Agreed he is in good shape for his age, he's not just in as good shape as a guy who worked out all his life, at least in terms of physique.
I just find everything so contradictory to itself.
Testosterone and anabolic hormones are important, there is clear evidence for their levels correlate to fat intake. If you go too low fat you get problems there, this has been talked about a lot.
Also, this low-fat thing would not be possible without modern industry, then you can forget about milk, cheese, and meats except wild game, since they all sport high fat. Also I am of Scandinavian heritage, there is not much fruit there and carbs was hard to come by before agriculture. Should this not have affected some biological processes? Does not seem primed for carbs.
When I increased sugar my SHBG went down, this is the only dietary change in 5 years that has increased my Free T. Diabetics have too low SHBG, it's a clinical marker. I lived mostly on low-fat milk (not skim), fruit/juice and meat. I did not consider it a high-fat diet. Everything worked well on this diet except the increase in visceral fat.
I've read all of Broda Barnes books often cited and mention by Ray Peat. He treated hundreds of his overweight patients by doing a higher fat/higher protein diet protocol called a "Reducing Diet" that you would go on as soon as you needed to lose some weight. It's explained in detail in his book on Hypothyroidism.
That's the opposite even though he was a somewhat expert of his time concerning thyroid and metabolism charing the same views as Peat. Peat never mentions this, it annoys me a lot he doesn't address Broda's full research. Clearly, Broda would not prescribe such as thing if it had very harmful implications for his thyroid patients.
Problem is, most people who work out intensely eventually crash and put on crazy amounts of weight. Light exercise is ideal and although I don’t think ray cares much about physique, he has said low stress weight lifting a couple times a week is beneficial for the muscles.
Also, I agree there are a lot of contradictions. For example, I am personally going after low SHBG. SHBG renders T inactive IMO, and i’ve personally found my morning woods to be more frequent with lower SHBG. SHBG also rises in age, which is not a good sign for high SHBG. There’s also another guy on this forum who’s trying to lower his SHBG because of his low libido.
Regarding the high fat diet, I do understand the appeal of ancestral diets, but many of these have been lied about by the Weston a price foundation to sell fish oil. I think overall for weight loss low strss is the best way, and if you find eating fattier cuts of meat with some cheese butter relaxes you, gives you sustained energy, and is helping you lose weight, then by all means do it. Just make sure if you have a craving for orange juice after a workout, listen to that craving.
I agree with your frustration on contradictions overall, but I think it’s shortsighted to blame Ray or Danny Roddy, cause both are simply trying to help, and you may find as your health and stress improves naturally you’ll be eating more fruit/juice with no issues
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