Peter Attia
Physician, author of Outlive
Peter Attia is a physician who went to medical school at Stanford and trained in surgery at Johns Hopkins. He founded Early Medical, a practice focused on preventing chronic disease, and hosts The Peter Attia Drive podcast. He wrote Outlive, a 2023 book on what he calls Medicine 3.0, and is known for his focus on exercise, apoB and early cancer screening.
Updated November 1, 2026 · 8 experiments · cited in 15 guides
Their protocol
Outlive and Medicine 3.0 (Peter Attia)What it asks others to do, rated by evidence, with the rules card and the studies. Personal experiments are listed below, not in the protocol.What Peter Attia has tried
8 experiments we can source: 4 kept, 1 testing, 3 stopped. Trying something is not recommending it; each entry says which.
Kept
Continuous glucose monitoringDevices
Started 2015 · Does not recommend it to others
Has worn a glucose monitor for years to see how food, exercise and poor sleep move his glucose, and calls it a useful tool rather than a necessity.
“I remember for me, it’s been about eight years since I started.”
The Tim Ferriss Show, Dr. Peter Attia on Outlive (transcript, March 2023) · Status checked March 17, 2023 · Suggest a correction
PCSK9 inhibitorsDrugs
Dates not stated · Does not recommend it to others
Listed a PCSK9 inhibitor among the drugs he takes himself, alongside bempedoic acid, without naming the brand.
“So I take a PCSK9 inhibitor. I take bempedoic acid.”
Huberman Lab, Dr. Peter Attia: Supplements for Longevity and Their Efficacy (July 2024) · Status checked July 29, 2024 · Suggest a correction
SGLT2 inhibitorsDrugs
Dates not stated · Does not recommend it to others
Said in 2023 that of the glucose-lowering drugs, the only one he takes is an SGLT2 inhibitor, and in 2024 listed it among his current medications.
“I take an SGLT2 inhibitor.”
Huberman Lab, Dr. Peter Attia: Supplements for Longevity and Their Efficacy (July 2024) · Status checked July 29, 2024 · Suggest a correction
Whole-body MRI screeningProcedures
Started 2015 · Recommends it to others
Has had whole-body MRI scans since 2015 and uses them to screen patients in his practice, preferring MRI because it carries no radiation; he is a founder of Biograph, a clinic that offers it.
“So I had my first scan back in 2015.”
Huberman Lab, Dr. Peter Attia: Improve vitality, emotional and physical health and lifespan (March 2023) · Status checked March 20, 2023 · Suggest a correction
Testing
RapamycinDrugs
Started 2018 · Does not recommend it to others
Has taken it on a pulsed weekly schedule, judging the risk of not taking it higher than the risk of taking it; in October 2026 he described growing uncertainty because human dosing is unresolved.
The Drive #411, AMA #90: Strong convictions, loosely held (October 2026) · Status checked October 31, 2026 · Suggest a correction
Stopped
Ketogenic dietDiets and fasting
Started 2011, stopped 2014 · Does not recommend it to others
Spent about three years in strict nutritional ketosis and credits it with reversing his metabolic syndrome, then stopped in 2014 for reasons he calls nuanced, not because he doubted it worked.
“The reasons are too nuanced to describe here, but my deviation is not because I lost confidence in its efficacy.”
peterattiamd.com, Ketosis: advantaged or misunderstood state? Part I (updated April 2018) · Status checked October 31, 2026 · Suggest a correction
MetforminDrugs
Started 2010, stopped 2019 · Does not recommend it to others
Stopped in 2019 after 9 years, citing new data, and by 2026 no longer saw it as protective against aging in metabolically healthy people.
“I stopped taking metformin this year (after doing so for 9 years) based on entirely different data and rationale.”
peterattiamd.com, Metformin and exercise: deja vu all over again? (October 2019) · Status checked October 31, 2026 · Suggest a correction
Prolonged water fastingDiets and fasting
Started 2018, stopped 2021 · Does not recommend it to others
Did water-only fasts of up to 10 days about every quarter for three years, then stopped after a 2021 scan showed muscle loss he blamed mainly on fasting.
“I really thought that chief among them was just how much fasting I had been doing over the previous three years.”
