Sign up to receive Peter's email newsletter: https://bit.ly/4c602k2 Phil Maffetone is an author, health practitioner, and coach with decades of experience helping everyone from amateurs to world-class athletes optimize their health and performance. In this episode, Phil explains the importance of developing the aerobic system, defines maximum aerobic function (MAF), and explains how to determine your MAF heart rate. He then demonstrates how to integrate that into a training protocol which is designed to help people move faster at a sub maximum heart rate and increase fat utilization as the primary source of fuel—emphasizing the importance of nutrition on one's capacity to oxidize fat. Phil also extracts training insights from the amazing feats of world-class marathoners, explores the impact of a low-carb diet on one’s capacity for high intensity exercise and anaerobic performance, and explains the downstream effects of being “overfat.”. We discuss: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:30 - Phil’s background in running, and training insights from a six-day race 00:11:00 - The difference between being “fit” and being “healthy” 00:18:15 - Defining the aerobic and anaerobic systems, and why VO2 max doesn’t predict performance 00:24:00 - Defining maximum aerobic function (MAF), determining your MAF heart rate with Phil’s 180 Formula, and why a strong aerobic system is crucial to health and performance 00:37:30 - Using the MAF test to track and improve your aerobic fitness 00:40:00 - How increasing your sub-max pace at a given heart rate can increase your maximum pace 00:43:00 - The impact of nutrition on one’s ability to use fat as fuel while exercising 00:51:45 - Phil’s nutritional approach with patients, the concept of “carbohydrate intolerance” 00:58:00 - Assessing the impact of a low-carb diet on high intensity exercise and anaerobic performance 01:04:45 - Extracting insights from world-class marathoners 01:13:30 - How being “overfat” affects health and performance, and ways to decrease excess body fat Show notes page: https://peterattiamd.com/philmaffetone/ About: The Peter Attia Drive is a weekly, ultra-deep-dive podcast focusing on maximizing health, longevity, critical thinking…and a few other things. With over 30 million episodes downloaded, it features topics including fasting, ketosis, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, mental health, and much more. Peter is a physician focusing on the applied science of longevity. His practice deals extensively with nutritional interventions, exercise physiology, sleep physiology, emotional and mental health, and pharmacology to increase lifespan (delay the onset of chronic disease), while simultaneously improving healthspan (quality of life). Learn more: https://peterattiamd.com/ Subscribe to receive exclusive subscriber-only content: https://peterattiamd.com/subscribe/ Sign up to receive Peter's email newsletter: https://peterattiamd.com/newsletter/ Connect with Peter on: Facebook: http://bit.ly/PeterAttiaMDFB Twitter: http://bit.ly/PeterAttiaMDTW Instagram: http://bit.ly/PeterAttiaMDIG Subscribe to The Drive: Apple Podcast: http://bit.ly/TheDriveApplePodcasts Overcast: http://bit.ly/TheDriveOvercast Spotify: http://bit.ly/TheDriveSpotify Google Play: http://bit.ly/TheDriveGooglePlay