50 Minutes of Uncomfortable Truths About Health No One Tells You

Yes, doing zero high-intensity exercise is bad, but if you do too much, then uh it might be more harmful in the long term. There are actually randomized control trials where people who drink diet soda lose more weight than people who drink water. You shouldn't let your longevity routines be a bigger stressor than whatever you're trying to avoid. Hello and welcome everyone to this special episode of the Ship with CJ podcast. I'm here in the studio after a very long time and for a good reason because today I have a very very very special guest. My guest on the show today has done multiple things. I mean I have been following him since 2016. He's wrote over nine books. He's best-selling author. This guy is terrific on stage, terrific offstage and he's been called the prodigy of biohacking. Everyone please welcome Seamlan. Seim, welcome to the show. Yes, I'm happy to be here. Oh, I'm so happy to I'm so happy that you are here with us. You have written a new book which is called the longevity leap. Now you've written nine books. When you were growing up, did you like writing? Uh well actually not that much. Well, at least like not in high school. uh I wasn't keen on reading uh classical literature or uh writing essays or something. It was not something I was super interested in. But uh during uh university I did started to like it for some reason. And uh studying anthropology most of your exams and tests are essays or something uh not like a question and answer kind of tests. They're more like you know literaturesesque uh tests. And uh I was pretty good at it that I figured out that I was able to write essays quite fast and I was able to research uh these topics also quite fast and it kind of grew onto me. During the last year of uh my university, I did start my blog which was back then centered around just yeah self- experimentation uh health optimization and biohacking and all those different kind of topics which then grew to my YouTube channel and over the course of yeah now I've been doing it for yeah seven eight years uh the YouTube channel and u it's always evolved and kept getting better like right now I think my content is you know 10 times better than it was in the beginning uh maybe you can remember as well but Yeah. Well, I think your content back in the day was superb as well and I was like, "Okay, perfect. You're like one of the biggest sources that I would uh go on to, right?" Yeah. Well, it has, you know, obviously evolved a lot and I'm covering nowadays mostly about longevity and um health. So, it's always been what I'm interested in and what I'm doing myself, the content that I create and uh right now I've yeah, I guess uh evolved into caring most about longevity and um lifespan. Longevity is a super cool topic. I mean I have been interested in longevity ever since I was a kid. So a lot of people in my close circles were I come I'm like the black sheep of the family. So I'm the only one who's healthy. Like I'm interested in the healthy stuff and everyone else are like you're just wasting your time. But those guys are also the ones who died really early. So I always had this thing where I'm not scared of death but I'm always trying to optimize for in any shape or form to enhance longevity. Years later years like this was like 3 years ago I was speaking to a tarot card reader and she do you even know the meaning of your name? I didn't even reflect on it till then. So my name is Chiranjie which literally in Sanskrit translates to longevity or like a blessing for I was like wow perfect makes sense but anyway I want to talk about your book but I want to do this a little bit differently because you know of course you've been on like thousands of podcasts uh most of the times we're talking about deep deep science but I feel like these days people are having such short attention spans that most of the times we talk about things and for you and me, we can go on for hours, but most of the times people look into the science and then they're just doze off. In fact, one of my colleagues, he was telling me, I was asking him to do some Tik Tok research and he was telling me, "Hey, um, CJ, you know what's trending on Tik Tok right now?" I was like, "No, the video is split into two screens and there is someone talking about something and there's like a Minecraft going game going in the bottom." I was like, "Oh, we really don't have any attention." Like, you know, ADHD hyper. So you obviously my friend are in great shape. I want to talk to you about a few things that a lot of people have been asking me and you know since 2016 or even before that these topics keep on coming up. So let's go through them one by one and we can get your opinion on it. You can tell us what is underrated, what is overrated, what is some of the latest things that you have seen that is working. Uh first thing that I want to talk to you about is fat loss. You're in great shape. I know you work out very well and you've optimized your life, but for a person who is trying to lose body fat or body weight, where do you start? What do you think has the most amount of ROI? What is plain Any diet can result in fat loss and weight loss and you can build muscle as well on pretty much any diet with a few key criteria for fat loss specifically. The biggest one is energy deficit which uh can be triggering for some people or they might disagree with it but uh you know if you look at these metabolic w studies where people are actually controlled for their entire food intake they're literally eat a certain amount of food then the calorie deficit always the biggest determinant of um of weight loss and regardless if it's a low carb diet or high carb diet. So uh in the real world is obviously can be different because if you're living in a society without people controlling you and uh controlling your movements then of course you're going to have cravings you're going to have uh opportunistic food. You see a bagel you're going to eat the bagel or whatever the case is like someone brings you donuts at work. You know there's always these kind of situations in the in the free world that uh can be