Dr. Peter Attia has become a trusted voice within the fitness community, using his understanding of biology and chemistry to enlighten his fanbase. In a recent offering on YouTube, Attia explored the longevity benefits of fasting or caloric restriction. In addition, he examined the utility of blood flow restriction training.
As a longevity medicine expert and physician, Dr. Peter Attia’s knowledge of the body has turned him into a star online. With over 670,000 YouTube subscribers, Attia has dedicated himself to offering consumers easy-to-understand and insightful information, which can be used to enhance all facets of life, especially nutrition and exercise.
Fasting strategies have become increasingly popular with many athletes and celebrities swearing by the process. These practices come in all shapes and sizes. From intermittent fasting, and fruit fasts, to water-only fasts, fitness enthusiasts are constantly discovering new methods to optimize health and longevity, including Dr. Attia.
Dr. Peter Attia Talks Longevity Benefits of Fasting, Discusses the Promise of Blood Flow Restriction Training
Attia credits fasting strategies for helping people live longer and describes it as a ‘geroprotective tool.’
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“For me, fasting has historically been a very important part of my thinking about how to live longer. How to use fasting as a geroprotective tool. Again, I think a little bit of historical context is relevant here. We spoke earlier about rapamycin, which stands alone in the pantheon of molecules. The only molecule, the only molecule that has universally extended life across all model systems of eukaryotes, which span one billion years of evolution.”
He underscored that fasting is a non-drug intervention for improving overall longevity.
“That’s a big deal. We shouldn’t forget that there is one intervention non-drug intervention that has also done that and it did it long before and that was fasting or caloric restriction. So, there’s clearly something magical going on with caloric restriction when it comes to elongating life.”
Fasting protocols can vary greatly, though he believes the duration, extent, and frequency are important factors that make up the process.
“But the question is, can we extend that into humans, and perhaps the more important question is, what would the fasting protocol be? I wrote a piece on this a long time ago that maybe we should link to where I say hey look, the question is how long you should fast, to what extent you should fast, and how frequently you should repeat the fast. Those are basically your three variables.”
Dr. Attia reviewed some of the common approaches to fasting:
“There are obviously so many combinations of those,” adds Attia. “You could do a complete fast, a 50 percent fast, a 75 percent fast, and then just make it somewhat big an arbitrary and you could do it for one day, three days, or five days, and you could do it once a year or once a quarter, or once a month.”
“It quickly becomes impossible to test all of these so instead, what we’re left with is a cult of personalities where people tell you what they do. I’ve been guilty of that although I hope I’ve always been clear in saying I have no clue if this is quote-unquote right,” explains Dr. Attia.
He has found success with water-only fasting on a 7-10-day plan.
“I was doing seven to 10 days of water only fasting, once a quarter, and then three days once a month on the alternative. So, two months at short fast, one month at a long fast, repeat,” says Dr. Attia. “What date could I point to for that protocol? None, absolutely none. I made it up.”
According to Dr. Attia, blood flow restriction training has immense promise for those aiming to level up in the gym.
“I put BFR in the promising category. And again, it depends on how you define the question but is the question does using BFR and higher reps lower load weights produce superior results to the same reps, the same weights, without BFR? It’s promising/proven right? That is clearly the case.”
“This is a topic that became of interest not that long ago, maybe in the last 25 years or so. When it was demonstrated that when you apply a tourniquet around a limb as it was exercising, you would see superior improvements in strength and muscle size relative to an unknown tourniqueted limb. Again, provided they were both doing the same amount of work.”
He specified that blood flow restriction training isn’t comfortable, and explained the science behind the benefits.
“The question is why, perhaps, so why is it that applying a tourniquet, well anybody who has done BFR can tell you it’s not very comfortable. When you impair venous return slightly and that’s really the goal of blood flow restriction, it’s not complete occlusion it’s part occlusion. You are allowing the accumulation of metabolites at a much higher rate.”
Longevity efforts remain atop Peter Attia’s list of priorities. He recently walked fans through his longevity-inspired sleep, supplement, and training routine, detailing the measures he takes daily to ensure he lives a productive and healthy life.
Dr. Attia is committed to offering the public useful insight for living a healthier existence. Although fasting can be challenging, he credits it for its clear longevity benefits.
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