Link: Peter Attia, The Drive #85 – Iñigo San Millán, Ph.D.: Mitochondria, exercise, and metabolic health
“What I have been seeing for 25 years, working with elite athletes, is that [zone 2] is the exercise intensity where I see the biggest improvement in fat burning and the biggest improvement in lactic clearance capacity. Therefore, that means that the mitochondria is where you see the biggest improvement.” —Iñigo San Millán, Ph.D.
Peter Attia paraphrasing, 'People who believe exercise doesn't work for weight loss are not getting the right combination of intensity, frequency, and duration.'
Iñigo talks about retiring from cycling and putting on 85 pounds. Something that I, and some of my old rowing pals, experienced. He considered a restrictive diet, but being from the Basque region, he decided he valued his chocolate and pasta too much.
The lever that he did pull was the exercise lever -- starting at 45 minutes of zone 2 training 3-4 times a week he saw a 30 pound weight loss. (lactate zone 2, not heart rate zone 2 -- I'd argue that we are talking about something in the 70-80% max heart rate range, but that's a question for Attia's AMA). He also mentioned that he focused a bit on just "eating less" although I'm not sure what that means, or if it confounds this line of reasoning.
I highly recommend this podcast, although at points it got a little to nerdy even for me.
