Interview: Osteostrong's John Jaquish talks about Variable Resistance Training

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Scott: All right, Colton. Thank you for that. If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, you may have been told that the key is calorie-restrictive diets, and of course hitting the gym and lifting weights. But one author is calling that baloney and argues intermittent fasting is the way to go if you want to shed some pounds. And he has a book that says weightlifting is a waste of time. So we are joined by Dr. John Jaquish, who is the author of Weightlifting is a Waste of Time: so is Cardio, by the way. So good morning to you.

Dr. John Jaquish: Yeah, you really covered everything that controversial I had to say. Thanks, Scott.

Scott: Well, I was like, all right, so how can a guy be so jacked like you are, in fantastic shape in your upper 40s, without ever lifting weights?

Dr. John Jaquish: Well, I could have called the book lifting weights used to be a good use of your time, but now isn’t a good use of your time because variable resistance has better results and lower rates of injury, but that would be a terrible title.

Scott: It would. You’re right. You’re right.

Dr. John Jaquish: Weightlifting is a Waste of Time-

Scott: This is the attention getter.

Dr. John Jaquish: I got to the point.

Scott: Yeah, you did. You did. And you have this system called X3, which is a band hooked to a bar. And that’s a simple version of it.

Dr. John Jaquish: Very powerful banding, banding that if you tried to use it without the bar would actually hurt you. Really powerful.

Scott: Let’s talk about intermittent fasting. I hear people, I’ve never tried fasting, but I hear people say that they’re fasting, they’ve never felt better before. But this is a little different. It’s not complete fasting.

Dr. John Jaquish: Well, if you complete fast, you die.

Scott: You die. I got that.

Dr. John Jaquish: So intermittent fasting is sometimes you could just call it skipping meals. And it’s funny because people have been doing that a long time. But ultimately it’s an easier approach because after a certain period of time, your body stops being dependent on glucose and insulin and then your body starts using ketones, so metabolizing your own body fat. Interesting fact about the fasted state is it’s the highest your LDL goes.

Scott: Oh, okay.

Dr. John Jaquish: If you want to make your LDL really high, it’s fasting. When someone says LDL cholesterol is bad for you, that’s like saying weight loss is bad for you. That’s clearly not true. And now we’ve seen in the last 10 years, LDL cholesterol is actually indicated for longer life, the higher it is below, I think it’s like 350, which is an unheard of number. It’s easier to stick to because it gets someone out of the mode of being glucose dependent. The reason you’re hungry all the time is because you, anyone, is because you are basically in an addiction model where every time you have sugar or carbohydrate, same thing, you get into a state where you constantly need that fuel because your body burns it and then wants it again, burns it and wants it again. And so this is why people snack throughout the day or they’re kind of hangry, we call it.

Scott: Oh, totally. Yeah.

Dr. John Jaquish: And other supporting thing, which is a better thing, thanks. The other supporting thing which is better is getting carbohydrates out of the diet. For example, I probably have six grams of carbohydrates on a non-workout day, maybe 15 grams of carbohydrates on a workout day. I’m completely not using the system of glucose to fuel my body. I’m using the byproduct of ketogenesis, which is an entire other energy system within the body. And you got to keep in mind, we have two energy systems in the body and the way we eat it completely ignores one of them and we should stop doing that because it’s the better one.

Scott: All right.

Dr. John Jaquish: And we’re not using it.

Scott: I think it’s so fascinating. And it all is in this book, Weightlifting is a Waste of Time. So you can go out and pick up this book and learn all about this. I’ve always heard that, we’re out of time, but I’ve always heard that you should never eat after dinner until the next day.

Dr. John Jaquish: That’s right.

Scott: Yeah, that’s true.

Dr. John Jaquish: Yeah.

Scott: All right. I’m going to get a lowdown on this and try to eat better. That’s my problem, the carbs and sugar they get-

Dr. John Jaquish: It’s everyone’s problem.

Scott: I know. You’re right.

Dr. John Jaquish: Designed to be addictive.

Scott: Yeah. You look great. Thank you for coming by with this book.

Dr. John Jaquish: Thanks, Scott.

Scott: It’s really fascinating.