@SilentWatcher For me, longevity is a side effect of a good life program plus infrequent rapamycin to get an unnatural, temporary turn up of autophagy and turn down of mTOR. Still, I think of the process more broadly than just mTOR vs AMPK. I try to be a well rounded athlete. I try to keep my body composition near optimal to leave room for bad luck. I eat a healthy omnivorous diet with a few indulgences and a few fasts. I eat protein in support of my muscle building. I limit my added fats and sugars (and untimely protein) in support of my body comp efforts. I am working hard on my circadian rhythm and my sympathetic / parasympathetic balance. I try not to let myself fall into the trap of thinking supplements are critical (think icing vs cake).
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Creatine adds to ATP storage and D-Ribose makes it easier to create more ATP.
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Vinegar is acetic acid. In water it dissolves into a single positively charged cation of hydrogen and negatively charged anion of acetate. For its effects in the body you need to consider separately the effects of the proton H+ and the anion. The higher the concentration of protons in water the more acidic the water is. Personally i tend to want to minimise acid intake. Hence i would minimise drinking acid even a weak one such as acetic acid. I do like using a bit of vinegar, however.
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Balsamic vinegar and olive oil with good bread is one of the great pleasures in life. I miss it.
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Olive oil is supposed to be healthy. I have a small amount of balsamic with my salad most days.
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I also add a smidge onto my dinner (started after AGEs podcast). But in the good old days I’d eat a loaf of bread with a lot of olive oil and balsamic. That was when I’d go out for a ride and burn 5000-8000 kcals.
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RPS
#49
感谢@SilentWatcher and @约瑟夫_拉维尔 for prompting me to change my exercise regime from alternating daily between weights and zone2 aerobic so now I do 3 days of heavy weights followed by 2 days of zone 2 and then 2 days of rest.
Rapa is taken at the end of day5 for weeks 1 & 2. On week 3 Rapa is taken on days 5, 6 & 7 as a CR mimetic and complete washout with no Rapa on week 4 when I really push the heavy weights. (Have been experimenting with this Rapa regime for a couple of months with no ill effects).
High protein on days 1-4 and low protein on 5-7.
Taurine on days 4 - 7. (Not sure where to do the NAC and glycine - maybe only rest days in week 4?).
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Good question. Glycine regulates protein turnover by activating mTORC1 - so I have allocated its use on weightlifting days AND rest days after weightlifting, because:
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glycine acts as a natural sleep aid in the evening, counteracting increased cortisol after weightlifting
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glycine counteracts the excess of methyl groups caused by creatine supplementation on those days.
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we are using activated mTOR on that day, in order to push collagen synthesis and support our skin.
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if high protein intake on these days comes with increased methionine intake - glycine help to counteract methionine toxicity.
With that, glycine impact is leveraged properly only on “MTOR”-days! → combination is a key.
NAC is an open topic for me. Considering that it is a strong antioxidant (as already mentioned by @murraci) - I am avoiding it on weightlifting days to prevent interfering with the body’s natural response to exercise. I am adding NAC to glycine on the rest days after weightlifting (MTOR days) and have a feeling, that it accelerates restoration on that days… But glad to see any alternative opinion.
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I am curious, if you have an opinion about Taurine and its use?
I like taurine because taurine stimulates AMP-activated protein kinase and at the same time taurine supplementation inhibits 5’AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). So it is difficult for me to decide on the timing of taurine supplementation 
Could it be that the main effect of taurine is to promote the expression of SIRT1 (+increase the NAD+/NADH ratio)? SIRT1 plays an important role by activating AMPK and their interaction is not well studied yet. This pathway is very complementary to the finding that taurine supplementation improves endurance capacity by delaying the decline in blood glucose concentration towards exhaustion through increased lipolysis in adipose tissue and fatty acid oxidation in skeletal muscle during endurance exercise. (This would make taurine a perfect candidate for pre-training support for cardio! @约瑟夫_拉维尔 , have you seen this study?)
Having said that, I tend to place taurine around cardio and “AMPK” days, but not sure here. I added it to my stack a few months ago based on the promising studies mentioned by @DeStrider, and have not yet accumulated detailed n=1 results.
@Curious, may I also ask for your opinion on this?
