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

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.

Journal Articles

• The underappreciated role of muscle in health and disease (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
• Protein Consumption and the Elderly: What Is the Optimal Level of Intake? (MDPI)
• A high-protein breakfast prevents body fat gain, through reductions in daily intake and hunger, in “Breakfast skipping” adolescents (Obesity)
• Impacts of protein quantity and distribution on body composition (Frontiers in Nutrition)
• A Moderate-Protein Diet Produces Sustained Weight Loss and Long-Term Changes in Body Composition and Blood Lipids in Obese Adults (The Journal of Nutrition)
• Dietary Protein and Exercise Have Additive Effects on Body Composition during Weight Loss in Adult Women (The Journal of Nutrition)
• Protein appetite as an integrator in the obesity system: the protein leverage hypothesis (Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B)
• Evidence-Based Recommendations for Optimal Dietary Protein Intake in Older People: A Position Paper From the PROT-AGE Study Group (The Journal of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine)
• Metabolic Evaluation of the Dietary Guidelines’ Ounce Equivalents of Protein Food Sources in Young Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial (The Journal of Nutrition)
• Higher Muscle Protein Synthesis Rates Following Ingestion of an Omnivorous Meal Compared with an Isocaloric and Isonitrogenous Vegan Meal in Healthy, Older Adults (The Journal of Nutrition)
• Inflammatory pathway communication with skeletal muscle—Does aging play a role? A topical review of the current evidence (Physiological Reports)
• Protecting muscle mass and function in older adults during bed rest (Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care)
• From the discovery of myokines to exercise as medicine (Danish Medical Journal)
• Resistance training prescription for muscle strength and hypertrophy in healthy adults: a systematic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis (British Journal of Sports Medicine)
• D₃-Creatine dilution and the importance of accuracy in the assessment of skeletal muscle mass (Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle)
• Dysbiosis of the gut microbiome impairs mouse skeletal muscle adaptation to exercise (The Journal of Physiology)

Other Resources

• Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body
• Strong Coffee

Huberman Lab Episodes Mentioned

• Dr. Layne Norton: The Science of Eating for Health, Fat Loss & Lean Muscle
• Dr. Diego Bohórquez: The Science of Your Gut Sense & the Gut-Brain Axis
• Dr. Chris Palmer: Diet & Nutrition for Mental Health
• Dr. Casey Means: Transform Your Health by Improving Metabolism, Hormone & Blood Sugar Regulation

People Mentioned

• Robert Wolfe: professor of geriatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
• Donald Layman: professor emeritus in nutrition, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Zhigang He: professor of neurology, Harvard Medical School
• Peter Attia: physician, founder of Early Medical and host of The Drive podcast
• Gerald Shulman: professor of cellular and molecular physiology, Yale School of Medicine
• Pat Davidson: exercise physiology, strength and conditioning coach
• Victoria Felkar: researcher on women’s health
• John Ratey: professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
• Martin Gibala: professor of kinesiology, McMaster University
• Ben Newman: performance coach