Dr Rangan Chatterjee

#1 Reason You’re Still Storing Fat & Exhausted (No Matter How Healthy You Eat) | Alan Couzens

This episode is brought to you by: AG1: Get a FREE AG1 Green Steel Tumbler, 5 Travel Packs and Welcome Kit worth £80. Sign up for a subscription here: https://bit.ly/43FwxQl Peloton: Let yourself ride, lift, stretch, move and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Bike+ at https://onepeloton.co.uk When it comes to improving our health and fitness, most of us have absorbed the same message: work harder, push more, sweat more – basically, that no pain means no gain. But what if that story is not only wrong, what if it is actually holding you back? This week, I sit down with elite endurance coach Alan Couzens to completely reframe how we think about movement, fitness, and fat loss. Alan is both an exercise physiologist and a performance coach. He has spent the past three decades working with a wide range of endurance athletes at all ends of the performance spectrum, from ‘off the couch’ fitness athletes to the very best athletes in all of endurance sport. He shares his incredible wisdom & insights on X and his Substack, ‘The Science of Maximal Athletic Development’ which I would highly recommend if you want to go deeper into the topics we discuss in this week’s episode. Over the past few years, Alan has helped me to understand the critical importance of low intensity movement for health, performance and longevity, and in our conversation, we discuss: • Why the ability to burn fat at low intensities is one of the most important markers of true metabolic health • Why so many people feel they need to eat every two to three hours • How very easy movement can transform your health, your energy, your mood, and even your performance, often more than the hard workouts you think you “should” be doing • The need to balance out the stresses of modern life with activities like walking and yoga • The importance of building a big aerobic “engine” • How best to think about intensity, strength training, VO₂ max, and muscle mass • Why it is never too late to start increasing how much you move and experiencing the incredible benefits Alan is someone who I have a huge amount of respect for. Not only is he extremely knowledgeable and up to date with the latest science, he is also someone who has a huge amount of real-world experience helping people to improve their athletic performance and their health. My hope is that this episode serves as a powerful reminder that the human body simply does not work as well as it could, without adequate amounts of movement and that it inspires you to bring more easy movement into your life, in a way that supports your health for many decades to come. #feelbetterlivemore Connect with Alan: Website https://www.alancouzens.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/alan_couzens/ Twitter https://twitter.com/Alan_Couzens Alan’s Substack: The Science of Maximal Athletic Development https://alancouzens.substack.com/ #feelbetterlivemore #feelbetterlivemorepodcast ------- Order MAKE CHANGE THAT LASTS. US & Canada version https://amzn.to/3RyO3SL, UK version https://amzn.to/3Kt5rUK ----- Follow Dr Chatterjee at: Website: https://drchatterjee.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drchatterjee Twitter: https://twitter.com/drchatterjeeuk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drchatterjee/ Newsletter: https://drchatterjee.com/subscription DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website.

RCDr. Rangan ChatterjeehostACAlan Couzensguest

Jan 28, 2026·1h 52m·Watch on YouTube ↗

📖 CHAPTERS

1. 1

   Why modern life breaks metabolism: movement stabilizes blood sugar and reduces metabolic stress

   Alan argues many modern health issues are fundamentally metabolic, driven by low daily movement and constant glucose fluctuations. Simple movement (like a walk after eating) helps stabilize blood sugar in a way sitting does not, lowering overall metabolic stress.

2. 2

   Carb-burning at rest: why cravings and “lack of willpower” are often metabolic dysfunction

   Many people—especially those deconditioned—default to burning carbohydrates even at rest and low effort. That pattern drives cravings, energy swings, and frequent snacking, which can look like weak discipline but is often a fuel-availability problem.

3. 3

   Reframing training zones as ‘movement zones’: Zone 0 and Zone 1 as the foundation

   Alan redefines zones so that low-intensity daily movement counts. Zone 0 is simply being off the couch and moving (metabolic benefits); Zone 1 adds major cardiovascular adaptations and is where he wants most training volume for many athletes.

