Hi everyone, I truly appreciate this group. Super helpful. I have been taking Rapamycin for about three months. Started at 1 mg and worked up to my current 5 mg once a week. I have 8% body fat, work out every day, and have done intermittent fasting for about 18 years. I only eat for eight hours a day, and my diet is super clean. I also take NMN each day as well as a lot of other supplements. I am 69 years old, but am told I look younger than my age.
For the past two years or so I have had some tenderness on the soles of my feet, but that has become significantly worse since I started taking Rapamycin. Interested in your thoughts about this.
Is it possible that because of my lifestyle choices I am already inhibiting mTOR sufficiently, and that the Rapamycin may be a bit too much for me? The pain on the soles of the feet can be a consequence of aging, but it is basically the fat pads breaking down so they no longer adequately protect the bones of the feet. Wondering if there just isn’t enough fat in my body, especially when taking Rapamycin. Thanks for your help!
Just a coincidence. If anything, RAPA should alleviate it a bit (not heal it though). BTW 8% of body fat at 69 years old is border line starving to death. You may want to eat a bit more and add at least another 5-6% points to that. I had a bit of the same issue on the bottom of my left foot, but it went away in its own. BTW I am probably double your weight (definitely not 8% body fat lol) and when I had that i thought my extra lbs I was sporting may be a cause. Anyway, I did nothing different other than started taking ornithine and carnosine (for muscle health) which may or may not have anything to do with fixing it. However, since Carnosine is God sent for muscle health you may want to try it and see if it helps. Again, can’t emphasize enough that gaining or loosing fat should not result in any pain in your body. Of course, maintaining a normal fat % is important, but the effects of not maintaining a healthy fat % would not exhibit in form of pain. Anyway, my two cents and I’m nowhere near to be a doctor. The only claim to fame I have in this field is that I have never been to a doctor and I’m 58. All my vitals/markers are within normal range last time I checked about 7 years ago (they should still be normal since i feel healthier now than at that time).
You say “but it is basically the fat pads breaking down so they no longer adequately protect the bones of the feet” but it is the muscles that protect the bones NOT the fat. I’m afraid you probably have lost muscle mass also (considering you only 8% body fat) and that is the more likely scenario of the cause.
So, at 8% it seems you are at a dangerously low level.
You’re not alone , I’m 62 years old and have a body fat of 9.5-9.8%. I find it very hard to put on weight/fat, but that may just be the meds LOL, but I must admit I’ve always been about the same weight.
Agree that’s crazy low body fat % and not sure what the marginal benefits of a starvation mimetic like rapa would be to a body that might already view itself as starving. I’d double the calorie intake and shift a big % of it to protein to see if that helps add some padding.
I too have tenderness on the ball of my feet. It just happened recently when I started taking Citrulline. Have you started any other meds recently that may have caused this?
Adding more padding (insoles) to the bottom of your shoes helps tremendously. It only really gets to me when I wear my work shoes which have less padding than my ASICS KAyano sneakers I love to wear.
Personally. Rapamycin seems to have lowered my visceral fat. I don’t exercise very intensely, but the muscle tone in my abdomen was noticeable when I woke up this morning. I started Raps in the first place because of mild fatty liver.
@Joyce They did studies that showed Metformin and Rapamycin both reduce fatty liver (NAFLD) significantly. If you combine the two, it prevents NAFLD altogether! It’s a cure for one of the world’s growing health problems!
Thank you so much for the heads up. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing for the past year or so, metformin combined with rapamycin and a small amount of exercise, and the results have been really, really noticeable.
I’ve found metformin to be pretty good for a moderate amount of weight loss (i.e. 5% to 8%, relatively quickly). And the research supports this (though some people here report no weight loss benefits, so your mileage may vary).
In a long-term study involving over 3,000 people, the average weight loss for participants who took metformin was 5.5 pounds. About one-third of those who took metformin lost at least 5% of their body weight after a year. And the longer they took it (up to 15 years), the better the results, with an average long-term loss of 6.2% of body weight.
There definitely is a valid argument for that line of thinking, and I do hear it from people who are already doing caloric restriction and are quite thin. The marginal benefit may or may not be worth the marginal risk/cost.
But - if someone is always thin, and always has been, does that mean that they are practicing caloric restriction? I’m not sure. Generally the definition of CR is eating 30% or so fewer calories than you would naturally (in a normally satiated state). Just because they are thin, doesn’t mean they are CR (so may not be getting the benefits of CR).
I think you would need to dig deep into the CR research, and the rapamycin research, to have a hope of answering it. There is a lot of overlap between CR and rapamycin in terms of the effects and benefits, but its not a fully overlapping Venn diagram.
Yes I extrapolated and assumed he’s probably in a CR state because he mentioned he has been intermittently fasting for a long time. Now not for all people but for most, IF properly done ends up being the equivalent of CR because if the eating window is tight enough it’s hard to squeeze in all the calories. Also all things equal, from what I understand of the research, IF is great for losing weight but not the best for building or maintaining muscle mass — something about the area under the curve when it comes to protein consumption throughout the day, besides the autophagy triggered by IF is often incompatible with an anabolic state. So the little I gleaned about his routine from his comment made me think he’s probably not getting enough calories or at least not enough protein and that body fat % is so so low.
Then again it could be an artifact of measurement. Even dexa scans have a huge margin of error.
Thanks everyone. I’ve actually been the same weight since my early 20s. I did some research after reading the above, and competitive bodybuilders have body fat of 5 to 8%, and male athletes in general have body fat of 6% to 10%.
So I’m fine with a body fat percentage of 8%, especially since I do weight training four times a week and work out every day. Basically what I was wondering about is whether I need the rapamycin in addition to intermittent fasting, sauna and cold plunge four times a week, and exercise every day. I’m beginning to think that I don’t.
There might be some other benefit to Rapamycin that we are not aware of that CR or fasting may not replicate. For instance, Rapamycin has a strong impact on preventing senescent cells and reducing inflammation. I’m not sure how that stacks up against your current protocol. However, to each their own.
Ah, now you clarified that you exercise regularly and do weights. In that case maybe 8% body fat is normal/understandable. To answer your question i think you may want to try a lower dose let say 2MG a week as opposed to 5-10mg that most on these boards are doing. Overall, given my own experience on Rapa for over a year, I think it is probably beneficial for everyone, but dosing should be adjusted. Again, I highly doubt that is has anything to do with your bottom of your foot problem. An easy way to know would be to stop Rapa for about a month and see if it fixes your problem.
When I started RAPA I was experiencing muscle spasms if I walked long distances, and I thought it was related to RAPA, but after trial and error I found out it had nothing to do with RAPA. Carnosine, and beta alanine together with potassium and magnesium combined made a real big difference for me.
BTW, beta alanine and/or Carnosine increased my endurance at least by 40-50%%. If before I could only lift a certain weight for 10 reps, I can now easily do about 14-15. So, I would still suggest to you to start L-Carnosine (in case you never done it before) and see if you feel a difference.
Have you seen or heard anything about taking Metformin AND Acarbose? I’m wondering if it would be ok to take both.I’m already taking Acarbose and have taken Metformin in the past but never together.
I’ve not seen any scientific research or case studies on taking metformin AND acarbose, but we have many people here in the forums who are taking both and report good results. You can see some past discussions by using the search tool at the top and searching for “metformin and acarbose”.
That’s exactly what I’ve been doing for the past year or so, metformin combined with rapamycin and a small amount of exercise, and the results have been really, really noticeable.