The Riddle of “How Much?”

How Much Movement & Nutrition I Need to Maintain Health, Energy, and Mobility?

Whenever I talk with someone about what I practice for my health and longevity, the question “how much?” always comes up:

·      How much exercise to do and what kinds of exercise?

·      How much food to eat and what kinds of food?

·      How much protein, carbohydrate, fat?

·      How much sleep?

They are partly asking out of interest, but mostly asking to see how much they need to be doing.

I don’t have hard answers to any of these questions. I don’t think anyone does! I know what seems to be working for me, and I am constantly adjusting my health practices depending on how I feel, medical readings and tests, any symptoms I may experience, and new information I come across. Like life, it is not an exact science with firm answers. It is a shifting and constant work in progress, guided by how I feel as well as an informed sense of not giving in to the temptation to “kick back and take it easy.”

Measuring and counting, while useful, have their limits. Determining “how much” is part science, part soul, part art. And it requires time, lots and lots of time. I don’t want to discourage you, but be forewarned, staying strong and mobile into your 70s and later requires a lot more time and effort than most people expect to be doing at this age. (The doing, however, brings big rewards, which can be very satisfying.)

So, the rhythm of how much is very personal. What is enough for one person may be too little or too much for another. Developing an internal gyroscope, which is guided by not losing capacity or energy as you get older, is an intrinsic part of the process.

In addition to how you feel, some metrics can help you see if what you are doing is working. For instance, in moving or training you need to be doing enough to provoke a recovery, or hormetic, reaction. This is where the healing, becoming stronger, and getting more flexible happens. Without it you aren’t getting the benefits that movement can bring from a health standpoint. It’s probably a good thing to mix up the levels of recovery, from a demanding High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)workout, for example, to a gentler Zone 2 workout, which mimics the way we recovered naturally in prehistoric times when our bodies were being formed by evolution. Check out my articles on HIIT and Zone 2 workouts, and you’ll see that you can do this by moving at different heart rate levels and for longer periods of time.

Health is its own reward. The magic is in the movement or the eating or the feeling you get being healthy, not only the modern measurements of health. Many people don’t know the absolute joy of health when it intersects with what matters to you, the life you want to be living in your later life. It’s hard to convey in words. Yet I have find a profound connection with this state of mind in my own practice.

The Main Physical Elements of My Health Practice

I will write another post about medical numbers like blood tests and readings from various physical, lab, and imaging exams, as well as an additional article on some simple movements you should be able to do at home to know if your strength, balance, and endurance are adequate. These metrics are important guides for me, as are the daily readings I take of Heart Rate Variability (HRV). But the biggest “how much” numbers I use on an everyday basis involve the amount and proportion of various types of activity I incorporate into my routine along with my target numbers to support my nutritional needs. Here are a few of my “how much” numbers.

How Much Movement?

      Daily—I start with a morning routine of moving for 15 to 20 minutes (detailed article coming soon.) Plus, I work in as much day-to-day movement as possible, mostly walking, whether that is walking my dog Lola, shopping, going to the gym, or generally getting around. In warmer weather, I supplement this with biking, sailing, paddleboarding, gardening, and host of other outdoor activities.

      Aerobics (walking, biking, rowing)—Every week, I ensure I get 2 days of 40 to 60 minutes of Zone 2 aerobic activity, plus another 2 days of 90 minutes of Zone 2, plus 1 day of a HIIT workout. That’s 5 days a week of focused, purposeful aerobic activity.

      Strength—Whether in the gym or at home, I do full-body movements using bodyweight or kettlebells 2 to 4 times a week, plus I use gym equipment dynamically with full-body movement and torque.

      Yoga—A firm believer in the benefits, I do yoga almost every day either in the gym or at home, sometimes participating in an online class. As I’ve written about before, yoga is a transformative practice that affects strength, flexibility, balance, endurance, energy, and inner spiritual and physical well-being.

Sleep—I get roughly a total of 8 hours of sleep every night, many times in 2 chunks, with some time in the middle of the night for meditation and/or breathing exercises. I go to bed early, 8 or 9 ish, and get up early, 5 or 6 ish.

How Much Food?

·      Fasting—Many people assume that fasting is something you do once or twice a year. I actually fast for a minimum of 12 hours every day to enable food to fully digest and for my immune system to have enough time to do its daily maintenance and detox work. This fasting schedule is surprisingly easy to maintain. You simply don’t eat or drink anything (other than water) between 6:00 in the evening and 6:00 in the morning.

·      Meals—I only eat 1 regular meal a day, plus 2 bigger snacks and regular small snacks. I’ve gotten used to the feeling of being slightly hungry and comfortably empty. It is a welcome change from a lifetime of having to feel full or stuffed from food.

·      Proportions—This varies day to day. Almost all my carbs are from vegetables and salads, plus a lot of healthy fats like olive oil, avocado, seeds, and nuts. The one component I am very aware of is protein. When you exercise as much as I do you are constantly restoring or building muscle and other tissue. This means you need upwards of 1-1.5 grams of protein a day per kilogram of bodyweight (or more according to people like Peter Attia). In my case that means 75 to 110 grams of protein. That’s a lot, which I get from one big portion per day of fish, eggs, chicken, or occasional red meat, plus protein powder in smoothies, nuts and seeds for snacks, and some legumes in salads. I also take essential amino acid supplements in case I am not getting enough.

·      What I don’t eat—What I don’t eat matters as much as what I do eat! Clogging up my body with processed foods or non-nutritious filler (often loaded with fat, sugar, and salt) and giving my immune system more to do than it already does was a lesson I learned in my first detox. Sugar and anything sweet is a no-go zone. As is anything packaged and most flour-based products (yes, pasta and bread are out). Caffeine and alcohol are both only occasionally in my diet.

Those are my big numbers for physical movement and nutrition. It has taken me a long time to adjust and come up with “how much” based on how I live and what feels right for me. Living this way has become second nature and comfortable, albeit non-negotiable except for occasional social lapses. It is the lifestyle I have been guided towards to support my original and ongoing mission: staying healthy, fully functional, and living long, for my daughters as well as for myself.