you know disruptive or harmful to fat loss. So in the real world, what ma what matters most is the adherence to the diet, which means that are you able to stick to the diet? Are you able to stick to a lower calorie intake? Are you able to not feel so hungry that you're going to overeat? And are are you able to do it for the long term? So uh that's the biggest factor for fat loss in the real uh free living world. And uh there are some diets that obviously help to achieve that more easily and others less so. So for less hunger, more satiety, more energy, then you generally do better on a whole foods diet, you know, that prioritizes uh protein, healthy fats, healthy carbs, uh fiber, and vegetables. You're just going to feel very satiated and full. By doing that, they also stimulate all these different kind of uh peptides in the gut that promotes a tie to like GLP1 and those things. So like olive oil and fibers and protein they all increase GLP-1 expression that makes you more satiated and you end up eating less food for the entire day. If you are someone who you know is is able to like control all the calories and weigh all the food and be mindful of those things then in that case it doesn't yet matter that much which kind of food you eat. You could theoretically lose weight on a Twinkie diet, which has been shown to be possible. And uh you could likewise lose weight on a Whole Foods diet as long as the, you know, calories and the macros are equal. And there's also some nuances here that affect the calorie balance such as the macronutrients, a higher protein intake. So protein has the highest thermic effect of food, which means that you burn the most calories digesting protein. So if your diet is very high in protein, you're already like automatically losing certain amount of calories for digesting that protein. And because you're not eating, let's say, fats and carbs in replace of that, you'll be in a calorie deficit as a result of that. Uh but it's still like calories in versus calories out because the protein you're not absorbing all the calories in the protein because some of those calories are wasted on the digestion of that protein if that makes sense. So yeah, I mean from a dietary perspective, you know, generally whole food and high protein diet is the best one and from exercise standpoint then um with exercise, it's better to do some form of you know resistance training plus cardiovascular exercise for the general health benefits. Uh you don't need to do exercise specifically to lose weight as long as you're in a calorie deficit. But uh you know it helps to create the color deficit and um if done right then it also improves metabolic health and reduces satiety and cravings overall if you let's say do the right type of exercise. You mentioned craving and this is very interesting because people can have I mean we know that willpower degragates as the day passes by. The more you use the more you lose. It's also some people also say it's a muscle so you can strengthen it. But ideally somewhere around the afternoonish is when people start feeling their cravings. They start in the morning there's enough glucose in the brain and you know they can make better decisions and then cravings come in. Are there any new you mentioned protein just to recap for the audience protein is really good fiber is really good. There's also added benefits of the fiber acting in your gut making things like butrate or you know all of these short- chain fatty acids which will also help you feel uh satiated to a bit but is there any other trick or a hack that you've seen that uh people the moment they're feeling cravings they can is there like a one pill that can apart from all the GLP1 um right um well I mean there are some supplements that could also increase GLP1 one and support weight loss like bourberine. So there are actually quite a lot of like randomized control trials where bourberine some are like 500 to500 milligrams a day uh helps with weight loss uh and reducing waist circumference and one of the mechanisms is that it increases GLP-1. It's of course not nearly as effective as rosic or something. But it's uh you know if you're not super clinically obese then bourberine could help with that to a certain extent and it also has antibacterial effects. So it can help to fight endotoxin and the bad bacteria in the gut. Uh so that's one option. Another option uh is might be again more controversial which is diet beverages or diet soda. Mhm. Uh so there are actually randomized control trials where people who drink diet soda lose more weight than people who drink water. Uh which you know contradicts all the ideas that diet sodas make you gain weight and make you increase insulin that prevents fat loss and makes you diabetic. When you look at the actual randomized control trials then yeah people who consume diet beverages or you know are told to consume diet beverages then they end up losing more weight than those who are drinking water. And maybe part of the reasons is because it's kind of a, you know, tastes sweet. It kind of tastes like a treat and you probably end up eating something else. You end up eating less something else that is sweet later. So if you're craving for sugar, you drink the diet coke, you're not going to eat the donut or the bagel. At least, you know, that's for what what could happen for some people. Um, there's also probably some people who it's the opposite that they drink the diet soda and they end up craving more of the donuts and they end up eating the donut. You I guess it's very individual uh of the what the response might be. But um there's nothing objectively in the diet beverage that would make you gain weight or prevent the fat loss. If anything, then it could help to curb the cravings because, you know, at the end of the day, it's the calorie deficit. And if you if you're not eating anything, then you end up losing more weight. With water, you know, yes, water can also help with that. If sometimes you might be dehydrated, I think sparkling water is a very good hack as well to reduce cravings and hunger because it it's tastier than regular water. Maybe the carbon dioxide may also have some pro