How to Exercise & Eat for Optimal Health & Longevity | Dr. Gabrielle Lyon



See Andrew Huberman live in New York, Los Angeles & San Francisco:

In this episode, my guest is Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, D.O., a board-certified physician who did her clinical and research training at Washington University in geriatrics and nutrition. She is also an expert in how diet and exercise impact muscle and whole-body health and longevity. Dr. Lyon is a bestselling author and public educator. We discuss how healthy skeletal muscle promotes longevity, brain health, disease prevention, ideal body composition, and the health of other organs and bodily systems.

She makes specific nutritional recommendations for optimal health: what to eat, how much to eat, the timing of meals, the essential need for adequate quality protein (including animal and plant-based options), supplementation, and how our dietary requirements change with age. She explains why specific types of resistance training are essential to build and maintain muscle and overall metabolic health. She also describes how to include resistance training as part of your exercise regimen — regardless of age or sex.

She also provides specific mindset tools to encourage sustained adherence to healthy eating and exercise practices. Women and men of all ages will benefit from Dr. Lyon’s practical, evidence-based protocols to improve muscle and whole-body appearance, function, and health.

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*Timestamps*
00:00:00 Protocols Book; Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
00:03:23 Sponsors: Maui Nui, Levels & Helix Sleep
00:07:40 Skeletal Muscle & Longevity
00:11:25 “Under-muscled”, Leucine & Muscle Health
00:15:55 Muscle Health
00:19:45 Tool: Carbohydrate Consumption & Activity, Glycogen
00:25:14 Tools: Nutrition for Healthy Skeletal Muscle, First Meal
00:31:57 Sponsor: AG1
00:33:46 Quality Protein, Animal & Plant-Based Proteins
00:37:36 Dietary Protein Recommendations, Meal Threshold
00:41:19 Muscle Health & Aging
00:46:02 Supplements & Creatine; Dietary Protein
00:50:07 Tool: Dietary Protein Recommendation; Gout & Cancer Risk
00:52:43 Effects of Dietary Protein & Exercise on Body Composition
01:03:06 Thermic Effects, Protein
01:05:02 Sponsor: InsideTracker
01:06:14 Protein & Satiety, Insulin & Glucose
01:12:04 Tool: Older Adults, Resistance Training & Dietary Protein
01:17:48 Dietary Protein, mTOR & Cancer Risk
01:21:36 Muscle Span & Aging, Sedentary Behaviors
01:24:00 Mixed Meals, Protein Quality, Fiber
01:29:21 Inactivity & Insulin Resistance, Inflammation
01:38:43 Exercise & Myokines, Brain Health & BDNF
01:44:11 Tool: Resistance Training Protocols, Hypertrophy, “High Ground”
01:52:51 High Ground Exercises; Tendon Strength; Training Duration, Blue Zones
01:58:19 Movement, Exercise & Older Adults
02:04:25 Tool: Protein Timing & Resistance Training; VO2 Max, Aging, Blood Work
02:11:13 Supplements: Creatine, Urolithin A, Whey Protein, Fish Oil, Collagen
02:20:18 Fasting, Older Adults; Tool: Meal Timing
02:25:18 Animal Proteins & Dairy; Organ Meats, Vegan; Magnesium, Zinc
02:30:59 Medications & Muscle Health
02:32:49 Obesity & GLP-1 Analogs, Ozempic, Mounjaro, Skeletal Muscle
02:40:48 Benefits of Skeletal Muscle & Aging
02:42:16 Tools: Nutrition & Resistance Training for Muscle Health
02:45:44 Mindset Tools: Standards vs. Goals; Vulnerability Points
02:52:00 Mindset Tools: Neutrality; Health & Worth
03:01:14 Zero-Cost Support, Spotify & Apple Follow & Reviews, YouTube Feedback, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter, Protocols Book

#HubermanLab #Exercise #Science

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41 Comments

  1. Thank you for watching. If you enjoyed this topic and episode, please click the "like" button and subscribe to our channel here on YouTube. Thank you for your interest in science!

  2. 💥I understand the need for increasing our intake of good quality high leucine protein as we age to hold on to our muscle and help improve metabolic health, but what I find troubling is that hardly anyone discusses the risks of increased chronic daily protein intake which stimulates mTOR (anabolism) for too long.
    It is not good for longevity to be in an anabolic state for most of the day, every day because this can lead to cells turning cancerous because our body is not reaching autophagy in a catabolic state to perform cellular cleanup if we keep feeding it.
    Up to 80% of human cancers feature an overactive mTOR system, often caused by genetic mutations or faulty upstream signals like insulin resistance. When stuck in an on state, mTOR allows damaged or cancerous cells to bypass normal checkpoints, multiply rapidly, and resist cell death. So although normal dietary triggers (like eating protein) cause healthy, temporary spikes in mTOR – problems arise from constant, long-term overstimulation linked to metabolic dysfunction, chronic high insulin, or genetic loss-of-function
    The amino acid leucine in protein aggressively activates mTOR (shuts off autophagy). Free-form amino acids—particularly leucine, lysine, and arginine—are insulinogenic which stimulate an insulin response similar to the way carbs do and turn off autophagy as well.
    The two primary opposing cellular switches that control autophagy are AMPK and mTOR.
    AMPK is turned ON when cellular energy is depleted from fasting and mTOR is turned OFF.
    mTOR is turned ON when you consume protein or carbs which stimulate an insulin response an AMPK and therefore autophagy are turned OFF.
    At a 12 to 16 hour fast, your body is transitioning from burning digested food to utilizing stored energy. While cellular cleanup begins to ramp up, significant, systemic autophagy across major organs, muscle tissue, and the brain typically requires 24 to 48 hours of continuous fasting.
    However a good trade off I think is to finish your last big meal 5-6hrs before bed or your fast digesting protein meal 3.5 to 4 hours before bed to help ensures that by the time you enter deep sleep, your body has completed active nutrient absorption, mTOR has shut off, and AMPK and cellular cleanup undisturbed for the remaining 4 to 5 hours of sleep.
    💥You can also take berberine with that final meal to help dispose of glycogen stores, keeps insulin baseline-low, and stimulate systemic autophagy by triggering AMPK, but it may not be a good idea to take it on workout days or at least not around your workouts and post protein meals as it will blunt the mTOR response which is needed for protein synthesis and muscle building.

