'm passionate about |
| 0:29.0 | helping you discover unparalleled levels of health, fitness, longevity, and beyond. |
| 0:39.8 | Here is a simple trick for enjoying a drink or two or possibly three. |
| 0:46.6 | It's called Zbiotics pre-alcohol. |
| 0:49.4 | It'll reclaim your mornings. |
| 0:51.2 | A night of a little bit of fun, not over the top debauchery, but a little bit of fun. |
| 0:55.1 | It shouldn't cost you an entire day of productivity. |
| 0:57.6 | So you can use the Zbiotics pre-alcohol to support your goal of feeling great, even if you have had drinks the night before. |
| 1:05.4 | You bounce back faster. |
| 1:06.9 | Here's what it does. |
| 1:08.4 | This is z-biotics pre-alcohol. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. |
| 1:15.5 | And it's a buildup of that byproduct, not dehydration. That's to blame for rough days after drinking. |
| 1:21.1 | So these PhD scientists decided to tackle rough mornings after drinking by producing this pre-alcohol, which makes an enzyme that breaks |
| 1:28.1 | the byproduct of drinking down. So you make that your first drink of the night, you drink |
| 1:32.1 | responsibly, and you feel your best tomorrow. I just got back from Mexico. I threw back a few margaritas, |
| 1:37.4 | a little bit of biodynamic wine, had a good time, but also this pre-alcohol allows me to |
| 1:43.2 | have a drink, drink responsibly and feel my best tomorrow. Preferably make it your first drink of the night before you drink anything else. It'll be good to go. If you forget, you don't get after. You'll still get some effects. Go to zbiotics.com slash ben 15 now. You get 15% off your first order. Plus it's backed by 100% money back guarantee. |
| 2:02.2 | So there's no risks. |
... |
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