Category Archives: muscle

The current state of affairs in nutri-Twitter

Posted on November 6, 2018 | Leave a comment

Rant.

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1) It’s almost as if you’re either:

a red meat-eating 110% keto-advocate

or

you think red meat and a ketogenic diet is harmful.

 

If you don’t say the diet is magical, the zealots will try to trick you into, or outright accuse you of saying it’s harmful.

Further,

 

2. And the protein/kidney debate re-surfaced again recently. To be clear: no studies have shown direct harmful effects of protein on kidney function. The studies cited by KDOQI are observational and on end-stage renal disease. Not mild kidney disease or slightly impaired renal function. If I had ESRD, I’d rather play it safe and not enroll in one of Jose Antonio’s high protein diet studies (~4.4 g/kg lol).

I’m pro-LC and HP but not anti-LF. Humans have thrived on a wide variety of diets over time regardless of macronutrient composition. Food quality seems more important in this context.

3. If ketones are muscle-sparing, then…

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If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else. 

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, diet, Dietary fat, empty calories, Ketosis, muscle, Protein, strength

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Entrain all of your circadian clocks. Full stop.

Posted on October 17, 2018 | Leave a comment

Skipping breakfast shifts skin circadian clock and enhances UVB-induced skin aging and cancer (Wang et al., 2017)… ok, that’s not the real title of the paper, but it’s what the research showed. And it’s kind of amazing.

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Regarding skin cancer and wrinkles, there are two basic processes to focus on: proliferation and protection.

 

 

These processes don’t really overlap: you want endogenous protective mechanisms during the day, to protect against UV rays, and you don’t want to be proliferating at this time because that would increase the chances of a malignant mutation being passed on.


Conversely, at night when the risk of UV-induced DNA damage is considerably less, it’s a green light for proliferation of skin cells. This is healthy, anti-aging-like turnover of skin cells.

We’ve discussed the importance of co-entrainment of your circadian clocks in the path: sunlight in the morning to start up the central pacemaker, breakfast in the morning to co-entrain many of the peripheral clocks with the master clock, exercise to get the skeletal muscle clock on board… but now we have another reason for breakfast: to co-entrain the circadian rhythms in your skin!

Consequences of skipping breakfast, going to the gym at night, staying up late, and having a big dinner: increased risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, etc., etc…

In this study: skin aging and cancer.

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If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else. 

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Posted in angiotensin, Bromocriptine, Cabergoline, cancer, chronopharmacology, circadian, depression, diabetes, Dopamine, Exercise, melatonin, muscle, Protein, sex, sleep, Sun, testosterone, vasopressin, Vitamin D

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“The Danger of Being an Owl” — sounds scary, right?

Posted on September 16, 2018 | Leave a comment

^^^ from a recent Vox article. It’s brief, and relatively in line with what I’ve slowly come to think is true about chronotypes. That is, they’re a species-level property. For example, there are morning larks and night owls. There aren’t morning owls.

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Virtually every human study on chronotypes is remarkably consistent: humans aren’t a night-species.

Evening chronotype is associated with changes in eating behavior, more sleep apnea, and increased stress hormones in short sleeping obese individuals (Lucassen et al., 2013)

They basically put all of the results in the title lol. People who stayed up late and skipped or delayed breakfast had higher stress hormones, lower HDL, and were of generally poorer health.

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20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE. 

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else. 

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, chronopharmacology, circadian, mortality, muscle

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Anabolic Heterogeneity Following Resistance Training: A Role for Circadian Rhythm?

Posted on July 23, 2018 | Leave a comment

YES!

Resistance exercise stimulates muscle growth, strength, and functionality (Camera, 2018), although the inter-individual variability in response is hyooge. People used to think there were “responders” and “non-responders,” although now we know everyone benefits but there’s a wide spectrum. WHY?

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Exercise timing? There are definitely circadian clock genes and rhythmic expression of many genes involved in muscle growth, strength, and functionality.

Physical inactivity and sedentary behavior in general is bad. Physical activity is good. Load-bearing resistance is exercise is better. Is proper circadian timed exercise even better? Can you get slightly better benefits at the same workload?

WHY is this important?!

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20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE. 

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else. 

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, circadian, Exercise, muscle, strength, Sun

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New study: very low carb diets don’t impair high intensity interval training (Cipryan et al., 2018)

Posted on June 16, 2018 | Leave a comment

Effects of a 4-week very low-carbohydrate diet on high-intensity interval training responses (Cipryan et al., 2018)

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Relevant study design details: 18 young, healthy, moderately-trained males. First, this was a study on exercise performance. Had it been on glucose management in patients with type 2 diabetes or obesity, this is not the population they would have selected. Second, they needed at least a moderately-trained population otherwise both groups would’ve made big n00b gainz which may have out-weighed any differences incurred by ketoadaptation in 4 weeks.

 

 

Third, 4 weeks is a good duration for this kind of study because maximal ketoadaptation occurs in about 3 weeks and doesn’t get stronger thereafter (gains seen beyond 3 weeks are more associated with training effects).

On to the dietary protocols, results, and 2 other relevant new studies… but for that, head on over to Patreon! Five bucks a month gets you full access and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you can cancel if it sucks 🙂

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Still looking for a pair of hot blue blockers? Carbonshade and TrueDark are offering 15% off with the coupon code LAGAKOS and Spectra479 is offering 15% off HERE. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this then this.

20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE. 

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else. 

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, diet, endurance, Energy balance, Ketosis, muscle, Protein, strength

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Watch the Clock, Not the Scale

Posted on June 8, 2018 | 1 comment

I’ve been known to say intermittent fasting is #weaksauce because most of the human studies show little or no effect and people frequently report being hungry (yes, even if LCHF). Human studies, not “n=1’s.”

