Keto-Adapted, Carb-Smart: What Actually Helps on Race Day – with Dr Matthew Carpenter & Prof Paul Laursen

Keto-Adapted, Carb-Smart: What Actually Helps on Race Day - with Dr Matthew Carpenter & Prof Paul Laursen

August 15, 2025

Listen to the episode now or find us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Show Notes

  1. Adaptation basics: Insulin falls quickly when carbs drop; fat oxidation ramps; training quality often dips in week 1, then rebounds as the system resets.
  2. Race-day fueling for keto-adapted athletes: Keep your usual LCHF diet right to race day; the gain came from a single pre-start carb bolus (~60 g)—not from a 2-day “carb-load.” 
  3. Mechanism lens: Performance lift aligns with stabilising the small glucose pool (liver/blood), not “packing” the large pool (muscle glycogen). 
  4. Intensity myth check: With proper adaptation, short high-intensity work can hold steady; the body leans on fat further up the intensity range than old models suggested. 
  5. Ketone supplements: As a pre-exercise boost, results are mixed to null; the next real use-case is likely recovery/brain—watch that space.

You May Also Like…

Level-Up

Featured Courses

Monitoring Load and Response in Elite Football

Monitoring Load and Response in Elite Football!

Stop drowning in data. Start making better decisions.
Learn the updated monitoring framework used to connect load, response, and player readiness.
➡️ GET IT HERE! ⬅️

& sign up below for the HIIT Science Newsletter!

Please check your email inbox and confirm your participation.