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@SilentWatcher No I hadn’t seen it. Thanks for posting it. With a brief review I couldn’t tell enough about what was happening to make sense of it. The paper speaks about glucose being the primary fuel for exercise, but that’s only true at high intensities or in unfit people. And the idea that taurine helps with endurance by burning more protein doesn’t sound good to me. I can bring a Clif bar along for my long ride (and keep my protein depots). To be honest, I haven’t been able to make much sense of taurine. I’ve dabbled in it but never felt anything. It’s not currently in my stack.
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Here’s a paper arguing for HIIT as a senolytic…
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When I did self-experimentation on my performance with taurine a few years ago, I evaluated taurine’s effect when running, at maximal speed at distances from 400 m to distances above 10 k.
I took different doses (between 3 – 5 gr) of Taurine before going to bed (in fasted state). When running the morning after, I observed increased performance on all distances, and I observed a dose dependent effect, but the effect of increased dosing was not pronounced. (I also observed that Taurine improved my sleep)
After I supplemented with 3-5 gr Taurine before bed, my heart rate decreased when I did slow Zon 2 running the next morning. With Taurine, my heart rate, when doing Zon2 was around 3-4 % lower than without Taurine.
I find this interesting since Taurine is expressed particularly in the excitable tissues such as the heart, retina, brain and muscles. And Taurine is prescribed for congestive heart failure in Japan. The effect I experienced might have to do with a slight improvement in heart function. (or improved sleep).
When taurine is supplemented, the plasma taurine content usually reaches its peak within 1 h to 2.5 h of taurine intake. Plasma taurine content subsequently decreases to baseline level 6.5 h after taurine intake.
Since plasma taurine content subsequently decreases to baseline level 6.5 h after taurine intake, one explanation of my increased performance is that taurine might have been absorbed and retained in excitable tissues in the body (like in the heart and other muscles). This could explain the increased capacity for maximal performance when plasma levels are back to the normal levels.
I also observed improved cardiovascular performance when I took a much smaller amount (0,5 – 1,5 gr) of Taurine 45 minutes to 2 hours before running at maximal speed. One can speculate that this is an indication that Taurine has one effect on human performance when loading cells (heart and other muscles) with Taurine and another immediate effect that is mediated by acutely increased levels of Taurine in plasma.
But nowadays, when I take 10 gr of Taurine daily, I only experience slightly increased exercise performance when I take a smaller amount a short time before running. (Not when I take megadoses.)
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Does it seem to have any effect on VO2max, or have you not measured that in this scenario?
No, I did not measure VO2 max.
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Hi @Curious, thank you for your detailed answer!! I will try Taurine before exercise and measure its impact on heart rate and VO2 max (as approximated by gadgets).
On one hand, its usage as a pre-training supplement might be reasonable because it can increase lipid metabolism. However, a concern is, as mentioned by @约瑟夫_拉维尔, that its effect on exercise might be due to intensified gluconeogenesis (breakdown of muscles → not good):
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“However, a concern is, as mentioned by @约瑟夫_拉维尔, that its effect on exercise might be due to intensified gluconeogenesis (breakdown of muscles → not good):”
this might explain why I don’t have improved maximal performance when running after taken large dose of taurine (10 gr).
Taurine supplementation has an impact on several systems in the body. So it is hard to figure out which system(s) give me the benefits I perceive. So I try to make decisions based on performance and wellbeing, as they are easy to track and important in daily life.
When it comes to lifespan and health span, those (performance and wellbeing) have to give way to science. With a primary focus on health span and lifespan, I now take a large dose of Taurine even if that amount of T might impede my peak performance. But I am pleased with the fact that a large dose of Taurine taken in the morning in a fasted state brings me wellbeing as well as (hopefully) long-term health benefits.
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Sergi
#60
That detail is interesting. I remember Dr. Brad Stanfield speculating that longevity in mice might be related to weight loss. If this is due to intense gluconeogenesis and loss of muscle mass, supplementation would be less attractive.
However, in my opinion it would still be a good supplement for its other positive effects on cardiovascular function.
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Thank you for this point - I have just digested it now :)!
I am currently analyzing the best possible exercise mode for activating AMPK, and it seems that with depleted glycogen, it works in the best way. At the same time, I have a fear of gluconeogenesis/muscle breakdown when running in a fasted state. What is your experience / opinion on that?