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Well, now we know why. Time-restricted feeding (TRF) only really works when the feeding window is early (eTRF), as demonstrated by the recent Sutton study which showed, miraculously, great benefits achieved sans weight loss. Calories were strictly controlled in that study to prevent weight loss. AND when the participants were on eTRF, they actually reported less hunger in the evening.

 

 

We know from the studies by Jacobs and Hirsh that under ad lib AND isocaloric conditions, people lose more weight eating all their food for breakfast than those eating all their food for dinner.

 

 

That’s cuz metabolism is gimped at night. Lower metabolic rate and greater propensity to store fat.

Melatonin sensitizes the system, preparing it to optimally partition nutrients in the morning.

For the rest of this awesome article, head over to Patreon! Five bucks a month for full access and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you can cancel if it sucks 🙂

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20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE. 

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else. 

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, angiotensin, Bromocriptine, Cabergoline, chronopharmacology, circadian, Dopamine, Energy balance, Ketosis, melatonin, muscle, sex, sleep, vasopressin

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Dopamine regulates systemic glucose metabolism in humans

Posted on June 1, 2018 | Leave a comment

In Four. EPIC. Experiments (ter Horst et al., 2018)

Tl;dr: sunlight & breakfast in the morning.

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Dopamine receptors are downregulated in obese patients and are restored in long-term weight loss patients after bariatric surgery. It’s better to get your dopamine hit via sunlight than sugar duh.

This is some amazing science.

 

 

Experiment 1. 50-year old dude with severe OCD gets diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and is only able to get his glucose under control with metformin and 226 IU insulin. At 53, his OCD is treated with deep brain stimulation (DBS). His insulin requirements declined to 180 IU. He didn’t lose weight but went off quetiapine, so maybe coincidence because: 1. quetiapine is diabetogenic; and 2. DBS induces dopamine release.

Two-step hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp when DBS is turned off and turned on. BOOM! When it’s on, lower fasting insulin, and better insulin-induced suppression of liver glucose output, free fatty acids, & muscle glucose disposal! DBS improved insulin sensitivity in liver, adipose, and skeletal muscle.

For the rest of the discussion on these super-interesting experiments, head over to Patreon! Five bucks a month for full access and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you can cancel if it sucks 🙂

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20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE. 

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else. 

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Cycloset (bromocriptine)

 

 

Go for a walk.

And #eTRF.

 

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, angiotensin, Bromocriptine, Cabergoline, chronopharmacology, circadian, clamp, depression, diabetes, Dopamine, melatonin, muscle, nicotine, sex, sleep, Sun, testosterone, vasopressin

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Intermittent fasting is homeopathy-level #nothingsauce

Posted on May 24, 2018 | Leave a comment

From all of the published human studies and “n=1’s” I’ve seen on online forums, intermittent fasting is #nothingsauce. Don’t @ me.

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When people lose weight via IF, it’s because of caloric restriction. There’s no metabolic advantage, and if anything, maybe the opposite. Restricting your feeding window to a very short period = metabolic mayhem.

2000 kcals in one sitting?

*smh*

 

 

I believe “early Time-Restricted Feeding” #eTRF showed promise in that recent study because of the “early” part; no so much on the “TRF” part. I believe this, in part, because the large majority of our population suffers from some degree of circadian arrhythmia. Social jet lag, too much artificial light at night, skipping breakfast, etc., etc. An EARLIER feeding window is one way to re-align circadian rhythms.

 

 

It STARTS with Sleep. Wanna improve body comp and make mindlessly better food choices? Fix your circadian rhythms.

Now onto the one of the weirdest, but potentially most revealing human studies on time-restricted feeding…

For the rest of this article and more, head over to Patreon! Five bucks a month for full access and there are many other options.

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20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE. 

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else. 

Start your OWN Patreon campaign!

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, chronopharmacology, circadian, Dopamine, melatonin, muscle, Protein, strength

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Obligatory glycolytic cells

Posted on March 28, 2018 | Leave a comment

Some cells lack mitochondria; they need glucose. And they don’t stop working during starvation because #gluconeogenesis.

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Red blood cells, renal medullar cells, and certain cells in the retina. Now do you see why it would be a problem if they stopped working during starvation? Hint: You’d die rather quickly.

Recommended textbook: Stipanuk or Gropper.

 

 

Those cells are unable to use conventional oxidative metabolism like the TCA cycle, ß oxidation of fatty acids, oxidation of ketone bodies and most amino acids, and the electron transport chain are all mitochondrial pathways absent from those cells.

To get the rest of this article (it doesn’t suck, I promise) or if you just like what I do and want to support it, head over to Patreon! Five bucks a month and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you can cancel any time.

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20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE.

If you want the benefits of  ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else.

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, Energy balance, insulin, Ketosis, muscle, Protein

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Glucose dynamics during prolonged fasts

Posted on March 22, 2018 | Leave a comment

This is a somewhat complicated level of metabolism. Which tissues are producing what & how much, what are they burning & how much, etc., etc…

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After a few weeks, things begin to level out — we’ll pick it up there. Much of this is from a class I TA’d for in grad school, this book, and all the Cahill studies.

 

 

“The rate of glucose use at this time is around 90-100 g per day [remember, this is starvation, so all of that glucose comes from gluconeogenesis]. Of that, about 40 g is recycled via the Cori and glucose-alanine cycles and the remainder is ‘new’ glucose, ~18 g from glycerol and ~45 g from amino acids.”

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Posted in Advanced nutrition, diet, Energy balance, insulin, Ketosis, muscle, Protein

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