He was born in a family of Chernihiv Colonel Yukhym Yakovych Lyzohub and Lyubov Petrivna Doroshenko.
During the hetman rule of Danylo Apostol, in 1728 he was promoted to the rank of Quartermaster General.
After the death of Danylo Apostol in 1734, Lyzohub was placed as an Appointed Hetman in the Governing Council of the Hetman Office which was controlled by Russian residents in Ukraine Prince Alexei Shakhovskiy at first and later - Prince Ivan Baryatinskiy, Alexander Rumyantsev and others.
Lyzohub at that time commanded corps of Ukrainian Cossacks, performed functions as hetman and participated in number of military campaigns along with the Russian field marshal Burkhard Christoph von Münnich (War of the Polish Succession and raid of Crimean Khanate in 1736–37).
After couple of "palace coup d'etat", Lyzohub vouched for reinstating the institute of Hetman of Ukrainian Cossacks.