The Importance of Building Muscle to Overall Health and Wellbeing

#1

I wanted to share a super-interesting book I came across recently, about the importance of building muscle to anti-aging and overall systemic health:

The part that was new to me is that she discusses recent research showing that skeletal muscle is an important endocrine organ in its own right - that it has major effects on our entire body.

This book has really inspired me to focus more on building muscle, along with eating ZC. Her main recommendations are to eat a lot of protein and to do resistance training. While she doesn’t recommend a keto or ZC diet specifically, her overall approach is very compatible with ZC.

Sharing in case any of you find this as inspiring as I did!

P.s. I didn’t find the specific exercise recs in this book to be very helpful - there are better books for learning how to do resistance training. It was the overall science around the role of muscle in the body that I found intriguing.

(Robin) #2

Thanks for sharing!

#3

Dr. Lyon has an interesting podcast. Well, I find it interesting. I just listened to the episode about protein restriction as a potential medical tool for treating some patients. It was about the limiting of the sulphur containing amino acids, methionine and cysteine. That limiting these two amino acids can have some benefits in terms of protein recycling and body repair (aka as part of cancer treatment).

But the way to do that in real life (not just in a mouse life) is to follow a strict vegan diet or implementing fasting, or mixing both. The sulphur amino acids are hard to avoid. Then the discussion moves on to the possible benefits of cyclical fasting, or strict vegan eating (not eating vegans - they would probably be nutrient deficient - but eating like a strict vegan (ELAV)).

Please do not cast me out. :wastebasket: I know the alarms are going off in the control room. :rotating_light:

https://www.youtube.com/@DrGabrielleLyon

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #4

Sean O’Mara recommends sprints as a means of using up visceral fat and restoring insulin-sensitivity. He says other forms of exercise won’t do that.

But we do know that exercise in general helps heal mitochondria and promotes the growth of new ones.

(Bob M) #5

Sprints are supposedly really good. And you don’t have to spend a long time doing them. Hard to find a place to do them though. You don’t want to sprint on anything less than perfect ground. Preferably a track.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #6

Well, that lets out my back yard, lol! :rofl::rofl::rofl:

(Bob M) #7

Mine too, because I was doing sprints for a while back there, and then realized it wasn’t a wise idea.

Edit: So, last year, I decided I wanted to take the new puppy jogging. She was about 9-10 months, and is small, and the vet said I could start. I went out in the dark myself to see if I could jog just on our road, covered with leaves. I hit something, twisted my left ankle, and fell on my right knee. Had to stop exercising for about 2 weeks.

And that was an asphalt road.

(Robin) #8

Well, it won’t be me casting you out, @FrankoBear.
There are 2 sides to every coin. But when it comes to diet and health, it’s more like the six sides of dice.

I have a group of life-long vegetarian friends in their 60s and 70s who are rail thin, all muscle, full of energy and zest for life. They’re avid bicyclists. Who am I to challenge them or their diet?

Keto works for me and I believe it saved my life. But that doesn’t mean I can’t still learn something from them.

#9

Sean O’Mara is an interesting low carb leader teacher. Ted Naiman is an exercise as an essential health element practitioner as well. I’m more into physical activity than exercise. Mixing them together with Dr. Lyon et al gets a broad path on which to alight.

But there is something to say for the low carb doctors that come from a similar experience as the person trying to get healthier. Some of these doctors and experts have never been obese, for example. So their life experience is not as relatable. For some, it seems too easy to do a chin up.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #10

Chin ups! I could do at most three or four, ever. Even in the prime of life. And I believe I made it to seven pushups, once. Now, lower body strength, that’s where I’ve always shone. . . .

#11

Gabbie Lyon is awesome. She’s also starting a training/certification for other doc’s who want to practice her Muscle Centric Medicine approach.

(KM) #12

Honestly when I was watching this I was thinking about yes, my yard full of mole holes, and then what the neighbors would think of me dashing down the street and back at a heart ripping pace for 30 seconds. A track - of course! :rofl:

(Geoffrey) #13

Would that I could but I haven’t run since 12/30/1980.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #14

If you follow some advice, namely ‘eat the animals that process plants well’, I can see nothing wrong with eating Vegans lol :man_shrugging:

#15

The road here is fine for running - at the parts where the cracks couldn’t hide a small kid, at least, I don’t like running down on very uneven terrain (as we have a slope, I live on a hilltop. but it’s fine around the top, I actually use it for running)… I don’t even have neighbours! The whole “street” has a population of 2 in winter (my SO and I). Not like I care what they would think… Running is good. I just prefer walking, strongly :frowning: But I still want to learn to run as a land animal should…

I can’t not notice how my body loves when I exercise :slight_smile: And running is different from lifting, I am sure I need both.

@Pjam, it was about all the not very smart vegans who don’t eat well enough. Whenever it’s about eating humans (not vegans, just in general), I don’t like the idea, well without extra conditions, I am choosy. People eat so unwell and it surely shows in their flesh too. Still better than their food (and I only would eat humans when there is no other option just starvation or killing myself) but still…

(Oh yes, the good old cannibalism topic on this forum, I started to miss it…)

#16

Sarcopenia is muscle atrophy as we age. Muscles become more important as we age. A 75-year-old who slips and falls and goes to the hospital has a 35% chance of being dead in 12 months. A slip and fall is the leading cause of accidental death over the age of 65. This is one of the main reasons why those over 50 should be careful with extended-day fasting. Dr. Peter Attia, age 50, stopped his extended day of fasting for this sole reason. He found that he had lost 10 pounds of muscle over 3 years (DEXA confirmed) and that the risk to his overall health was not worth the benefit of extended-day fasting. As we age, the demand for protein increases as we are not as efficient at harvesting the protein. We need protein for muscle.

(Chuck) #17

This looks to be an interesting read, and hopefully what I need to take as evidence to my doctor and nurse practitioner to back up what I have been saying about how I am improving while going completely against their advice.

I am finding this book pretty much following what my body tells me to eat. I would guess that my overall protein to carb intake is very close to equal but more than likely a little protein heavier. Now I do fast for 19 hours each day and only eat 2 meals and protein, nuts and fruit snacks when I snack.
I am never really hungry but I sense my body’s needs for nutrition. I do walk and resistance band exercises. I need to do more resistance exercises which is something I find boring.

I do not weigh my food or count calories anymore.

#18

Paul - I was thinking about your bacon reference this week… I didn’t buy groceries for two weeks because I was home sick, and toward the end of the two weeks I had little left but bacon (because I had a ton in the freezer). So I’ve been eating a pound a day for the last several days. It is so good!

#19

Ya… but judging by the way they look, probably too gamey!

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #20

Sounds like heaven to me!

BTW, I have a list I rotate through. This is one of my favourites.

#BACONISBETTER