Fabulous! For those who missed it, this is Peter Attia’s second appearance on RR. I haven’t listened to the new one yet, but the first appearance was really excellent:
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I am always perplexed how these figures that promote longevity and healthy living look so bad for their age.
Peter Attia is 50, presumably 49 on that picture above… he doesn’t look nor healthy nor good for that age.
You can never know what a person’s genetics are or what exposures they had before they adopted a longevity lifestyle. And a person can be an expert on a subject and give great insights even if they aren’t doing anything about it themselves (Attia is not in the latter category — I just mean in general).
He had a recent AMA where he discussed this. First, he unwittingly lost a lot of lean mass over the last ten years through excessive TRE and extended fasts, plus a shoulder surgery last year that limited his resistance training. And then he went through a period of intense stress last year with his book and other matters: “The irony of writing this book on longevity is killing my longevity”
At this time, Peter made a conscious decision:
His sleep is going to stay good
He was not going to sacrifice exercise
He’s not going to sacrifice time with family
He’s not going to drink more
But the one thing he consciously relaxed on was eating — “I’m going to make zero restrictions on what I eat, like zip and zero. If it’s in front of me and I want to eat it, I’m eating it. There’s no consideration. That was it."
#242 - AMA #44: Peter’s historical changes in body composition with his evolving dietary, fasting, and training protocols - Peter Attia
He’s now successfully regaining muscle through focused training and losing weight by practicing very conventional energy restriction (which is the one “dietary lever” he’s never really personally pulled). Most recent photos look better than he has in years.
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blsm
#10
I think Peter looks great for 49 personally.
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AnUser
#11
I thought he was in his early 40’s, not 50. Rich roll looks older to me.
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And keep in mind, according to a recent podcast Attia hasn’t been doing anything anti-aging when it comes to cosmetic procedures. I think he admitted recently he hasn’t even been all that careful with sunscreen or sun protection. He looks fine to me for 49/50, but his organ systems underneath his skin according to blood work, coronary calcium and VO2 max, etc are in tip-top shape.
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Yes - so much of the apparent age of a person seems to be to be a simple reflection of their sunscreen use (or not), and not at all a good measure of how truly physically healthy they are.
And now there are so many dermatological treatments that make people look younger but have no effect at all on their true health, makes me think that the visual appearance of age has even less to do with actual health.
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you know I am going to be 49 soon so it is a personal matter! 
I hope I will look younger!
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I think Tom Brady has mastered age slowing better than anyone. But, unfortunately, not many of us would be able to duplicate his eating regimen let alone his exercise regimen.
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scta123
#16
but that contradicts the reasoning that skin is the biggest organ and healthy skin IMHO means also younger looking skin, thicker, elastic, no or little discoloration… I am not talking about wrinkle free skin or botox and fillers…
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scta123
#17
Exercising doesn’t automatically translate to longevity or health. I think many athletes don’t live longer. Tom Brady does look good for 45, I must admit that.
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No matter how healthy you are on the inside, if you don’t protect against chronic sun damage, you’ll look older than you would otherwise. It’s not a reliable indicator of overall health.
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I believe that Rich Roll is a recovering alcohol which probably explains some of it. That kind of damage catches up with you eventually. He was also a long distance runner and there probably isn’t a perfect way to mitigate all that sun exposure.
Again, skin is an organ too, yearly almost 60-70k people die of ultra violet radiation exposure and there are around 1.5 million new cancer cases per year and somehow this is not important if you are healthy on the inside?
I must say that some must be genetic and when I am critical about how people look at their age I forget that all my grandparents lived well in their 90ies, nobody really died of “old age” but they all died of random accidental deaths and I am forgetting my grandma started getting gray hair in her late 80ies, that my grandfather was using his bicycle every day until 89… even both my parents look at least 20 years younger than people their age and that consequently I am blessed with the same gene pool and look younger. But it is true that looking younger has a lot to do in my opinion with gait and posture and people forget about that. Some have genetically good gait and posture, but you can do so much about it exercising that takes an “untraditional” approach. Most popular exercising routines, strength training with weights, running, cycling etc. do nothing or even worsen the gait and posture and “ages” people.
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Davin8r
#21
Lol nowhere did I say skin isn’t important for health. I diagnose and treat skin cancers day in and day out. I’m making the point that there can be a disconnect between it and overall health – for instance, outdoor athletes who also eat healthily but haven’t been great about sunscreen over the years. Many of them end up with numerous basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas along with lots of actinic (sun/UV) damage but will still outlive the vast majority of their peers. Peter Attia is an outdoor athlete (and still looks good for 49 IMO).
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Is it me or is PA looking a bit chubs?
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