metabolic effects, but it certainly helps with hunger and cravings to a certain extent. Maybe squeeze a bit of lemon or some electrolytes in there or something like that. You can make it flavored as well. Um, but sometimes regular sparkling water can help. Out of my personal experience, every time I feel not like craving, but I know that I'm getting hungry, every time I have sparkling water, it completely at least for the next hour, it diminishes it. And I also like what you said about the lemon and some salt. So, you get some electrolytes in. Sometimes it's hydration, sometimes, you know, the mineral balance is completely low. And because of that, ourselves are not able to perform the duties that they're usually doing. And giving them a little bit of extra support works. And it's super interesting about this diet soda thing because I haven't heard about this before, but now when I reflect back, I know a lot of people who are watching their calories, but they will always I have very close people. They will not enter a restaurant unless and until they can have diet. They choose their brand either diet coke or diet Pepsi whichever fan they are of but with every meal they have to have it and usually I see that they're the ones who naturally go to this 80% they will never go to 100% they'll have their meal they'll have their diet Pepsi which is a non-negotiable and seems to look like they have much more control of their appetite so there could be something fantastic you mentioned bourberine as well bourberine also I mean It also works with in your book you talk about uh comparing bourberine with metformin which is let's call it a diabetes drug or like something that can a glucose disposal agent pharmaceutical which is very powerful. Um have you experimented with metformin? Cuz I know a lot of people now that they're like okay you know what we read it on a p or we saw it on a podcast we'll we'll do 1/4 of the dose of metformin. Do you have any experiences of uh using those? I have taken it uh for some time not right now but uh yeah I mean the research about metformin is quite interesting it's certainly very beneficial for people who have diabetes or insulin resistance and uh reduces risk of heart disease and cancer in diabetics. So it's literally life-saving for diabetics. uh for in the longevity space it's always uh also associated with reduced mortality in non-diabetics mostly from like a past study that found that non-diabetics who didn't take metformin had worse mortality risk than the diabetics who were taking metformin which would be very let's say contradictory in the sense that diabetes you know increases your mortality risk and non-diabetics saw a higher mortality risk than the diabetics who were taking metformin. So it would be that metformin somehow completely negates the negative effects of diabetes and also improves your mortality chances compared to not even having diabetes. But that study was with a few flaws and the reanalysis of that was done I think two one one to two years ago they found that it's not the case that uh diabetes is still bad and metformin isn't going to be better than not having diabetes. So, um, with that being said, I think that metformin, yeah, if you have even, you know, maybe not even full-blown diabetes, but if you have slightly impaired glucose metabolism, you're like pre-diabetic or even not even there, you know, just have like not the best metabolic health, it can be for sure like a net positive. Um, it's certainly more powerful than bourberine in improving blood sugar levels. Bourberine is better at uh cholesterol and lipid lowering effects than metformin, but metformin is better than uh at the blood sugar lowering effects. So I think metformin is useful for people. Yeah. If you and even then like you're a healthy person, you might okay I'm going to eat birthday cake or whatever. You can you could yeah like hack it with metformin and take the metformin which is better than uh I guess I mean yeah if you're a healthy person then even eating regular birthday cake every once in a while isn't a bad thing in the long term like if you do it once then you manage your glucose. Yeah it's just going to be yeah it's not going to have any long-term negative effects on your health but you could theoretically biohack it with taking metform. Have you experimented with dihydroourberine? Yes. And what do you think like bourberine versus dihydro bourberine in your because the studies show us is four times more powerful but in your personal experience did you feel much of a difference u I I didn't use like a cgm to see like how it would compare to regular bourberine but uh I mean let's say it is like more powerful than bourberine but it's also more expensive so to say so uh it and it's not available everywhere it's difficult to find it I think you know regular bourberine already gets It's the job done if you're just a healthy person who wants to improve slightly with fat loss or blood sugar levels or lipids for example and if you're diabetic then you'll be better off by taking metformin anyway. Okay. Um although bourberine can be done together with metformin with uh beneficial effects. H interesting. Okay. Perfect. Now let's move on to the second biggest problem that we see especially in a city like Dubai which is sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation because people are not able to shut off their mind. Sleep deprivation because people have um poor lifestyle choices which makes them sleep voluntarily late at night. And and yeah, some people have um just their sleepwake cycles are a little bit messed up. Some days they're working in the morning, some days they're working in the evening. So what what do you have to say about sleep? because I know you're back in the years I've seen your aura ring scores and I've seen 99 or 100 many times as well. So how do you hack your sleep? Yeah, sleep is very important. Um, I think that, you know, you should still have exercise and the diet and everything else on point because, you know, sleep only is going to enhance your recovery from exercise. Uh, but it's not innately going to make you healthy. Like, if you sleep even like 9 hours per