Curious about Andrew Huberman’s recipe for good sleep? Read more here
Can’t get enough Andrew Huberman? Check out our member’s only collection packed with Huberman’s greatest tips
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.
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
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
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
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 LDLwill 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
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
“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
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)