Health & Fitness (2020)

The previous version of this article (Health & Fitness 2020) was much, much longer. Although I stand by much of it, I think that focusing on health optimization (“wellness”) is largely a waste of time – we are constrained by our genetics, and where we are not, GLP-1s have “solved” obesity, and AI will like solve far more in the years ahead. Just don’t die, and if you do, make sure you have a cryonics plan.

Pareto Healthmaxxing

• We are all constrained by our genetics. This is perhaps the most fundamental (if pessimistic) health insight. Accept this and work around it.
• In a nutshell: Weight is lost in the in the kitchen; gains are made in the gym; stamina comes from the running track. “Calories in = calories out” is basically correct.
• Willpower is a limited resource. This is why calorie counting rarely works long-term. Willpower reserves drain faster than the caloric deficit can be maintained. This is why “just eat less” or “exercise” have never worked as health advice. (Building muscle was the most viable such advice – muscles are costly in calories, and elevate BMR, making subsequent weight control easier – but bulking/cutting cycles also require a great deal of discipline (=willpower) i.e. it is a different variation of the same problem).
• What GLP-1s do at the most basic level is solve the willpower problem. There’s also some evidence that they have some general mortality reduction effects even controlling for obesity; since 2024, I have suspected it might be the only actual more or less accessible AND efficacious longevity drug weak as it is (i.e. 6-12 months boost to LE?).
• Almost all health interventions have zero or negligible effects. This faddishness includes “conventional wisdom” (saturated fats are bad! salt is bad! eggs are bad! use margarine not butter!), ideological nutritional advice (e.g., right-wing hysteria over seed oils), and whatever the latest guru du jour is saying be it Dave Asprey (remember “Bulletproof Coffee”?) who was big in the SF Bay Area scene back in the early 2010s when I was there to Bryan Johnson today. The urge to believe derives from the unwillingness to accept that interventions are actually pretty useless, regardless of how “moral” and “ascetic” one has to be to make them (sad to say but much of this sphere is just signaling).
• There is some value in ancestral health ways but it’s especially vulnerable to faddism (note: sugar and arsenic are both perfectly “trad”).
• “Blue Zones” are a scam. Literally. The more past illiteracy – the more centenarians.
• The most efficacious things you can do to improve your longevity to live long enough to reach LEV is avoiding extreme risk (wearing seatbelts; avoiding motorcycles and extreme sports), obvious addictions (smoking; alcoholism – actual alcoholism; not moderate social drinking), and getting regular screenings (this is not actually such a big deal today, but accumulated data will become much more valuable with powerful AI).
• Automated health/fitness data collection (“Quantified Self”) is really good because it generates a ton of data cheaply and quite frictionlessly. Simple stuff: Smart watch, bathroom scales. AI will multiply its value both intrinsically, and as it is progressively integrated with health and personal genetic data. Speaking of genetic data, I also strongly recommend getting your genome sequenced for health reasons, for family history reasons (if that interests you), and especially for reproductive reasons (if relevant).

On a more strategic note, you will get access to frontier treatments faster with more money. Consequently, insofar as most “wellness” protocols (not replicated; of dubious provenance) are taking energy away from making money – and often actively depleting it, if you are not already rich, while mutilating your social life – they can if anything be mildly deleterious to your longevity on net. In short don’t spend much of your time/energy on health optimization unless it’s directly relevant to your finances and/or genuine interests (the r:r just isn’t there). The one relatively expensive “intervention” I would recommend is a cryonics plan. Even if the chances of ultimate revival are very low, the expected life-year gains in the event it does pan out and you emerge into a post-Singularity world of negligible biological senescence or mind uploading would be potentially astronomical.

GLP-1s

There is now a vast body of evidence on GLP-1 effectiveness on weight control. I will not bother summarizing it here (ask your AIs).

I recommend retatrutide, but some people react better to tirzepatide, which is almost as effective. The original semaglutide should usually be avoided unless it’s the only one accessible.

How to get them? I recommend the “Chinese gray market peptides” approach because it is usually much cheaper than official channels and reta hasn’t even been cleared for official use:

• Cremieux has a classic intro article, “How To Get Cheap Ozempic“, published March 2025 but constantly updated.
• Peptide Partners is probably the best US supplier for purity and price, code DOGE or RETARD for discount. (Disclosure: I am friendly with the founder).
• But you don’t have to take my word at it. Finnrick does constant purity testing on samples sent in by volunteers.
• For arbitraging between international providers I have heard good things about Peptaura. (But no personal experience).
• Peptide.Chat for getting in touch directly with (mostly Chinese) suppliers.
• If you do wish to go the official route then I hear GoodRx is good for this in the US.