If you don't know about Metformin, maybe you need to?
Metformin is a diabetes medicine, which has been found to have anti cancer, anti-aging, and anti-inflammatory properties.
Some are using it off label to extend their lives, even though they have none of the diseases it is indicated for.
It's dirt cheap. Fairly safe. Defends against diabetes, and reduces fat gain.
www.cnbc.com
It's getting to be as trendy as avocado toast, with gurus like Dr Peter Attia using it himself.
Starting metformin on oneself is a popular topic in the lounge these days, especially amongst the endocrinologists. I have considered it.
I'm not taking it. Never have. But maybe I might later on.
The biochemistry of it does not suggest that it's going to be something I want. It acts as a weak poison, and slows down your mitochondria from making energy, and that makes them burn more fat and sugar for the same output. This is like putting water in your carburettor to spend more at the pump. It's helpful if maybe you have "too much gasoline" - eg, like obesity/diabetes.
There is considerable ignorance of basic science even among some of the Ph.D guys doing the research.
Metformin is a catabolic substance, which sort of mimics fasting or low calorie eating.
It defies logic that it could, somehow, build more muscle. Muscle building is energy intensive, and why would you want that to be inefficient if that's the goal?
The MASTERS study was started in 2017 to see if older people could gain more muscle by doing training and taking Metformin.
( In my view, none of the people who came up with that idea understand what they are doing in the slightest. I will not repost their reasoning here, it is complicated, but more obviously, wrong.)
Metformin-> poisoned mitochondria ->Less ATP = more AMPK = less mTORc1 = less protein synthesis = less muscle growth. duh.
So the results came out this year!
And what did we learn?
It failed of course.
If you train and take the drug, you grow less muscle. (Shocker for the blokes doing the study, somehow.) - Less than the control group who got placebos.
Peter Attia wrote about this in his blog. https://peterattiamd.com/191013/ which is detailed and somewhat confused, (but worth a look if you want to live longer.)
So he's personally off the Metformin himself now. ( Attia was one of the guys working with Taubes when the experiment to prove Taubes' keto hypothesis crashed and burned, so he's 2 for 2 now.)
However, there's a way to leverage what it does to generate more muscle gain if used differently.
It's something I've done on myself this year, and posted about here. This stuff is of considerable interest to me academically- but it's not for everybody.
You need:
Metformin is a diabetes medicine, which has been found to have anti cancer, anti-aging, and anti-inflammatory properties.
Some are using it off label to extend their lives, even though they have none of the diseases it is indicated for.
It's dirt cheap. Fairly safe. Defends against diabetes, and reduces fat gain.
Silicon Valley techies are turning to a cheap diabetes drug to help them live longer
Doctors feel that taking metformin is mostly safe, but cautioned about the lack of clinical studies.
It's getting to be as trendy as avocado toast, with gurus like Dr Peter Attia using it himself.
Starting metformin on oneself is a popular topic in the lounge these days, especially amongst the endocrinologists. I have considered it.
I'm not taking it. Never have. But maybe I might later on.
The biochemistry of it does not suggest that it's going to be something I want. It acts as a weak poison, and slows down your mitochondria from making energy, and that makes them burn more fat and sugar for the same output. This is like putting water in your carburettor to spend more at the pump. It's helpful if maybe you have "too much gasoline" - eg, like obesity/diabetes.
There is considerable ignorance of basic science even among some of the Ph.D guys doing the research.
Metformin is a catabolic substance, which sort of mimics fasting or low calorie eating.
It defies logic that it could, somehow, build more muscle. Muscle building is energy intensive, and why would you want that to be inefficient if that's the goal?
The MASTERS study was started in 2017 to see if older people could gain more muscle by doing training and taking Metformin.
( In my view, none of the people who came up with that idea understand what they are doing in the slightest. I will not repost their reasoning here, it is complicated, but more obviously, wrong.)
Metformin-> poisoned mitochondria ->Less ATP = more AMPK = less mTORc1 = less protein synthesis = less muscle growth. duh.
So the results came out this year!
And what did we learn?
It failed of course.
If you train and take the drug, you grow less muscle. (Shocker for the blokes doing the study, somehow.) - Less than the control group who got placebos.
Peter Attia wrote about this in his blog. https://peterattiamd.com/191013/ which is detailed and somewhat confused, (but worth a look if you want to live longer.)
So he's personally off the Metformin himself now. ( Attia was one of the guys working with Taubes when the experiment to prove Taubes' keto hypothesis crashed and burned, so he's 2 for 2 now.)
However, there's a way to leverage what it does to generate more muscle gain if used differently.
It's something I've done on myself this year, and posted about here. This stuff is of considerable interest to me academically- but it's not for everybody.
You need:
- working kidneys
- about 10 days time
- gym access
Short version:
Fast for 2-3 days and take metformin at low doses. Create a 300% daily calorie deficit in total.
Hydrate well.
Do a fasted full body resistance workout, 24 hours after coming off the Metformin.
Break the fast with a post workout high carb/protein feed.
Alternate refeeding/resting and doing full body training for the next 5-7 days. Shoot for say 3 workouts.
Progress each load daily, eat a 10% calorie surplus over maintenance, with 1g protein/lb bodyweight/day.
This skyrockets the chemistry to make muscle protein, after dropping a couple pounds bodyfat (accelerated by metformin).
The rebound effect causes a fever as the metabolism revs past redline. There is profoundly fast growth, with visible gains in a week.
This is not named officially, but I like Shinkansen Protocol ( Fast-Train) It's theoretically possible to do cycles back to back to accelerate a composition change over time, but I have no research on the sustainability of it, and suspect that it's just too intense to do. If I get the chance to try 2 cycles, I'll post about that.
long version: too much Physiology for regular people. It's only interesting to me.
Fast for 2-3 days and take metformin at low doses. Create a 300% daily calorie deficit in total.
Hydrate well.
Do a fasted full body resistance workout, 24 hours after coming off the Metformin.
Break the fast with a post workout high carb/protein feed.
Alternate refeeding/resting and doing full body training for the next 5-7 days. Shoot for say 3 workouts.
Progress each load daily, eat a 10% calorie surplus over maintenance, with 1g protein/lb bodyweight/day.
This skyrockets the chemistry to make muscle protein, after dropping a couple pounds bodyfat (accelerated by metformin).
The rebound effect causes a fever as the metabolism revs past redline. There is profoundly fast growth, with visible gains in a week.
This is not named officially, but I like Shinkansen Protocol ( Fast-Train) It's theoretically possible to do cycles back to back to accelerate a composition change over time, but I have no research on the sustainability of it, and suspect that it's just too intense to do. If I get the chance to try 2 cycles, I'll post about that.
long version: too much Physiology for regular people. It's only interesting to me.
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