You Might Also Like: The School of Greatness

**Lewis Howes** (0:01)
Small business owners, listen up. You started your business because you had a vision. Not because you wanted to spend your nights figuring out payroll, benefits, paperwork, and all the little details that somehow become very big details. That's where JustWorks comes in. JustWorks is the payroll, benefits, and global hiring platform to unburden your brain from all the complicated small business stuff. They handle the things you can't afford to get wrong so you don't have to worry because building a business is hard enough. You don't have to worry when it just works.
This message is brought to you by Apple Card. For a limited time when you get a new Apple Card and purchase AirPods Pro 3 at Apple, you can earn back the cost up to $250 daily cash. New AirPods Pro and up to $250 bonus daily cash back? Now that's music to my ears. Subject to credit approval, limitations and spend requirements apply. Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City branch. Terms and more at apple.co.airpods.
Sons out and so is dad. This Father's Day, find what will make his summer with Lowe's Father Day deals. Get two free Dewalt power tools when you buy a select five amp hour battery kit. Plus, get a free Blackstone six piece stainless steel griddle kit when you buy a select Blackstone griddle. Shop Lowe's Father's Day deals in store or online. Valid through June 24th. While supplies last, selection varies by location. I think the stat is more than 75 percent of Americans are overweight and nearly half of all Americans have health compromised obesity. But I'm curious, with this information, should we be thinking about obesity or should we be thinking more about muscle?

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (2:06)
Yeah. Well, what if I told you, I don't think we're over fat.
In fact, we are under muscled. The reality is, as you pointed out, there's been this fixation on fat, adiposity, the diseases related to obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, insulin resistance, all of these that go along with-

**Lewis Howes** (2:27)
With obesity, right?

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (2:28)
Exactly. Well, what if obesity is actually just a symptom, which in fact it is, and what if I told you that these diseases are actually diseases of skeletal muscle first, and that obesity begins in skeletal muscle. Insulin resistance begins in skeletal muscle first.

**Lewis Howes** (2:51)
What is skeletal muscle?

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (2:52)
Well, I mean, just even from a general perspective, it's the things that you, it's the muscles you have voluntary control over, right? So it's your biceps or your triceps or your quads.

**Lewis Howes** (3:03)
Anything you can flex is that. Okay. So the disease starts there, or there's a weakness first there?

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (3:10)
Well, if you think about what skeletal muscle is, skeletal muscle is your metabolic currency. It's number one, for most people, makes up 40% of their body weight.
For you, maybe 45, for me, maybe 35, you're about a foot taller than me. Exactly. And when we think about skeletal muscle, we must understand that really, again, as your metabolic sink, what does it do? It is the site for glucose disposal. 80% or more, it is the site of glucose disposal.

**Lewis Howes** (3:39)
Your muscle is the site where glucose can be run through.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (3:43)
Yes. So glucose is a really interesting molecule in the fact that it is toxic, but we need it, and we have to get rid of it. It can't just hang around.

**Lewis Howes** (3:53)
And if we don't get rid of it, it's stored in the fat.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (3:56)
Well, if we don't get rid of it, the definition is diabetes. But we have to move glucose out of the bloodstream and into tissue. The main site of that is skeletal muscle.
One, if you think about skeletal muscle as a suitcase, if it is over packed with glucose and fatty acids, everything spills back out into the bloodstream, right? And what we must understand is that healthy muscle will act as the body's sink. You flush it out. Well, yeah. I mean, you got to put something.
So if we are overeating and under-exercising, we are having a negative impact on skeletal muscle, which is really the focal point of metabolism. From my perspective, from a muscle-centric perspective.
Well, what does that mean practically? Well, that means practically that the healthier your skeletal muscle is, the better your glucose regulation. Everybody cares about blood sugar regulation, right? Sure. Care about insulin resistance, and insulin resistance is requiring and being able to, you actually need more insulin to be able to put that glucose, which is toxic, back into the cell. Insulin resistance is just needing more. Well, when we think about skeletal muscle, it's the site for glucose disposal. It's also the site where fatty acids are metabolized, which people don't often think about that. Skeletal muscle is your body armor. Should you get injured? Should you have or need or be in a compromised state? Skeletal muscle is what's going to allow for your survivability.