 You know, as we get older, we might feel like it's more difficult to do the things we used to do easily. But one of my main goals for my patients and all of you is to feel like the youngest version of yourselves. And a big part of that is supporting your muscles. So first of all, let's talk about muscles and muscle mass. One of the important things we're now learning about muscles, besides the fact that we need them to move around, muscles are metabolic organs. They are actually the main customers for the sugars and fats and protein that we eat. And they're ready to work for your energy production system if you use them. Now, what's interesting about muscles is that muscles are actually the main storage system for the sugar that you eat. The sugar you eat is used as a fuel in the form of glucose, but any excess glucose can go into deposits within your muscles called glycogen. So muscles have a large storage depot of glycogen. So that glycogen can be depleted when you exercise. Now, that's actually, believe it or not, a very good thing. So when your muscles are exercising, the first thing they eat is the stored glycogen that is in them. Once they use up that glycogen, then they have to find another alternative energy source and that energy source normally should be free fatty acids and or ketones. Those free fatty acids and ketones are actually one of the keys for long-term health in that during the time mitochondria in muscles making ATP from free fatty acids and particularly ketones uncouples mitochondria and makes them more efficient and makes them more plentiful. Additionally, we now know that muscles make communication systems hormones called myokines. Myokines actually are important for brain health for making neurons and the finding that exercising that people who use their muscles well into late life have better brains has now been discovered that these myokines, these hormones are really part and parcel with keeping a healthy brain. So the more you use your muscles, the more muscle mass you have, the better your brain is from this hormonal signal from muscles. Happy muscles, happy brain. Unhappy muscles, unhappy brain. We're beginning to realize why all of these super old people are actually active exercises. Now the good news is you don't have to become a gym rat late into life to do this. In fact, none of these super healthy super old people are gym rats. They get their exercise from walking, from herding sheep, from gardening, from going up and down hills, from not taking the elevator, from not driving their car one block. They walk, they move. My mother loved housework. She thought scrubbing floors was one of the most fun events of her day. Seriously. And my great-grandmother, who died two weeks shy of 100, lived in a three-story house. And her bedroom was on the third floor. And my sister and I just couldn't fathom why grandma wouldn't move her bedroom down to the first floor as she got older. Little did we realize she was the smart one of the family. And walking those three flights of stairs several times a day was one of the best things she could possibly have done. Now, so exercise is really, really important. And exercising as you get older is really critical. Please, please, please ignore all those commercials that tell you how this particular gadget is going to help you not to bend over to pick something up, is going to help you make it easy to turn on your TV or open a garage door. Don't be dissuaded into moving and keep moving. That's one of the secrets. Now, one of the big worries that you hear mentioned all the time is as we get older, our protein requirements go up that once you hit the age of 65, you dramatically need to increase the amount of protein you eat because studies of humans have shown that protein requirements appear to actually go up once we hit that magical age. But what's really going on here, I think, is deceptive. As most of you who follow me know, our gut surface area where we absorb nutrients is the same surface area as a tennis court. That's that big. But what you did know is through the years, the damage to that surface area from the lectins we eat, from the other disruptors that we eat or use, the damage is cumulative. So that by the time you reach age 65, instead of a surface area of a tennis court, you've got the surface area of a ping pong table to absorb the protein that you eat. Now, how do I know this? Because as a heart surgeon, I would see many people who had low total proteins and low albumins that we would operate on. And that low total protein and low albumin is a sign of risk from heart surgery. And it was typically associated with being old. So you would assume that these people need more protein. But hold on. When I started teaching people how to eat with these low total proteins and low albumins, one of the first things I did was actually lower the amount of protein that they were eating. And lo and behold, despite the lack of protein in their diet, their total protein went up to normal. Their albumin went up to normal. Why? Because I was taking lectin containing foods away from their diet. And I could measure that their gut wall was being repaired. So the advice that we need more protein as we get older is actually the wrong advice. What we need as we get older is to repair the wall of our gut. Remember, you are only as healthy as the wall of your gut is intact. And so getting the wall of your gut intact by removing gut damaging foods and other compounds is the key to having plenty of protein in your body. Not eating more protein is getting the wall of your gut repaired. So you want more muscle, repair