  3. Best statement ever: "carbohydrates outside of normal 130g/day would need to be earned through exercise" 🙂 When i was young we never sat about in house, we were always out doing something physical, maybe not classical "exercises", but skateboarding, BMX, climbing, walking miles to each other's homes etc etc. Not sitting around. Today lifestyles are so different. I started walking to work, which is only 2.5 miles each way in the last 4 months, and most people think that's strange because i have a nice car….. OK it rains now and then, but so what?

  4. What is quality protein??? Plant an animal proteins have all the necessary amino acids. One can argue that one is better than another using digestibility or pre biotic arguments. Please define what you and others are talking about. From a biochemical / metabolic perspective I am not buying quality arguments!!!

  5. How are you defining quality protein? As the programs continue there is a comment that when people hear vegan they become offended sensing that vegans are condescending, for example with regards to animal rights. Did it occur to you that “protein quality” is condescending and perhaps inaccurate. Plants have all the amino acids that meat does, they don’t require antibiotics, they can be grown with less resources and, even grass fed beef, is problematic. Lets face it cows, many people’s quality protein choice, are fed soy beans! Of course, they have a different gut system but come on! Lets talk about EAA – gut microbes make EAA and the leucine thing…. we hear it over and over again but plants have plenty of leucine. A main emphasis of my research is diet and nutrition – 3 decades worth. Let start DEFINING terms and making sure we are comparing apples to apples – its not LEU or no LEU!

  6. When I try to limit carbs to 25g, I’ve found you can really only have things like zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, and other greens or maybe a small amount of raspberries. It’s easy to go overboard on carbs, and you have to be intentional about getting enough protein.

  7. Funny how every health podcast reminds me that my happiest years were spent in my grandma’s tiny village in Eastern Europe. I was unknowingly following today’s “optimal health” routine: sunrise, fasting, cold plunges, daily movement, strength training from chopping wood, home-cooked meals, time in nature, and hours of playing soccer with friends until sunset. Sometimes the healthiest lifestyle isn’t something you build—it’s something many people once simply lived.

  8. 1:28:49 From Luke Van Loon, the guy who did the study: 'If people consume ample protein from either a vegan or omnivorous diet, "we don't see differences" in muscle mass or function.'

    Straight from the horse's mouth. You'll also get better heart health and lower colorectal cancer risk eating plants for protein.

  9. It’s not that increasing protein intake causes cancer. It’s that you’re telling people that things like red meat are “high quality proteins” and they should eat more high quality protein. Yes protein from animals has more bioavailability so if you were able to isolate the protein from the source it is more “high quality”, but you’re also consuming with it something that is a carcinogen (in the case of red meat), is high in saturated fat, and high in cholesterol which increases risk for cardiovascular disease. Please be cautious of the advice you give and don’t only highlight the benefits of meat

  10. Great conversation, just one thing, I think it's very difficult to consume let's say 180g of dietary protein per day, not sure what one has to eat to meet that goal

  11. Hello! I love your podcast. I would like to here you talking about functionality, about moving free weights. In nature, you carry things ( you said you don't like box jumps, but what if you suppose to jump over same think when you are walking on the street?) etc.

    Olimpic sports, like weightlifting, gymnastic, running, etc, we do them all in crossfit. What do you think about this kind of sport?

  12. My husband’s uncle lived to be 100 because as a farmer in those days he naturally lived a healthy active life. His son, also a farmer working the same land, died of cancer at 65.

  13. I consume a lot of YouTube info in the health sphere – this is without question one of the very best interviews I’ve heard. So granular, in-depth and thoroughly useful. So pleased Dr Huberman and peers don’t shy away from sharing scientific information on this level – it is game-changing 🙏🏻💪

  14. I don't know how you can talk about health and nutritional topics and then push that bullshit AG1.
    It really is a counterintuitive sponsor.
    It diminishes the credibility of your podcast

  15. Great! Found an book, just came out 2025, on reversing chronic disease fully based on solid research – On amazon: Reverse Chronic Disease, Back to No Limits by Hilda Folkerts Very impactful and effective – Very science based! Just want to share this here.

  16. I’d love to hear if there is an “acceptable” amount of alcohol that is plugged in or calculated with these diets. I know it’s best to not have ANY but curious if there is limit noted in the scientific community to be healthy + loss fat + build muscle

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