Thread by @lifelaunchmiles

How Rick Rubin lost 130 lbs in 15 months:

🧵Short Story🧵

Rubin has produced some of the most iconic records and songs in music history.

But one of the most impressive things he did was lose 130 lbs in 15 months.

In order to understand how he lost the weight

You first need to understand how he became overweight in the first place:

Rick Rubin wasn't always overweight.

When Rubin first came on the scene he was a string bean

But as years went on he slowly ballooned up to 300 lbs.

This struck him as odd

As Rubin was a devout vegan

Rubin states, "How could a vegan be fat?"

To Rubin, eating meat was sacrilege.

But instead of eating a clean vegan diet

Rubin heavily loaded his diet with:

-High carbs (pasta, breads, etc)
-High-caloric fats (almond butter)

This was a recipe for weight gain.

Then his life changed...

Rubins close friend, Mo Ostin, came to Rubin and said "If you don't change things you're going to die"

Ostin sent Rubin to a nutritionist who gave Rick strict instructions to follow

Here's what he told him:

Rubin needed to 3 things:

-Fix his diet
-Exercise more
-Fix his sleep cycle

As a devout vegan, Rubin was reluctant to add meat to his diet

But knowing he had no other choice, he decided to listen to his nutritionist.

Here's what he did over the next 15 months:

1) DIET

Rubin added meat back into his diet

While consuming 7 low-calorie protein shakes a day

Now I don't recommend consuming 7 protein shakes a day, but the idea is simple:

Increasing protein, while cutting calories, puts you in a caloric deficit

Which helps you burn fat

2) EXERCISE

Rubin started working out with health enthusiast Laird Hamilton several times a week.

Focusing heavily on Zone 2 cardio (slow jogging) and lifting weights.

The more muscle he built

The fast his fat burned.

But the most important change was his sleep cycle

3) SLEEP CYCLE

As a music producer, Rubin was used to staying up all night and sleeping most of the day

But doing so was messing with his circadian rhythm (CR)

A dysregulated CR disrupts metabolism and hormone regulation

Both affecting weight loss.

Here's how he fixed it:

The first thing Rubin did every morning was to step outside and get morning sunlight.

This fixed 2 things:

a) His body's "natural clock"

b) Melatonin suppression, allowing him to feel sleepy when it got dark

Both improving his metabolism and hormone regulation

Rubin wasn't doing anything special

He simply followed a plan to:

1) Increase protein/decrease calories
2) Exercise regularly
3) Fix his sleep

Consistently following this structure helped him, and can help anyone, lose weight quickly.

//END//

Thanks for reading, If you enjoyed this thread do me a favor:

1. RT the first tweet below so others can benefit from it

2. Follow @lifelaunchmiles for more weekly threads on:

-Longevity
-Productivity
-Performance
-Personal Development