4. 4

   Debunking ‘no pain, no gain’: why more easy movement can improve performance (even 5K speed)

   Rangan highlights two myths: workouts must hurt to matter, and you must train at race intensity to improve at race intensity. Alan explains that increasing low-intensity volume (walking included) can reliably boost performance, even for serious athletes.

5. 5

   The physiology: low intensity grows the ‘engine’ (stroke volume and heart size)

   Alan explains that a key difference between elite and untrained people is cardiac capacity—how much oxygen can be delivered per beat. Low intensities often reach near-maximal heart filling, creating repeated stretch stimuli that remodel and enlarge the heart over time.

6. 6

   The hidden risk of living in Zone 3/4: high-rev training and a ‘small engine, high RPM’ heart

   Training too much at moderately hard intensities can widen the gap between muscle capability and cardiac capacity. Alan warns prolonged high heart rates can reduce coronary perfusion time and create an oxygen-starved heart environment, with potential long-term health implications.

7. 7

   Intensity vs longevity: nervous system ‘binary’ response and why stress load matters

   Alan cites Stephen Seiler’s work: low-intensity sessions can be parasympathetic-supporting, while higher intensities are strongly sympathetic (‘fight-or-flight’). The real question becomes how much total fight-or-flight load you’re stacking from life stress plus training stress.

8. 8

   Using HRV (and similar signals) to decide when to push vs back off

   They discuss heart rate variability as a practical marker of stress and readiness. When HRV is low (high stress/poor recovery), hard training yields worse adaptation—so shifting toward easy movement is smarter and more productive.

9. 9

   Metabolic health defined: stable energy and fat-fueled daily living

   Alan defines metabolic health largely as the ability to fuel low-intensity life with fat, keeping blood sugar stable and avoiding constant cravings. He connects stress physiology to glucose release, arguing modern chronic stress keeps people in sugar-burning mode.

10. 10

    Fat loss reframed: ‘not mental weakness—muscle weakness’ + the 3-part fix

    Alan argues losing body fat requires first teaching muscles to burn fat; otherwise the body keeps demanding glucose. His approach prioritizes (1) stress downshifting, (2) easy movement, then (3) nutrition adjustments that become easier once cravings fade.

11. 11

    CGMs and lactate as ‘state’ tools: how stress and intensity shut off fat burning

    Rangan and Alan describe CGMs as revealing how stress, sleep, and exercise type affect glucose. Alan explains lactate as a byproduct of glycolysis; elevated lactate can reflect intensity or stress, and high glucose/lactate states suppress fat oxidation.

12. 12

    How easy is ‘easy’? the mental barrier, lactate testing, and rebuilding capacity

    For metabolically unhealthy beginners, the limiting factor is often going slow enough. Alan uses lactate testing to show that what feels like ‘easy’ can physiologically resemble a world-class athlete’s hard session—so beginners must truly downshift intensity to make metabolic progress.

13. 13

    Minimum-effective daily plan (1 hour/day): walking in nature + yoga, then add strength

    If someone can only commit an hour a day, Alan prioritizes stress-balancing movement—nature walking and yoga. With additional time, he adds simple, whole-body strength circuits focused on maintaining (not maximizing) muscle mass for aging resilience.

14. 14

    Aerobic muscle vs ‘big’ muscle: VO₂ max, fiber types, and smart strength periodization

    Alan cautions that hypertrophy-biased training can increase fast-twitch, glycolytic muscle at the expense of aerobic capacity. He prefers strength programming that preserves fast-twitch recruitment while prioritizing aerobic-friendly muscle and keeping VO₂ max trending up, not down.

15. 15

    Aging, VO₂ max decline, and the ‘long game’: more movement as you get older + consistency mindset

    They discuss how performance and VO₂ max tend to drop more sharply around the 50s, even in trained athletes, implying older adults may need more total movement to maintain capacity. Alan emphasizes sustainable consistency over heroic bursts—avoiding injury, reading the body, and pacing training across decades.