The Tim Ferriss Show, Dr. Peter Attia on Outlive (transcript, March 2023) · Status checked October 31, 2026 · Suggest a correction
Where our guides cite Peter Attia
Their public positions, summarized in our words. Follow each link for the full context.
Cold plunge and cold exposureMixed or cautious
In a hot and cold therapy episode he called the evidence for cold improving mental health lackluster and noted that commonly cited benefits came almost entirely from heat studies.
Creatine supplementationSupport it
His team calls creatine's low risk relative to benefit an intriguing option to consider alongside standard depression treatment, while stressing that the evidence is preliminary and that people with kidney issues or bipolar disorder should check with a clinician.
An emerging role for creatine supplementation in the treatment of depression, April 2025
High-protein dietSupport it
His clinic recommends about 2 g/kg (roughly 1 g per pound) a day, argues the RDA is not enough to keep muscle with age, and suggests slow-digesting whole-food protein may allow fewer, larger meals.
New insights on maximizing protein utilization for muscle protein synthesis
Ketogenic dietMixed or cautious
Spent about three years in strict nutritional ketosis and credits it with improving his metabolic health, but has not followed it regularly since 2014 and warns against simple claims about ketosis.
Outlive and Medicine 3.0 (Peter Attia)Follow it
Created the framework. He describes longevity as lifespan plus healthspan, calls exercise the most potent pro-longevity drug and organizes prevention around the four horsemen.
RuckingFollow it
Rucks regularly and says he enjoys it for both its physical and mental benefits; he has discussed it with Michael Easter and hosted GORUCK founder Jason McCarthy on his podcast.
SaunaSupport it
Reviewed the sauna longevity studies and their limits in a hot and cold therapy episode, considered dry sauna worth adding to his longevity toolkit, and noted that most benefits credited to hot and cold therapy came from heat studies.
Strength trainingSupport it
Treats strength as a pillar of healthspan and argues it is likely causal, not just a marker. Uses grip strength as a proxy for overall strength and recommends training it with carries, pulls, deadlifts and hangs rather than hand grippers.
Time-restricted eatingMixed or cautious
Says his view of time-restricted feeding has evolved; the episode notes that fasting can help some patients with insulin resistance but makes a protein target of about 2 g per kg of body weight hard to reach, raising the risk of muscle loss.
The Drive, AMA #40 on body composition, protein and time-restricted feeding
Water fasting and extended fastingMixed or cautious
Did water-only fasts of up to 10 days roughly quarterly for about three years, then attributed a large loss of muscle on a DEXA scan mainly to that fasting; he now sees the benefits as coming at a substantial cost and changed his approach.
Zone 2 cardioFollow it
Treats zone 2 as a core part of his own training and explains how to find it without a lactate meter, using a conversation that feels a bit strained and perceived exertion.
How to find your zone 2 without using a lactate meter (peterattiamd.com)
ApoBBiomarker
Argues for lowering ApoB early in life and well below guideline goals. He has said he sees no reason for ApoB above about 60 mg/dL, would like people below the 5th percentile, and uses medication, including a statin with a PCSK9 inhibitor in his own case, to get there.
HbA1cBiomarker
Attia treats HbA1c as an indirect predictor of average glucose that can mislead in either direction because red cell lifespan varies; he says his own result runs higher than his CGM average because of a thalassemia trait. He prefers CGM and an oral glucose tolerance test for judging metabolic health and argues that a lower value within the normal range is still better.
The Drive, AMA #24: Deep dive into blood glucose (June 2021)
LDL cholesterolBiomarker
Attia prefers apoB to LDL-C because it counts every atherogenic particle in one number. He argues for lowering it early and aggressively, treating about 60 mg/dL apoB as a ceiling and the 5th percentile as the aim, and uses statins and PCSK9 inhibitors with his patients to get there. His targets are stricter than any guideline and rest on extrapolation from genetic studies, not on trials in healthy young adults.
TSHBiomarker
Explains why thyroid diagnosis is unusually complex, why symptoms alone are not enough for a diagnosis, and how hypothyroidism can be both underdiagnosed and overtreated, with a framework for reading TSH, free T4 and free T3 together.
The Peter Attia Drive AMA #89, Thyroid health (September 2026)