Peter Attia is Wrong About 3 Things
It's strange being the same age as old people, isn't it?
You don't have to be like them. You can be the one people look at and say wow, how do you stay so young? Peter Attia's book Outlive, has been on the New York Times bestseller list for two years now. In that book, he explains that muscle is the best medicine -- the number one thing you can do to increase your healthspan is build muscle and increase your peak lung capacity (known as VO2 max). I'm a big fan of Peter Attia. I subscribe to his newsletter and watch most of his podcasts. But when it comes to three critical things, I think he's wrong. Those are the importance of insulin resistance, the importance of zone-3 and zone-4 exercise, and the special way you need to exercise to stimulate bone growth. Let’s break these down …
Insulin resistance is the elephant in the room
Peter doesn't focus enough on insulin resistance, the silent killer, the one thing most likely to shorten your life by ten years or more. In his amazing book, Why We Get Sick, Dr Ben Bikman lays out the case against insulin resistance in stark terms: it's the basis for most chronic disease. Cancer. Heart disease. Alzheimer's. And much more. It could be that insulin resistance is more of a cause of heart disease and LDL cholesterol is either just a symptom or isn’t even part of the equation. More on that in a coming blog post.
We measure insulin resistance with a simple blood marker called A1c. If your A1c number is 5.7 or greater, you're going in the wrong direction. This is regardless of how fat you may be.
Forget the exotic treatments and drugs. If you're overweight or insulin resistant, you need to adjust your diet. Carbs are no longer your friends. You should only eat carbs (especially sugar, but all cereals, baked goods, pastas, pizza, and potatoes) when your system can tolerate the glucose load they add to your system. That requires careful attention to your A1c number. It may require a DEXA scan to check for visceral fat.
This is a gun pointed to your head. Your doctors aren't going to prevent the problem - they will wait until the gun goes off and then charge you hundreds of thousands of dollars to put you back together.
You need to know your A1c, and you need to plan to reduce it. Change your diet. Lose the fat. Build muscle. Live 10-20 years longer and in better health.
Zone 3 workouts
You also need to exercise harder. Peter Attia is big on weight lifting, which I completely agree with. Then, when it comes to cardio, he praises the virtues of zone-2 exercise, which is what you would do on a one-hour run or a two-hour bike ride. It does help your cardiovascular system, but in my view, zones 3 and 4 are even better.
If you read my previous blog post, you know I’m in favor of hard workouts that last 10-20 minutes, 20-4 minutes, or 10-20 seconds. Whichever you choose, take your favorite activity (swimming, rowing, running, stairs, etc) and declare a course. That’s going to be a distance you can repeat over and over. Then, get your best time on that course. Your job now is to keep pushing your time lower and lower and lower on that same course. Forget about the times of other people. You’re competing against yourself, trying to set a new personal record each time.
You can train for this. You can do intervals and sprints that will help you bring your time down. You can train with a breath trainer, which WILL bring your times down. You can go to bootcamp and learn the best techniques. Whatever you do, if you’re always pushing the limit of what you can do, you are keeping your arteries and heart soft for the future. Do that. Do it at least once a week, preferably twice.
A 10-20-second workout is zone 4: the fastest you can go. This is hugely beneficial no matter what your age. For inspiration, watch this …
Building bone
Peter has a weak spot: osteoporosis. Presumably because he hasn’t had much experience with it. He even said in a recent podcast that estrogen is the hormone that triggers bone growth, and that’s incorrect. That’s why I prefer Doug Lucas when it comes to bone health. Working out to build bone is very different from working out to build muscle. You must stress your spine and hips using weight and impact. To understand the effect of impact, listen to Doug talk about heel drops. I make sure my clients are building bone, not just muscle.
Other than all that, and other than the excessive attention he pays to drugs that will supposedly maybe help us live longer some day, I think Peter is right about exercise, and I’ve learned a lot from him.
I'll give you the benefit of my research with a custom-made plan for free. And, I'll give you a money-back guarantee. What are you waiting for?
Book your free discovery call now.
Talk with me, and let's put you on track for a longer, healthier life.
David Siegel
www.infinitegameoflife.com