night, let's say you're getting plenty of sleep. It only like maintains your health, but it's not going to improve your metabolic health in of itself without the addition of exercise. It's not going to make you build muscle without exercise. is not going to make you uh lose weight, lose weight without exercise. Uh but if you are sleep deprived, then it's going to yeah make it very much harder to lose weight and especially lose fat. You you're more prone to lose muscle in a calorie deficit if you're sleep deprived at the same time. Yeah. With sleep, the biggest problems in the modern world are like psychological reasons, you know, stress, anxiety, or just rumination. uh environmental reasons mostly like light uh maybe EMF maybe noise uh traffic noise all those things and a third would be like dietary components as well. So u eating too late eating foods that increase your heart rate make you pee in the night or something else like that you do need to like pay attention to all of them. The easiest things are the environment. You can just use blue blocking glasses. You can use a sleep mask. You can uh put filters on your smartphones so you can you're not going to get the blue light in your eyes before bed. That would inhibit melatonin production and increase your alertness. And uh you could also change light bulbs in your house or dim down the lights. Those are like very effective ways to preserve your melatonin. And for the noise, ear plugs or noise cancelling headphones or something like that. Uh for the food, it's also relatively easy. I I believe that um having a slightly earlier dinner tends to improve sleep more than eating too close to bed. So I've, you know, tried different eating windows. I've eaten 1 hour before bed. I've eaten 4 hours before bed, 5 hours before bed. Um and uh generally I sleep the best if my dinner is something like, you know, five 5 hours before bed. 5 hours. Okay. Yeah. I usually have dinner at 400 p.m. Um, finish by 5:00 p.m. and then I have 4 and a half 5 hours before I go to bed. And the food choices, you know, as long as it's not something super heavy, it should be, you know, fine. Uh, generally like very very processed foods, very salty foods, spicy, fried foods, they tend to be worse for the sleep and uh some healthy proteins and I do think them healthy carbs are also very beneficial for sleep. So you have uh tryptophan which is one of the amino acids you get from protein that gets converted to serotonin and that serotonin gets converted to melatonin. But the issue is that if you just only eat let's say protein then you're getting all these other amino acids as well that compete with tryptophan's entry into the brain. So you're not getting the serotonin boost from just protein alone unless you're getting also a lot of sunlight exposure and uh during the daytime etc. But one way to circumvent that is to eat carbohydrates with the protein. How much do you sorry to cut you but like then there's always this question. Okay someone told me to eat carbs and now this is my free pass of eating carbs. Ideally do you have a ratio of carb to protein or is just like make sense of like whatever you're doing that day and use yeah it depends on the person and their the requirements. So um you know I can eat several hundred grams of carbs a day and uh be very fine. For someone else it can be a recipe for high blood sugar and other issues. So it depends a lot on their particular metabolic health and situation. So yeah I don't think there's any oneizefits-all macros for everyone. I do think that protein is pretty much the same for everyone. So if you're getting something like 1.6 six grams per kilogram per per kilogram of protein per day, then um that already maximizes muscle growth effects and it you know you get satiety and all the nutrients you would need from that amount of protein as well. So you don't need like massive amounts of protein and everything else fats and carbs is kind of whichever you prefer. So there's no like specific amount of carbs your body needs. With fats, you do need a certain amount, but it's not high amounts of fat. So, if you're getting 50 to 70 grams of fat per day, then that's already covering all the essential functions that your body needs. So, uh I pref prefer that kind of approach that I take my protein, take my fats, and everything else comes from carbs for me. Someone else it might be, you know, different. Mhm. But yeah, going back to the carbs, then eating the carbs, you know, it's not you don't have to have a massive amount. Just just a regular amount of uh carbohydrates like a sweet potato, a banana, kiwis before bed actually have been shown to improve as sleep. So like two kiwis uh they're very good for sleep. Um and just some healthy fruits or something like that. That's more than enough to help with tryptophan getting into the brain to uh help with uh the sleep. What about supplements? any favorites? Um, yeah, I mean for sleep, melatonin is very well researched and proven to work for sleep latency and sleep duration. And interestingly, there was a recent meta analysis of a se several clinical trials where they saw that the optimal way to take melatonin for the sleep was a 4 milligrams 3 hours before bed. Mhm. Although they did compare it only to like a 2 milligram dose 30 minutes before bed. Maybe smaller doses would be, you know, better or something else. But yeah, it makes sense if you take 4 milligrams 3 hours before bed. Uh so by the time you're already going to bed, you have higher levels of melatonin because if you your melatonin supplementation can shift uh your circadian rhythms in either direction. So if you take it too early then you're shifting your circadian rhythm earlier. If you take it too late like immediately before bed then you're actually shifting your circadian rhythm later. Probably not the best idea to take it only immediately before bed. Probably better to take it a few hours a few hours before bed because then you're already kind of tired from that melatonin when you go to bed. What about have you tried experimenting with highdose melatonins like 100 mg 200 mg? I haven't tried 100 milligrams. I've tried like 10 milligrams. It's uh yeah re research is quite interesting that this 10 10 milligrams is shown to have anti-inflammatory effects. Also lowers lipids and improves metabolic health. Uh it didn't feel you know maybe there's some adaptation period. I I didn't feel like very you know energized in the mornings because of that overall. Yeah. Always felt like a melatonian hangover a little bit. Yeah. Um I haven't tried the 100 milligrams. I have found that on Amazon there are like pills with 100 milligrams supplements but I haven't found them in Europe. So um you know maybe in US I'll try it out. But it's also strange to look at supplements because I think there have been so many different examinations of different supplements and they show that in certain categories like melatonin, you could either be getting like a 20 to 40% higher melatonin or lower melatonin. based on different um different brands. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. The it can be something like up to 4770%. Oh wow. More 470%. That's crazy. Yeah. But I mean let's say the you get 1 milligram pill. 0.3. Yeah. Yeah. So it's 470%. It's 4.7 milligram. So it's very small amount still. So interesting like one thing that went in my head while you were talking about this is also the idea of um calories in versus calories out. Right. SECO we know that it is one of the most important factors like you mentioned but also the modern ways of estimating calories or these the ratios that are online. So if anyone who's listening there are different kind of like Harris Benedict ratio and all these other ratios where people can go in they can type in their age how active they are what kind of yeah what kind of things they have and then it'll give you like an estimated calorie ratio or like calorie intake for maintenance for growth for fat loss but just a good thing to highlight like sometimes and I want to know your views on this if we read a protein bar is like 200 100 calories then most likely it's not 200 calories there is some some sort of a you know I think it's like 15 to 20% it could be above or below and also when you look at life as a like a general thing all of these small percentages they add up and also they say now that sometimes you look at for the average person who's on a cardio machine they're on a separate machine and they estimate that they're burning x amount of calories and then they're looking at their diet so the point I want to forward is also look at it from a flexibility point. Not everything is grain in stone and there can be some calculations which are so listen to your body mostly but like yeah to know your yeah it's not a perfect method uh and I guess the the uh main idea isn't so much that there is a specific number that your body has uh there yeah like it's true your body doesn't have a calorie meter so to say but there is an energy balance so and calories are just a way to assess kind of predict that energy content and predict the energy balance of your body. So the energy balance can be completely different from the whatever the numbers the calculators say or the food has but the point is that there is an energy balance after which and you know many things affect that energy balance hormones time of day sleep excess yeah I mean there's a lot of thyroid function you know those things influence the energy balance but there is an energy balance so to say we don't have a perfect way to measure that energy balance and there are some you know exceptions to the rule But usually those exceptions aren't permanent. You know, if you if you starve yourself for, let's say, seven days, you're on very low calorie diet and you start eating again, it feels like you could eat everything and you're not gaining weight because it's it's a very extreme scenario where your body becomes very inefficient at absorbing the nutrients as well. Uh and uh you're actually not, you know, storing the weight. But it's a short-term adaptation. If you do that, if you eat like 10,000 calories for 3 months, you're going to eventually start gaining the weight back and you're, you know, it's it's just an example that there's, you know, it's very adaptive system obviously, but there is like an energy balance that energy balance fluctuates a lot. We don't have a perfect way to assess that. Another extreme example is, you know, bodybuilders. Mhm. They're the leanest people in the world and uh they're also the most meticulous with the diet and they always, you know, they pretty much every one of if you want to get to Olympia, Mr. Olympia stage, you know, you're competing with everyone who's counting calories and counting macros and uh the one who is getting the leanest generally. You know, of course, there's other things as well, steroids and hormones that affect that, but generally, you know, they all count calories very meticulously. They are preparing very hard for that role and they're also the leanest. So, if you take like an extreme example, then, you know, calories matter for them 100%. I remember seeing this old school Ronnie Coleman videos where he used to wake up at 4:00 a.m. or like 3:30 a.m. and he's like, I've got to complete my one meal, so I have to just wake up and eat this one meal. Of course, we were kids back then, but it was interesting to see what kind of dedication and passion these guys have. Right now, let's u you spoke about something interesting which was exercise. So, let's move on to exercise. In your book, you talk about the J-shaped curve of exercise and you also have certain numbers. Okay, you know what? 900 minutes per week of maybe just light walking, yoga, things like that. And then a few minutes for high intensity. First, let's just start off with the J shape curve of exercise and then you can build on there for longevity and muscle gain and all of that. Yeah. So exercise obviously is beneficial for health and u it has a lot of health benefits like it's the only thing that pretty much we know will reduce your risk of chronic diseases and extend health span specifically you know the evidence of maximum lifespan is somewhat more limited but it certainly keeps you healthy for longer and keeps you youthful for longer so you're able to do your