Summary of Huberman Lab Podcast Episode: Dr. Layne Norton on Eating for Health, Fat Loss & Lean Muscle | Huberman Lab (Part 1)

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Introduction

• Layne Norton, Ph.D. (@BioLayne), is a physique coach and natural professional bodybuilder and powerlifter. He holds a Ph.D. in Nutrition Science and is a world-renowned expert on fat loss and maintaining muscle while losing fat.
• In this episode, Andrew Huberman & Layne Norton discuss the science of energy utilization and balance, the efficacy of different diets, and how best to build lean muscle mass and lose fat.
• Host: Andrew Huberman (@hubermanlab)
• Book: Fat Loss Forever by Layne Norton, Ph.D.

Energy Balance & Utilization

• A calorie is an energy stored in the chemical bonds of food – it’s literally a measurement of energy
  • All calories are created equal, it’s just a unit of measurement – but all sources of calories are not equal
• Scientifically, a calorie is the amount of energy needed to increase the degree of water by one degree Celsius
• Metabolism is trying to capture the metabolizable energy in food
• ATP is your body’s energy currency – a lot of metabolism is creating ATP
• Carbohydrates (other than fructose) are converted into glucose and enter glycolysis
• Protein gets converted into amino acids which can be used for muscle synthesis or can get converted into glucose via gluconeogenesis
• Fatty acids create energy through beta-oxidation
• Energy balance: calories in versus calories out (the calories consumed versus calories burned)
• Food labels can have up to a 20% error rate – “calories in” might be harder to actually track than expected
• Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is about 50-75% of energy people expend per day – calories burned during the day without exercise or doing anything – AKA, the cost of keeping the lights on
  • Your metabolic rate is closely related to oxygen consumption
  • A highly trained person can get to 20 cal/minute burned
• Thermic effect of food (TEF) 5-10% of daily energy expenditure
• Ranking TEF: Fats have the lowest, carbs have moderate, and protein has the highest (but this doesn’t mean you should just eat more protein and count on burning more calories)
• For most people, the biggest component of physical activity is non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) – fidgeting, spontaneous physical activity
• NEAT: not purposeful movement – think, waving hands, tapping foot, shifting weight from one side to the other; NEAT is not something you consciously modify or try to do
  • The calories burned from NEAT can actually be significant, up to 100s per day

Exercise & Weight Management

• Day-to-day changes in weight are much more dictated by fluid shifts than they are changes in adipose – this tends to be the reason most people quit their regimen
• Wrist fitness trackers notoriously overestimate the calories burned from exercise
• Calorie trackers are not accurate but you can use them for comparison: if you burned 1200 calories in an exercise one day and then 1600 the next, you can assume you burned more even if the exact numbers are incorrect
• Exercise actually has a mildly appetite suppressant effects – people rarely compensate for the calories burned during exercise
• Exercise increases satiety signals: most people (70%) who lose weight and keep it off exercise regularly
• Sedentary people eat more than lightly active and moderately active people
• The power of belief is strong! If you believe something works, it is more likely to
• Spontaneous activity (NEAT) fluctuates depending on exercise intensity and can impact the total calories out
• 6 out of 7 obese people lose significant weight at some point in their lifetime – but why can’t they keep it off? Most people focus on weight loss but not what will happen after the weight is off, creating a new version of themselves
  • Pick the form of restriction that feels the least restrictive for you so it becomes a lifestyle you can sustain, not a diet
• The thing that matters most about selecting a diet for weight loss is long-term adherence
  • Without fail, there’s a diet “honeymoon” period across all diets that wanes after a few months
• Pick the tool that works for you: there’s basically no difference in fat loss between low-carb and low-fat diets
• Diet cycling (e.g., trying keto for a few months then omnivore, etc.) is not recommended as a long-term strategy but could be helpful in helping you select what will work most
  • Cons: you may temporarily decrease insulin sensitivity until you adapt

Gut Health

• We’re still in the early stages of understanding gut health, probably 20 years out of developing a consensus
• Fecal transplant: fecal transplants from lean mice to obese mice will make the obese mice lean – this has been replicated in humans as well
  • Probably working through brain mechanisms of satiety  
• Soluble dietary fiber positively impacts the gut because it’s a prebiotic
  • Sources of fiber: fruits and vegetables, some whole grains, some cereals
• Recommended dose of fiber is 15g per 1,000 calories intake
• “Fiber is a longevity hack.” ­– Dr. Layne Norton
• Prebiotics are better than probiotics: most probiotics are not strong enough to colonize

Shifting Cholesterol Evidence

• HDL is a marker of metabolic health: high HDL suggests that you are metabolically healthy – but note, drugs that increase HDL don’t reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease
• Lifetime exposure to LDL is an almost linear effect on heart disease – it’s not LDL alone but apo(B) which tends to track with LDL
• Someone with high HDL and low LDL will still be at lower risk than someone with high HDL and high LDL
• Inflammation follows the same pattern – low inflammation, low LDL person has a lower risk than someone with low inflammation, high LDL

Nuance In Muscle Synthesis

• Leucine (amino acid) is almost exclusively responsible for muscle synthesis when you eat protein – but no, you can’t just supplement with leucine and expect muscle growth
• Leucine stimulates mTor which ultimately starts protein synthesis
• Muscle protein synthesis refractory period: after consumption of protein, there’s a 3-5 hour refractory period that will take place before another round of muscle protein synthesis can take place

Diet & Protein Intake For Muscle Synthesis

• “Of the macronutrients, protein is definitely the biggest lever you can pull.” – Dr. Layne Norton
• To maximize protein synthesis: consume 1.6-2.6g/kilogram of lean body mass
  • There aren’t noticeable benefits to going beyond this range
• Not all sources of protein are the same: a protein bar isn’t as satiating as a piece of chicken with the same protein content
• Does protein distribution matter? Doesn’t look like it unless you get into the territory of longer fasts (days, not 16:8) – the most important thing is hitting the daily protein goal
• Start your day with high protein – use protein shake instead of milk in cereal, have a shake if you prefer, but get the protein
• The less you can change, the better you’ll do: make small changes to increase protein in existing meals
• By changing the cuts of meat, you can pump up the protein, reduce fat, and keep calorie relatively comparable

Journal Articles & Other Resources

• Role of Nonexercise Activity Thermogenesis in Resistance to Fat Gain in Humans (Science)
• A potent physiological method to magnify and sustain soleus oxidative metabolism improves glucose and lipid regulation (iScience)
• Creatine Supplementation Increases Total Body Water Without Altering Fluid Distribution (Journal of Athletic Training)
• Biology’s response to dieting: the impetus for weight regain (American Journal of Physiology)
• New Research Shows Artificial Sweeteners Mess Up Your Gut? (BioLayne)