the wall of your gut, move, and it will take care of itself. Now what about building muscle with intermittent fasting? Interestingly enough, there is a famous Italian cyclist study that looked at the effect of a standard meal at training table, and for three months, and looking at the effect of eating in different time windows. One group of athletes ate all of their meals within a 12-hour period of time. The other group ate in a 7-hour window of time. And despite having the exact same calories and the exact same training regimen, the athletes who ate in a 7-hour window maintained muscle mass, maintained performance, but lost weight, and lowered their insulin-like growth factor, which is a good sign of improved longevity. So you actually increase protein synthesis by limiting your eating window. Now one of the effects that's important to realize is that normally digestion takes huge amounts of energy, and it burns a lot of protein. So limiting the time of day, the amount of time you spend digestion, is actually one way to save protein. The other thing that's important to realize is that if you need blood flow to build muscle and digestion costs blood flow, 30% of all of our cardiac output after we eat goes down to our intestines. And so if you're trying to build muscle, the most important thing is to exercise on an empty stomach. And then, and only then, add your meal, add your protein, and your muscles will be far more receptive to the availability of amino acids and sugar if you exercise on an empty stomach and then eat. It's one of the easiest things you can do to improve muscle mass during training. Now many of you have probably heard about the idea of training with blood flow restriction. Well, believe it or not, that's the same principle. It's to make your muscles work when they're not getting blood flow, when they're literally starving for food, and then release the blood flow, and that's when they'll gobble up and grow. You can accomplish the exact same thing by exercising on an empty stomach and then eating. Believe me, they'll be starving, they'll be ready to accept what you have to offer, and you'll actually improve delivery of nutrients to muscles and make them grow. It's just one of the easiest tricks you can do. Now, does that mean you got to go to the gym? Does that mean you got to go for a run? No. You can do even little bouts of exercise and it will have the same effect as a long period of exercise. And I've written about this extensively in the energy paradox. You can jog in place for a minute. You can do crunches, you can do planks, you can do squats. I do deep knee bends twice a day while I'm brushing my teeth for two minutes each time. You can do jumping jacks. Put one song on your iTunes and dance around the room for two to three minutes. Just yesterday while we were outside with our dogs, my wife Penny decided to dance to one of the tunes that we were doing while I was watching the dogs. It's easy to do. She looked great doing it. She had a good time doing it. It's fun. Finally, the protein myth. You see all the time why, oh, I was a vegetarian and I had really bad health and I decided to add meat to my diet and this is what happened. Well, quite frankly, you don't need animal protein to get protein for your muscles. Tell that to a gorilla or a horse. They have more muscle than you'll ever have and all they eat is leaves. You don't need animal sources for protein. On the other hand, it is difficult for many vegetarians and vegans to get adequate protein into their diet because they're damaging the wall of their gut with lectin containing foods. You can get two grams of protein from any one ounce serving of vegetables that you can name. Try using low lectin healthy plant protein choices like pressure cook lentils. Several companies make pressure cook lentils and beans. Lentils are mostly protein and they've got 15 grams of gut friendly fiber in every cup. Hemp tofu is available. Hemp protein hearts are easy to obtain. Sprinkle them on your salad. Sprinkle them on your vegetables. Plant proteins in the form of nuts are great. They have anywhere from four to nine grams of protein, including all of the essential amino acids. Baru nuts and sacha inchi seeds have the highest proteins of any nut or seed and they're lectin free. They're now some great spirulina algae flax seed protein and hemp protein powder is available out there. So there's always an easy plant source to get protein into your diet. The other benefit of plant protein in terms of aging is there are certain amino acids in animal proteins that sadly age us faster than plant proteins. And if having a great health span is a good idea, then opt for plant proteins whenever you can. And just one final word of warning as I talk about in the upcoming book, gut check. As you know that I've been warning people about the dangers of a sugar molecule in beef, lamb and pork called new five GC. And the new book will give you a lot more to think about on why it might be a really good idea to avoid new five GC in your diet or to have new five GC containing foods where the new five GC has been eaten by the process of fermentation. And it's exciting part of the new book. Stay tuned. But in general, beef, lamb and pork are not your friends as a source of animal protein. On the other hand, wild fish and pasture raised chicken are better choices, but plant proteins win in most cases. More amazing episodes just like this one. Watch now. If you look at people who use a liter of olive oil per week in their diet and there are multiple long web people that use a liter of olive oil in their diet, they're skinny.