everyday activities that tend to decline with uh with age so you're able to carry your groceries, you know, lift things, uh, run around. If you exercise, you're able to do it for much longer. Granted, you're not getting injured at some point, but yeah, like too much exercise can be, of course, harmful. It's a positive stressor that if you're not doing enough or not at all, then you're experiencing increased harm. If you're doing too much, then you're also experiencing increased harm. So, the sweet spot the summer, you know, moderate amounts of exercise. And um there's uh quite a lot of uh research about this topic. It's again it's hard to make any definite conclusions about that because many studies they don't they're not standardized in the way to like measure these things. They don't standardize with resistance training for example they don't standardize the intensities and how much time you rest between sets. How many sets and rests reps you do. They only look at okay how many minutes per week do you do resistance training. So it's not a perfect let's say uh conclusion but uh you know theoretically still excess exercise, excess resistance training, excess interval training, excess cardio, all of it can be uh harmful. Let's talk about what do you do because I think you figured for sure you've figured 99% of it out so we can like learn from what you're doing every day. Yeah, I can sh I can share what what my interpretation and conclusions based on the literature I've read is. And um one thing that yeah really changed my mind about it a lot was uh a 2023 review that looked at all the major studies done over the last five six years on exercise and they came to the conclusion that with moderate intensity exercise it's pretty much as much as you can do the better it is. So it was like a linear association with reduced mortality and reduced heart disease. So uh you know 100 minutes per week of moderate intensity exercise which is uh 40 to 60% of your max heart rate that's better than zero but 900 minutes was better than 100 minutes. So it's like a linear association. You know they didn't look beyond that. Maybe at some point maybe if you do 2,000 minutes maybe it's going to be harmful. But at least 900 minutes per week is still beneficial. And I'm trying to add more of this moderate intensity exercise rather than only doing high intensity exercise. Give us an example of this moderate moderate intensity is like so 40 to 60% of your max heart rate. And it depends a lot on your age. If you're older then that's lower heart rate. For me I'm 30. So for me it's something between the range of like 90 to 115 beats per minute heart rate. So this like a light light jog. It can be light jog, light light cycling, hiking, speed walking. um you know stretching some sort of animal flow mobility exercises. Yeah. Zone 2 is 60 to 70%. Okay. So it can it can be that uh but it has to be slightly lower intensity just light movement and uh I just you know go for walks generally every day do some How long are you walking? Because in the book you said that six, if I correct me if I'm wrong, you said that people who walk 8,000 steps versus 16,000 steps, 16,000 steps has a 5% decrease in all cause mortality. Uh, no, it's uh so that compared to people who walk 2,000 steps a day, those who walk 8,700 steps a day have 60% lower all causality and 51% lower heart disease. But going from 8,700 to 16,000 provides an additional 5%. Okay, so those who walk 16,000 have 65% lower mortality risk compared to those who walk 2,000. So you want to get at least, you know, the majority of the benefits come from going to like 8,000 9,000 steps. If you go if you double that, then you get only 5% extra. How much are you walking? I I walk usually something like maybe 10,000. So I'm not going um I'll go for the 16,000. I'm going 9,000, 10,000, 12,000, something in that range. Yeah. So I'm walking. If I'm doing if I yeah go for forest walk or hiking or something like that that's nice. I do light cardio quite a lot every week maybe 2 hours per week of this zone 2 on the 60% of heart rate that's pretty much it with high intensity exercise or vigorous exercise which is uh you know 70 and above percent first of all it provided less risk reduction than moderate intensity exercise. So it still yeah to a certain point provided a reduction in the risk of mortality and heart disease but at some point it became like a J-shaped curve that if you do it too much I don't recall exactly but for heart disease it was a if it was above 240 minutes or 300 minutes somewhere in that range then uh it started to provide it like reversed the course that it started to increase the risk and uh my takeaway from that is that yes doing zero high-intensity exercise is bad. But if you do too much over 4 hours, 5 hours per week, then uh it might be more harmful in the long term. So I'm trying to achieve this sweet spot somewhere in the like range of 250 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise. So that's uh interval training and resistance training. So what I'm doing is I'm doing three times a week I'm lifting weights uh which uh totals in about 180 minutes per week and then I'm doing interval training as well for 30 minutes maybe twice a week. So that will put me in the range of 240 250 minutes per week of vigorous intensive exercise. What's your training split like? Because ever since I've known you or you know seen you multiple times in different conferences, your body shape like I remember you were in London, you were super lean and then maybe we met in the US or somewhere we met and then you were like super buff like which was also not like the buff that everyone imagines with a little bit of fat but like super chisel but like super buff and like now you're in great shape. So what over the years how has your training split or training styles changed? Are you doing more of bodybuilding? Are you implementing some CrossFit or one one set to failure? Or what's your current uh training look like? I like strength, powerlifting style. I'm not like interested in getting massive in with muscle mass, but I am interested in increasing lifts on the main compound lifts, squat, deadlift, and