The Science of Obesity | Dr. Layne Norton

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (0:00)
Welcome to The Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Show, where cutting-edge science meets innovation and practical application for everyone. Today, I sit down with a long-time friend and colleague, Dr. Layne Norton. We discuss the real cause of obesity. He covers everything from obesity to the optimal diet to supplementation. I believe that you are going to see a side of Layne that you've never seen before. Now, please sit down with me in conversation with Dr. Layne Norton.
Dr. Layne Norton, welcome to the show.

**Dr. Layne Norton** (0:42)
Thanks, Gab.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (0:43)
Good to be here. So you said Gab, which you are one of the only few people that are allowed to call me Gab. And this is because-

**Dr. Layne Norton** (0:49)
You made the cut.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (0:50)
You made the cut. We have known each other almost 20 years.

**Dr. Layne Norton** (0:53)
Yes, well, I like to have exact numbers, as you know, and you didn't even know when you graduated.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (0:58)
Yeah, well, I mean, details, details, this is true. Here's my goal for this podcast. Everybody who listens to this podcast, which is this is a top podcast in the country, in medicine, know who you are. And if you don't, you guys, Layne Norton, you may have seen him shouting on Instagram, talking about randomized control trials. We're going to talk about all of this. But what I love about Layne is, again, I have known him for so long and have believed in this guy since the beginning. He's tried to get rid of me many times. He's not been successful. Can't seem to shake her. No, can't seem to shake me. And now you're stuck with me and my husband. It's just like a whole thing.
But I want people to get both the other side of you, because you can, let's face it, become and seem to be very aggressive, which you are in many ways because you are a very well-trained scientist. We trained together at the University of Illinois under Dr. Donna Lehman.

**Dr. Layne Norton** (1:55)
The Goat?

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (1:55)
The Goat, which has created a certain level of intellectual integrity and scientific rigor and a way of thinking about things that arguably are very creative within the scientific realm, which is unusual.

**Dr. Layne Norton** (2:10)
Yes.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (2:11)
I have many questions for you today. Before I start, did you ever think that you would be in the position that you're in right now?

**Dr. Layne Norton** (2:24)
It's so funny when people ask me about my career arc and all that kind of stuff. I'm like, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I just knew I wanted to do something in fitness, maybe in the bodybuilding space because I was in the bodybuilding when I was young.
I basically went to graduate school for a PhD. I really didn't even know what a PhD was, to be honest. And when I interviewed-

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (2:48)
But you come from a very small town in Indiana, Gary, Indiana, or close by?

**Dr. Layne Norton** (2:53)
No, I come from Evansville, Indiana.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (2:55)
Evansville, Indiana.

**Dr. Layne Norton** (2:55)
Which is the fourth biggest town in Indiana, which means it's like 90,000 people, right?

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (2:59)
Yeah.

**Dr. Layne Norton** (3:00)
I always describe it as it was big enough to not be a quaint small town, but small enough to where there wasn't anything going on.
So yeah, when I was looking at going to grad school, it was basically because I didn't know what I want to do with my life. I did a four-year undergrad degree in biochemistry. And at the time, if you wanted to make money in the fitness industry, this is circa 2004 when I was graduating. I mean, basically, be a personal trainer, start a supplement line, try to be Mr. Olympia, open a gym.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (3:33)
You did a few of those things pretty successfully. Minus the Mr. Olympia stage, I mean, you've done a lot of those things pretty successfully.

**Dr. Layne Norton** (3:40)
Yeah, but at the time, I didn't really see any of those being a viable path because I didn't come from money, I didn't have a lot of capital, I didn't like the idea of going into a lot of debt, I didn't really like the idea of being a personal trainer, I felt like that would make the gym a chore for me. So I just went, well, if I can delay the real world by four to six years, hopefully, I won't be in an unemployment line with a masters or PhD.