#15 Ketosis and Exercise, Can You Eat Too Much Protein on Keto and More with Ryan Lowrey PhD c

Ryan Lowery (0:02)

Ketones themselves can actually stimulate muscle protein synthesis. So we've given ketones and it actually can stimulate.

Siim Land (0:10)

That's what we're talking about in today's Body Mind Empowerment Podcast. I'm your host, Siim Land. Our guest is Ryan Lowery from Tampa, Florida. Ryan is the president and co-founder of the Applied Science and Performance Institute, which is one of the top athletic research labs in the world. They investigate the cream of the crop, the top-notch athletes from many fields.

Put on your earphones and now let's delve into the world of human performance.

SPEAKER_3 (0:37)

Do you want to know what it is?

Siim Land (0:40)

Body Mind Empowerment.

SPEAKER_3 (0:42)

Get stronger, faster, smarter, quicker, friendlier, more helpful, more driven.

Siim Land (0:48)

Everything the body needs.

SPEAKER_3 (0:50)

Control your mind.

Siim Land (0:53)

Ryan, welcome to the show.

Ryan Lowery (0:56)

Oh, thanks a lot, man. I'm honored and thank you for having me on.

Siim Land (0:59)

Well, the pleasure is all mine. But why don't we start off with some of your backstory, like correct me if I'm wrong, but you're also a PhD student in Health and Human Performance.

Ryan Lowery (1:12)

So my entire, kind of going back a little bit, I grew up playing sports my entire life, and I played baseball all throughout high school and into college. And in college, I met my now business partner, Dr. Jacob Wilson.

And so we met and we started doing a lot of research on human performance, how to optimize athletic performance, muscle, how to decrease fat mass, and just overall optimizing human performance.

SPEAKER_4 (1:41)

At ASPI, we engineer elite athletes using better science.

We look at athletes across a wide spectrum of individuals, from elite youth, all the way to elite professional athletes. What drives them to the Institute is that cutting edge technology. They want the guesswork taken out of their training and their programming, so they know exactly what to do to get to the next level. Push, push, push.

Ryan Lowery (2:10)

And very early on, we started studying, I started looking at nutrition. He was very interested in training, and I was very interested in like nutritional strategies. To optimize body composition.

And we met some of our very good colleagues, Dr. Dom DiAgostino, Dr. Jeff Volek. And it was amazing to us that these guys were eating like once or twice a day. And for anyone that knows Dr. Dom, he's got more muscle than I'll ever have in my entire life. He's a jacked guy, and he's eating sardines. And I was like, what's going on? What is this guy doing? And come to find out, I mean, he's been studying ketogenic diet for a long time.

And we went to a conference, the National Strength and Conditioning Association Conference one time, and Dr. Jeff Volek was presenting some of his data on ketogenic diets and endurance athletes.

And someone stood up in the crowd, they raised their hand and they said, but Dr. Volek, what data is there on ketogenic diets and body composition in regards to human performance and resistance training? And he goes, to be quite honest, we don't have any. And at that time, Jacob and I looked at each other, we're like, man, we got work to do. This is our alley. If we're going to study this thing, we got to do it. And for the last, I don't know, five, six, seven years, we've been really studying ketosis, ketogenic diet, exogenous ketones, everything in between.

Siim Land (3:42)

It's kind of awesome to see how this you have this big collection of top notch or, you know, experts in the field like Dom, D'Agostino and you guys. I would say like you and Dr. Jacob Wilson are like Batman and Robin.

And Dom D'Agostino is like Dr. Bannister or the Hulk guy. You know, he's very chill. But at the same time, he fasts for seven days, goes to the gym.

Dominic D'Agostino (4:11)

I guess going back when I really got interested in fasting, I did a seven day fast. And it just happened to conclude right before I had to give a lecture kind of on the topic. And then I did go to the gym. I deadlifted 500 for 10

And I finished off with a one rep of 585 six plates. So that's...

Siim Land (4:35)

So it's kind of... You got quite a bunch in there.

Ryan Lowery (4:39)

We have a Hulk. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. It's incredible. And you know, this community and the researchers that are studying these, I mean, Dr. Dom, Dr. Volek, Dr. Newport, I mean, there's so many incredible people who are studying this topic from a multitude of angles.