bench, and those kind of things. So, I'm focusing on those most of the time. And uh yeah, the reps are going to be something like five to six reps per set. That's what I've found works uh very nice for me. And uh three sets, three sets of five, for example, is a is a working set usually for one exercise. And uh I do, you know, calisthenics obviously as well. I like calisthenics. I might do some kettle bells. I use kettle bells for mostly some highintensity intervals or um some circuit training or something like that. Uh, but I I like to keep them slightly separate. So, smashing all things together that doing cardio with weights. I don't like to do them together. If I'm doing cardio, then I'm doing the cardio. If I'm doing weights, then I'm focusing on the strength. And I'm not even trying to even like get super exhausted with the weights. I'm focusing on the strength and and uh power with those exercises. And with interval training, then I am trying to actually increase my heart rate high. Interesting. Okay. So I think we've got enough on the exercise piece. Thank you. Let's jump on to longevity here. I want you to give us like your top now you've written a book and you've written multiple books and you speak to experts all over the world. Give us like your three to five top tips for longevity. You can just list them out or like we can go one by one and you can think about it and then we can just dive into those top three or top five. Yeah, I think first would be be deliberate about it. Deliberate about it in a sense that you know track things and see where your health is at. Longevity is very complicated and we don't have like a perfect understanding about it and there's always some people live long despite smoking and despite drinking alcohol and living a very unhealthy lifestyle. The blue zones Jensen Clement that Yeah. So a lot of a lot of Yeah. we everyone knows like a grandpa who smoked and live to 100, right? But at the same time, there's also millions of grandpas who smoke and you know don't make it past 70. So it's you shouldn't look at these exceptions to the rule because they're there's probably something else that's going on genetically that enable them to live so long. So we don't have yeah like a perfect understanding of okay why do these people live so long? Um but we what we do know is that okay there are certain chronic diseases that kill most people in their 70s and 80s like heart disease and cancer and uh neurodeeneration. So you just want to focus on reducing your risk of uh those diseases and the way you do that is by of course you can follow what the evidence says about healthy lifestyle, diet, exercise, etc. But how do you know that you're still not heading in the wrong direction? you know that by looking at your blood work and looking at what's inside your body with different tests and scans. So I think that's a very you know crucial component of longevity for mortals without ex excellent genetics. Uh so you look at your you know blood pressure, lipids, blood sugar all these different blood markers that you know typically typically get worse with age and at certain ranges are associated with diabetes or kidney disease or something like that. If you can see that your blood sugar is you know creeping up then uh you know you can fix your lifestyle you can you know take bourberine metformin or change your diet whatever lose weight they all will yeah they will some people might need like a wakeup call that uh usually the wakeup call happens when they get diagnosed with diabetes unfortunately which isn't too late like there are certain percentage of people who do get whatever chronic disease and still make it to 100 but it's much smaller percentage uh compared to those who you know avoid these chronic diseases and make it to 100. So the best thing is to avoid these chronic diseases by tracking your blood work and um adjusting your lifestyle according to the results of that. The second tip would be to invest into your physical reserve, cognitive reserve and social reserve. We know that uh poor muscle mass and muscle strength and frailty they are predictors of increased mortality later in life and the older you get the harder it is to maintain those things. So you need to build like a reserve you need to build when when it's relatively easy even in your 50s it's quite easy to still build muscle compared to if you're 80. So you need to build a reserve of uh you know physical density like muscle mass and strength and bone density as well as you know cardiorespiratory fitness as well that you have good cardio system. You you can build that reserve earlier in life so that when you're 80 you're not falling behind which put you at a much higher increased risk of pre premature death. And the same with uh your cognition. There's thing called uh cognitive reserve and brain reserve which ref refers to your brain's ability to counteract this age related decline in cognitive function. So things like education, learning new languages, new experiences, uh socializing, healthy diet, uh those lifelong uh cognitive work, those things uh maintain your cognitive function and build this cognitive reserve that uh it doesn't completely protect against neurodeeneration, but it does reduce the symptoms of uh cognitive decline later in uh life. And the last one is also the social reserve. Loneliness increases with age. The older you get, the more likely you're to be alone. And uh one of the biggest predictors of longevity is social relationships and happiness and uh you know feeling good about yourself and others. If you don't have that you know social reserve then again it's uh first of all you might not have the desire to live uh that long and second of all it's also a big pred predictor of uh chronic diseases and mortality. Even something like you know you're 80 years old, you fall, there's no one else to call the ambulance for for whatever uh help you need and uh you know that you're going to have worse outcome compared to you have someone in your house like a spouse or child or grandchild who who can call the ambulance and get you the help you need. That can be like life- saving if you're 80 years old for