Dan’s Health Stack

What's your name and what are you known for?

My name is Dan. I'm known for having two cats. And also a company called Heights. And also a wife, might as well mention her. Two daughters. It's really the cats, mostly.

What health advice would you give yourself 10 years ago?

All this stuff about calories that people try to confuse you with is nonsense. Calories in, calories out is a very healthy, logical rubric. You're either gaining weight, losing weight, have a clear goal and stick to it. Good advice is the simple things that are scientifically true 10 years ago and today. People try to over-confuse with garbage.

What's in your gym bag?

Heights Hydrate. Gloves, shorts, t-shirt, socks, spare underwear, the gloves, hydrate, and a resistance band.

What's your morning routine?

Monday to Wednesday, I wake up six, six-thirty and head straight to the gym. Thursday-Friday I do school days with my daughters, so no gym. I take my supplements, have coffee, have a banana. Although I'm trying to go back into fasting until 11. I'll do two workouts during the week and one or two on weekends.

Outside of Heights, what's your favourite brand in health?

Thorne is a great brand. Seed Biology is a great brand. Those are the two other brands I basically trust. And Promix for my protein.

Supplement you can't live without?

From the Heights lineup, the probiotic. Most other products, if you had a great diet, you can get from food. The probiotic you can't. There's no 'eat that specific type of kimchi or kefir', that's not how it works. It's so targeted, so high quality. If I had to pick one Heights product, that's the one.

What's the next big thing in health?

Personalised apps that have your health metrics, bloods, MRI scans, GP data, connected to workouts and wearables. I think Peak by Kiran O'Neill is probably going to be the winner. There's also Core Vitals. I'm invested in both. And Superpower in the USA.

What's the worst health advice you ever followed?

I've tried all the things over 10 years. Vegan for two and a half years. Keto for six months. Pescatarian. Vegetarian. Even carnivore. The most unhealthy diet overall was the vegan diet. You have to supplement if you're vegan but lots of vegans don't because of cultural idiocy. The main problem is the volume of food you'd need to eat. If you're omnivorous and eat a bit of everything, you don't have to be as conscious to broadly get enough.

Any health tech you use daily?

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6. Specifically because it does zone tracking really well. I like to know whether it's zone two or zone four. I picked the watch that does the one thing better than everything else. It's pretty accurate.

What's your health goal this year?

My word of the year is health. I'm turning 40 next month and I want to be in the best shape of my life. 15% body fat, being strong, feeling fit. But the other half is I grew up fat, and I'm trying to give up some of my health anxieties. If I don't hit my four workouts, healthy would be not having some terrible internal monologue about what a piece of shit I am. I'm trying so hard to work on that.

Who should people follow?

Oliver Patrick. Insanely wise, so much experience. Very rare in this space. A lot of people with opinions, not a lot with 20 years of actual in-clinic experience. He talks me off a lot of stupid shit I want to do. An excellent communicator.

Health trend that's BS?

I brought a whole bunch of BPC-157 needles. They're sitting in my drawer because I'm terrified to inject myself with some Chinese peptides. I'm hoping that after spending 200 quid and being too scared to do anything, it ends up being a fad so I don't feel like I've totally wasted my money.

New city, want to work out?

I use Grok. It's the best for this. I tell it where I'm staying and what I'm looking for. On Gemini or Claude, they just give you a link. Grok actually does the work. Scans their Instagram, their website, shows photos of the gym, lists equipment. It's great.

Bold health take?

Just go for a walk. All the best things in health are free. Except food, food's expensive. But going for a walk solves probably 90% of the issues, including being fat. I haven't yet met a problem that cannot be walked through or around.

Where does your health money go?

Most of my money goes on health stuff. Virtual personal training, a couple hundred quid a month on supplements between creatine, protein, additional omega-3s and vitamin D on top of Heights. I had DEXA scans that said I need more bone density, so vitamin D.

Best thing you've done for your health this year?

Switching from cardio to weights four times a week. I don't really like weights but it wasn't having the right impact. And making sure I do one fun exercise thing per week, like padel. Adherence is the number one thing. Turn up and do the thing.

Best place in the world to work out?

Berlin's great because the sauna is co-ed and everyone's naked. And LA and Cape Town are the two best because everyone's fit, everyone's hotter than you. All the men look like how you want to look and all the women are not interested in you because you're pathetic. And it is very motivating.

How do you recover?

Not amazingly because of sleep issues with my daughter. Sleep is the answer. Massage every couple of weeks. Eye mask, magnesium. The problem is if you're all magnesium'd up, eye mask on, then your daughter starts screaming and you're in a deep sleep.

Dream sauna lineup?

James Grant, Timothy Armoo, Oliver Patrick, Tj Power. Everyone. And Dennis Bergkamp. You've got to have the prince in there.