Lyle became interested in all aspects of human performance physiology when he became involved in competitive sports as a teenager. This led him to obtain a degree in exercise physiology from the University of California in Los Angeles, graduating in 1993.

Lyle dedicated nearly 20 years of his life to studying human physiology and the art, science, and practice of human performance, muscle gain, fat loss, and body recomposition. He uses a combination of cutting edge research, canny tinkering, and sometimes, a little bit of intuition to develop his hypotheses which he then tests in the real world on various guinea pigs (often including himself).