#866: Sami Inkinen of Virta Health — Reversing Type 2 Diabetes, Rowing 2,750 Miles, and Lessons from Fixing Metabolic Health in 100,000+ People

**Tim Ferriss** (0:00)
Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs, this is Tim Ferris. Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferris Show, where I deconstruct world-class performers. This conversation is incredibly tactical and practical. Lots of detail that you can use. I took a lot of notes. Sami Inkinen is my guest. He is the founder and CEO of Virta Health, which aims to reverse metabolic disease in 1 billion people using nutrition and technology. And based on his texts to me over months, what he and Virta have been able to do with people who have practically no money, practically no time blows my mind. I mean, imagine completely transforming yourself if you only were able to eat a McDonald's as a truck driver. I mean, it's really, it's just mind blowing stuff. In any case, we'll get to it. He previously co-founded Trulia, is a triathlon age group world champion and once rode 2,750 miles from California to Hawaii.
Imagine that with your arms. Maybe you've taken a flight between those two. It is not a short flight. With his wife, unsupported, setting a world record to raise awareness of sugars linked to diabetes, his stories, nuts, his cultivated abilities, which are all scaffolded on habits that you can imitate, are really, really consummately impressive. So I'll leave it at that. Please enjoy this wide-ranging conversation with the one and only Sami Inkinen. Optimal, minimal.

**Tim Ferriss** (1:22)
At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Can I answer your personal question?

**Tim Ferriss** (1:45)
I will start, I suppose, with something that I can potentially use immediately or some variant thereof. Do you still schedule your week or at least workouts each Sunday? And I'm reading here, this is from a blog post. Schedule everything. This is top five tips getting and staying in shape for people who are busy. I spend 10 to 20 minutes every Sunday scheduling most of my workouts and details similar to any other appointments in my calendar. Like with most unscheduled tasks and to-dos, they'll fall between the cracks on the other.
And with proper scheduling, you've managed to get in your workouts with 150 plus annual travel days, changing cities, super early wakeups and delayed flights, et cetera. So this is kind of a micro question that edges into the macro just around planning and scheduling. But do you still take time out each Sunday to go through these things?

**Sami Inkinen** (2:39)
100%, 100%. It's every Sunday. I just find the structure allows flexibility and spontaneity.
If you don't have structure, like nothing gets done, at least in my life. And not that my life is super special, but you know, two pretty young kids, happily married, running a company, growing, that's a thousand employees, and then trying to be a kind of semi-athlete in the process. If I don't schedule, it's not gonna happen. So I spent about 15 minutes at the end of each week, that Sunday, professionally kind of list the three things that absolutely have to get done. And then I schedule a few things, including workouts. And it works very well.

**Tim Ferriss** (3:20)
When do you do that on Sunday?

**Sami Inkinen** (3:23)
This could be a long conversation, but it's either early morning before the kids wake up and kind of Sunday gets going. Or if I don't have it done by Sunday afternoon, then it's after 7 p.m. when everybody else kind of quiets down and I take my own time.

**Tim Ferriss** (3:37)
Virta, how many employees do you have right now?

**Sami Inkinen** (3:39)
Yeah, Virta Health. So we're about 1,000 employees. And the caveat these days, of course, is don't brag about employees, because the more employees you have, the less you leverage AI. So it's, but I guess mentioning 1,000 employees, it's a real company and obviously growing fast. So it takes a fair amount of effort. So about 1,000 people.

**Tim Ferriss** (3:58)
Well, the good news is like so many companies in the news these days, if you did end up over hiring during COVID or something, you can not say we made a mistake. I mean, just say we're using AI to improve efficiency when you have layoffs, but we won't dwell on that. The question I have is what type of training in your life right now are you currently scheduling each week?

**Sami Inkinen** (4:23)
Well, we're talking about training. So this is sort of physical training. So it's really in two buckets. The primary focus is really endurance sports around cycling. So I do a lot of mountain bike racing, as well as road bike racing. So that's essentially endurance training. So I'd say 90% is cycling related, and that's my core workout. That essentially happens in the morning every day. 99% of the time, it's one of the first things. It's not the very, very first thing in the morning. So that's one.