I listened to two great podcasts with two great people in the health and fitness industry: Art De Vany and Dr. Rhonda Patrick. Both were on a Tim Ferriss Show recently and dropped tons of knowledge (Dr. Rhonda was out of control on information. I am into that, but it would be a lot for some people without a background or strong interest in the science). I was thinking of recommending these to my readers in the SITREP but then wondered who would actually listen to the nearly five hours of audio. So I figured I’d save you the time and just list my notes and the major takeaways. Please be aware that each episode’s page on the blog have detailed show notes with timestamps and additional hyperlinks for following-up if you want more info. These are major themes or concepts that one or both of them advocated during their episode. You’re welcome.
The Takeaways
- Fasting is very good for you. Not only does it let you maintain your weight potentially but it has a lot of benefits to letting the body “clean up after itself” when you give it a rest in between meals, which are stressors. De Vany generally eats twice per day (breakfast and dinner) and likes long breaks in between meals to let the body have time to work through systems and processes uninterrupted by food.
- Dr. Rhonda further talked about time-restricted eating in where she takes in all of her food in a 10-hour window. Eat at 8 AM, finish eating at 6 PM. She said some people consider taking in black coffee as the beginning of the window since it can have an effect on blood chemistry technically. I disagree with that personally. I would count first macronutrient (carbs, protein, or fat).
- Lifting weights (heavy things/resistance training) is good for you. Art hit the idea that eccentric reps were very very valuable pretty hard. I had not heard that level of emphasis on eccentrics (negatives) before.
- Dr Rhonda had more good things to say about pure cardio (few times per week for health). De Vany not so much.
- Sauna (high temps) are very good for you. Dr. Rhonda recommended something on the order of 20-30 mins at 160 degrees F a few times per week as a minimum.
- Stress (good stress a.k.a. hormesis) is the key to anti-aging
- Dr. Rhonda’s core supplements included fish oil, vitamin D, and probiotics.
- Artificial sweeteners can damage good gut bacteria. This is something I heard about some years ago and the science is there. I still hold that diet soda is superior to sugar-filled soda. I think the blood glucose/insulin hit is worse than the artificial sweeteners. Water and unsweetened tea and coffee are the right choices though.
Final Points
That is a quick summary of the major points. Almost all of them are things I had heard or were already doing because I tried them and they turned out to be legitimate improvements. There are a lot of other things I have tried that didn’t stay in my lifestyle because the impact was not noticeable or worth the effort. The one I fail to do enough is the sauna. There is one available to me, but not anywhere I normally go and it just is enough of a barrier to prevent me from going. If I had one in my house or at my gym, I’d do it every day.
If this was interesting to you and you want more, listen to Dr. Rhonda’s episode first. I thought it was much more informative. She just read a prepared dialogue or pre-determined questions so she was dead on and moving hard. Art was interviewed, is over 80 years old, and the audio wasn’t good, so it was harder to listen to.
Pretty interesting stuff. I never thought the sauna provided any benefits. Usually, I would just walk right past it. Ima look into and incorporate it in my routine.
For sure worth your time. Sometimes at Shea it isn’t that hot, but it’s better than nothing.