#324 ‒ Metabolism, energy balance, and aging: How diet, calorie restriction, and macronutrients influence longevity and metabolic health | Eric Ravussin, Ph.D.

The Peter Attia Drive

Peter Attia, MD

Health & Fitness, Medicine, Fitness

4.7 • 7.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2024

⏱️ 129 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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Eric Ravussin is a world-renowned expert on obesity, metabolism, and aging whose pioneering research has shaped much of what we understand today about energy balance and caloric restriction. In this episode, Eric shares insights from his cutting-edge work on energy expenditure—a critical factor in understanding how our bodies regulate weight and appetite. He discusses methods for measuring energy output, energy balance, food intake, and appetite regulation, and explores key studies on macronutrient manipulation. Eric then delves into the CALERIE study on caloric restriction, highlighting insights related to biomarkers of both primary and secondary aging. The conversation also covers the potential of GLP-1 agonists to replicate these effects and looks ahead to how AI and technology could transform metabolic research in the coming years.

We discuss:

Eric’s background and current work metabolism and measuring energy expenditure [3:00];
The science behind metabolic chambers for measuring energy expenditure, and the complexities of indirect and direct calorimetry [8:00];
The body's regulatory systems for maintaining energy balance and the primary influence of energy intake on body weight [18:30];
The epidemic of obesity and a discussion of resting metabolic rate [24:45];
The impact of exercise, appetite, gut hormones, and eating patterns on weight regulation [28:45];
Experiments looking at how macronutrient composition affects energy expenditure [38:45];
The challenges of studying diet in real-life settings, the potential of personalized nutrition, and how public health policy could play a role in guiding nutritional habits [51:00];
The importance of protein in the diet, the limitations of dietary data collection, and how AI could potentially transform nutrition science [1:08:15];
How Eric’s interest in caloric restriction (CR) began with Biosphere 2, metabolic efficiency's role in aging, and goals of the CALERIE study [1:15:15];
The CALERIE study: exploring the real-world impact of caloric restriction [1:28:00];
Notable findings from the CALERIE study after two years: sustained weight loss, participant retention, and more [1:40:00];
The effect of caloric restriction on the hallmarks of aging [1:47:00];
The challenge of applying CR to the general population, the potential of drugs and exercise to mimic the effects of CR [1:55:45];
Upcoming study comparing caloric restriction to time-restricting eating, and Peter’s takeaways from the discussion [2:02:45]; and
More.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone. Welcome to the Drive podcast. I'm your host, Peter Attia. This podcast, my website, and my weekly newsletter all focus on the goal of translating the science of longevity
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1:04.2	My guest this week is Eric Ravison.
1:07.2	Eric is the director of the nutrition obesity researchesity Research Center at Louisiana State University's
1:12.5	Pennington Biomedical Research Center, where he also serves as the Douglas L. Gordon Chair in Diabetes
1:18.7	and Metabolism. Having published over 600 peer-reviewed manuscripts, Eric is regarded as a world
1:24.8	expert in obesity metabolism and aging, and has received numerous
1:28.5	awards for his contributions to these fields.
1:30.9	As discussed at the beginning of this podcast, Eric and I worked together for about four years,
1:35.0	roughly 15 years ago, and during that period of time, I just came to have such an admiration
1:40.5	for Eric, his curiosity, and his intellect when it comes to this field. We talk about
1:46.1	Eric's background and his extensive experience in metabolic research, in particular when it
1:50.8	comes to measuring energy expenditure, which turns out to be a very technically demanding
1:55.4	problem. We go through the various methods that this is done, including what is today regarded
2:00.2	as the gold standard. This, of course, is necessary because if you want to understand energy balance,
	...

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