Metabolic Energy

Once you're sleeping, the next lever is how cleanly your body makes and burns fuel. This is the one most men get backwards — they chase a stimulant to feel energetic when the real problem is an engine that's small, inflamed, or riding a blood-sugar rollercoaster. All three are fixable, and one of them you can literally grow.

Easy, conversational, nose-breathing cardio — zone 2, where you can still hold a conversation — done ~3× a week drives mitochondrial biogenesis: your muscles build more mitochondria and more of the enzymes that burn fat for fuel. This isn't new; we've known it since 1967. ¹ It's why Peter Attia treats zone-2 as the base of the entire exercise pyramid — the slow, unglamorous work that builds the engine everything else runs on. ²

Deep dive into Zone 2 Training (with Iñigo San-Millán)Peter Attia · The Drive

Excess body fat isn't inert storage — it's metabolically active tissue that pumps out low-grade inflammation, and inflammation taxes every cell's ability to make and spend energy cleanly. Getting lean isn't just about looking better; it lifts a chronic, invisible load off the whole system. You don't notice it until it's gone and you wonder where the extra gear came from.

That mid-afternoon slump that feels like an energy problem is usually a glucose one. Refined-carb meals spike blood sugar and then drop it, and the crash reads as fatigue. Protein-forward meals flatten the curve — steadier glucose, steadier energy. ³ If you want to actually see it, a continuous glucose monitor for a month is the cheapest education in metabolism you can buy.

Worth paying for here: creatine (the most evidence-backed supplement that exists — and it helps the brain, not just the gym), electrolytes, and a glucose monitor for a month to find your own crash foods. Everything else is training and food.