Dr Layne Norton: The Science of Eating for Health, Fat Loss & Lean Muscle | Huberman Lab Podcast #97

Bless whoever does the time stamps

My learnings: Calories are just energy values. Food labels can have 20% errors when analysing calories. However it can still be good to track calories.   Energy in and energy out is complicated. Energy out depends on resting metabolic rate (50-70% of total metabolic effect) and the thermic effect of food which uses calories to break down food. All calories are equal but different sources have different effects. Fat is the easiest thing to convert to energy. Protein uses the most calories for your body to process.   Exercise and Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT). NEAT is non-purposeful movement- i.e. people that fidget. People that are lean often have high NEAT.   All watches/trackers are not accurate on how much energy you expend. They overestimate how many calories you burn with exercise. However the differential can be helpful.   To make intentional weight loss a goal- weigh in every day in the morning (after going to the bathroom) and take the average of the week. Then compare to the next week average.  Scientific studies are very confined. Be careful about how broadly you apply them. They can usually tell what not to do as opposed to what to do. Placebo effect/The Power of Suggestion can be very powerful on your physiology. It is not just in your head. If you believe something to be true it can be powerful.   Exercise is one of the only things that will improve your biomarkers of health. It is the one hack you need to be healthy. Even if you don’t lose weight it is still very good for you.   People often don’t eat only because of hunger but due to things like social, stress, sleep. Think holistically, don’t just focus on one temporary diet and expect to lose weight successfully. Think about your whole life.   To lose weight and keep it off, change your identity. People are good at losing weight but not maintaining it when lost. Think about what you will do after you lose the weight. You can’t start a new version of yourself while dragging around your old habits. Is what you are doing sustainable?  To lose and keep off weight you need some form of restriction. Whether it is Nutrient/Time/Calorie restriction. Different things are easier for others. Chose the strategy you can adhere to the most. What is the diet easiest for you to adhere in the long-term? Do that one. One diet is not better than another.  Scientific consensus moves slow. There can be disagreements between specialists and takes time to understand things. Gut Health: Gut microbiome is important for body weight loss. We have more gut microbes than cells in our whole body. To improve gut health: Don’t eat too many calories, exercise and eat more fibre from diverse sources. Fibre is a prebiotic. Prebiotic supplements work better than probiotic. Diversity of fibre is key: Fruit & veg, wholegrains, etc   One scientific study is not enough to change your mind, it simply moves the needle slightly   Protein: 1.6g per KG of bodyweight is enough protein you need. There is no significant downside to eating more protein Fine to eat 2-3 meals of good quality protein across intermittent fasting window. Total protein as well as distribution of protein matters. However even if you consume less than that much protein e.g. due to fasting you can still put in muscle. Just may not be as much as with protein. Plant sources: You can build protein with plant protein but it is less bioavailability and comes with other calories/carbs. Lucine is important for muscle synthesis. Soy is a complete plant protein and taken once or twice a day won't affect testosterone. Whey is very high quality protein. It may come from vegan sources in future. You can blend plant based protein for supplements. Processed food and obesity: Eat minimally processed food. One of the worst things about very processed food is that it makes you eat more and consume too many calories. But it is not necessarily bad in and of itself to never eat ever. Some processed food can be okay for people that have a high energy need or trying to put on muscle. Similar to if you are keeping a budget financially it is okay to spend more if you have more coming in. Obesity increase is a bit of a mystery. Despite people smoking less, drinking less and eating less sugar it is increasing. One big reason is that people are consuming more total calories and also expending less calories with exercise. It is fundamentally an energy imbalance problem but don't be so judgemental. Obesity is higher in poorer areas and people that have had traumatic events. Its like telling broke people earn more money than you spend. Technically right but unhelpful. So it's too simplistic to just say eat less and move more. It is more helpful to implement habits to achieve the new lifestyle. Sugar definitely is not good but may not inherently be bad. People that eat more sugar also eat more calories and from sources from less fibre. For exanple fruit is high sugar but due to high fibre is beneficial. Just because a study is old does not mean that it is irrelevant. Be careful of creating restrictions and labelling something as totally bad. People that purposely restrict sugar (or other nutrients) then crave it more and have a binge response. Artificial sweeteners aren't so bad. Consider the whole picture again. Beverages with artificial sweeteners are much better than sugar filled beverages. Some obese people can lose lots of weight just by having less sugary drinks and more artificially sweetened. It may not be totally healthy but can really help people. Aspertame and Stevia have limited effect on blood sugar and can be fine. Taste buds are very adaptable. If you have very sweet food regularly you may crave and be used to more. Unsaturated oils are generally better than saturated oils. But 7-10% saturated fats in your daily diet is fine. There is not one perfect diet that will optimise everything. E.g. a diet that helps you build muscle may not necessarily be the best for longevity. Things are rarely black and white. Pick what works for you. Males and females have similar responses to dieting and weight training. They have the same relative lean mass as men but just less absolute lean mass. If you are feeling fine on your period it is okay to train hard, if not then do a lighter workout. Autoregulation is key. Women may be able to go harder for longer and may recover slightly quicker than men. This may be due to less absolute loads There are multiple ways to build muscle. Using light weights with high reps and heavy weights with low reps both build similar amount of muscle, if done to faliure. Cooking food generally increases the bioavailability of protein. Just don't charcoal your meat as this could be carcinogenic. Creatine monohydrate is the only form of creatine you need. It improves exercise performance, improves recovery, increases lean mass. It may also have cognitive benefits. One isolated study mentioned it possibly may be linked to hair loss. 5g a day is fine. It can cause gastrointestinal symptoms in some patients, so you can split into multiple 1-2g doses. Caffeine can improve performance. Supplements may help but only a tiny impact compared to Nutrition and hard training. Don't get stuck in the weeds too much. The main thing is consistency. Learn to enjoy the process of working hard. Do something hard and you learn so much about yourself. Physical, learning an instrument, learn a language etc. The best lessons can come out of challenging things in your life. Perseverance, delayed gratification and overcoming obstacles.