example. So building up your social reserve, physical reserve and cognitive reserve and it has to start you know early. you you build it throughout your life. Uh and the last tip would be um not being too attached to this, you shouldn't let your longevity routines be a bigger stressor than whatever you're trying to avoid. So if uh you're very neurotic and stressed out about your exercise and diet and supplements, air pollution or seed oils or artificial sweeteners, like if you have like a very fearful mindset about the world, then it chances are it's going to cause more stress. And uh I think it also just means that you're you might not have the confidence in your own body's ability to be resilient. You're just more vulnerable to all these things. Whereas if you're confident and healthy about your your ability to bounce back from whatever unhealthy thing you're doing then yeah it it becomes a morearmarmful I love the last point because um I think you know there are multiple books written on it the biology belief by Bruce Lipton. We in the traditional Indian and the yogic sciences culture have been talking about this for the year like thousands and thousands of years that every word every action every thought that you are having or you're saying it's not just the person that is around that's listening to it it's also yourselves. So the more you keep being fearful and the more you keep saying, "Oh, seed oil is just this might wreck wreck my sleep or today I missed the workout and I'm not going to be as strong tomorrow." Your body is just going to be like and there are trillions of cells. They're just going to be like, "Okay, perfect. This these are our instructions. Let's let's follow what you're saying." And then it's like a vicious cycle, right? You do that, you get a little bit of dopamine and then it happens again and again and someone says, "Oh yeah, if you have friends which are also saying, "Oh yeah, we're not going to do it because you know we might just miss uh miss our steps or my rings for today." And then it just creates that uh fearful thing. Longevity is something that a lot of people are doing so they can add quality to their life and you know quality in terms of the years, in terms of their relationship. So, anything that you will do at this point to destroy that quality, I think you should think about it. Ben, thank you so much for pointing that out. I can talk to you for hours and hours, but um that's a lot of things for people to digest. So, we'll let people digest it and then you're here next time. We can ask people what questions they specifically had and then build from there. If if someone had to ask me, oh, you're interviewing Sim, who is this guy? I'm like, think about biohacking longevity and wellness. is like a trained AI chat GPT kind of a mind. Like you can ask him anything and he's just going to be able to tell you the latest and the greatest. So chat GPT 4.0 or whatever is the updated one. So what's what's next for you? Uh yeah. So um my new book, The Longevity, came out last year. I am working on another one. It's about supplements. So I'm going to make like a supplement bible to just cover what what the evidence says about different supplements. I'm organizing like some retreats in India maybe in the future in Dubai as well. It's like a health retreat retreat for diagnostics and uh treatments and other than that I'm yeah actively just uh posting on uh on YouTube and Instagram and thank you for educating us. I I want to thank you from on behalf of the rest of the world because I know the kind of content you have and the kind of lives that you have inspired. You've certainly been an inspiration for me. Like I remember long time ago, I think you were talking about when you left university or when you were in university, you took a year to read 300 books or 200 books or something like around that number. And I was like, man, that's what I should do, you know? So, I mean, reading and all of these things. And guys, come on. Like, we going back, we're in 2025. We're talking 2015, 16, 17, 9 years maybe. But yeah, you've been inspiring me for that time. I really appreciate that and I'm sure hundreds of other thousands of other people. Now what I want to check with you is um imagine if you can go back to your younger self. You you have this time you take the time machine principle or whatever. You go back to your younger self. You can peek back and say hi little sim last year. Uh here's one piece of advice. What advice would you give yourself for general life or health? Um you can even say oh buy crypto. digital right um one uh thing yeah is to take shortcuts in your life to not have to go through all those things yourself so yeah better to learn from someone else or from others which I have you know done throughout the life but um do that more learn from others more to uh shortcut your learning curve yeah I guess that's that's amazing because I guess at the end of the day there are only two paths one is a longer path which has a lot of hurdles. You might get hurt. You might never make it and you might spend an entire life and you might get a little bit closer. And then there's the other part which is I guess more of the biohacking mindset. Listen to people who have walked that path. Listen to people who are already there. You're 20 years behind them. They can mentor you. They can coach you. But the idea is, you know, go out there and try to make your life easier. And the only way you can make your life easier is to avoid the things that you will get into doing anyway. So there's a slow route, there's the fast route. You guys decide. And Sim, thank you so much for joining me. Where can people find you? Where can people buy the book? My website is seamland.co. Um, seamland on YouTube and Instagram. And yeah, the book is on Amazon. The launch of the leap. Cool. I will put all these uh in the show links and you guys will be able to access it. is Instagram and YouTube is off the charts. So, I highly recommend it. And this is me CJ, your host, signing out of the Ship for CJ podcast. Everyone have a great day, have a great week, and actually have a great lifetime. God bless everyone. Thank you soon.