"I had to create a new identity" - truest statement ever about long-term weight loss. Still true for me after maintaining a 170-pound loss for 18 years.

Huberman cannot release enough podcasts fast enough, all of them are just pure gold!

This man is the real deal. A true scientist. He is also a gifted communicator. I was engaged for the whole podcast.

Layne's content over the years has really helped me turn my life around. I was morbidly obese and I was able to lost 125lbs with a flexible dieting approach.

As a psychologist I love that you are taking into account psychological factors as well. There is a reason why I had to study biopsychology and learn everything about the human brain and nervous system during my time at university!

I listen to these podcasts during my daily walks and have learned so much, but there's so much incredible information, sometimes I like to jot down notes that I can reference in the future. I'm thankful for the YT version with time stamps so I can re-listen to certain parts for key pieces of information, and also comb through comments to see what other people have taken away from the podcast. Thank you so much for putting this info out into the world Dr. Huberman and team.

One of the, frankly, if not, the best podcast in the whole internet❤️

As an ex-amphetamines addict, I totally relate to the idea of creating a new identity. New habits, new interests, new friends, new lifestyle... Andrew's podcast definitely helped me understand the action of dopamine and how to implement an exercise regime.

This is honestly one of my favorite episodes. I don’t know how this wasn’t a 5+hr discussion. I could listen to him for hours and I have so many questions left haha well done yall

53:39 - wow this perspective and insight just blew me over. Sadly went through eating disorders 11 years ago and even though I think of myself as "this chapter is behind me" - sometimes this vulnerability is still triggered and it can require a lot of self talk to put it to bed again. Thank you for another great episode🫶

Hands down the best health/wellness podcast on the Internet. Thanks for everything you do, and of course, your devoted interest in science that benefits us laypeople! :thanksdoc:

As someone who has dropped 25kg in weight from obese to healthy. The identity piece really resonated with me as when I was younger I completely changed my life around, and part of the reason was from the theories of addiction where you need to become someone new. If you are overweight, don't be afriad to become a new beast for people to see :)!

Hello Dr. Huberman, I just wanted you to know that I did a Wellness presentation to a large group of seniors and quoted both of you several times and at the end directed them to your podcasts. Thank you for what you do.

I'm a binge eater..this talk was so helpful and really identified how it feels to be a food addict.

I battled my eating disorder (bulimia) from age 17 till my 40’s. Now in my mid 50’s I can actually say this without the shame and embarrassment. It wasn’t till I addressed the emotional component of my health that I finally broke the cycle. I’ve been maintaining a weight loss of 80lbs for over 12 years now. I thank you for your work and especially this session as it very much spoke to me and validated what I dealt with for such a long time.

50:30 I've made a conscious effort to check how I'm feeling when I get the urge to eat. The biggest one is when I have had insufficient sleep, then stressed, then bored. I've also noticed when I enter a period of depression my desire to eat increases, which doesn't help considering my weight is one of the reasons for my depression in the first place! Specifically I start craving sweet and carbohydrate rich foods, things like cake and pastry. Now that I've made myself aware of these things it's easier to recognise that I'm not actually hungry and need to distract myself with something other than food. Walking has really helped with this. It gets me away from the kitchen, is mild exercise and provides a change of scenery. Walking has really helped me to control my eating habits and to a certain extent alleviate the depth and duration of depressive periods.

Greatest podcast of all time. The amount of knowledge in this conversation is absolutely invaluable.Thank you both for your wisdom and willingness to be so detailed.

For someone that has been raised to have a psychologically destructive relationship with sugar and processed foods, this is one of the most enlightening videos I've watched on my journey to understanding how my body and mind functions. Thank you