Protein, Breaking News & Fat Loss: Dr. Don Layman’s Breaking Insights (Recap Part 1)
Optimal Protein Podcast with Vanessa Spina
Vanessa Spina
4.5 • 758 Ratings
🗓️ 1 August 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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In this Friday solo episode, Vanessa Spina breaks down the first half of her latest interview with Dr. Donald Layman — legendary protein researcher and one of the most featured guests in the history of the Optimal Protein Podcast.
They cover game-changing updates to U.S. dietary guidelines, red meat’s misunderstood role in metabolic health, and the science of protein timing for fat loss and body recomposition. Whether you’re over 30, in a fat loss phase, or simply looking to optimize your protein intake, this episode is packed with insight.
🔬 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
• Why the 10% saturated fat cap may be removed from dietary guidelines
• How red meat got falsely blamed for chronic disease
• Why plant-based proteins are not nutritionally equivalent to animal proteins
• The leucine threshold and how it changes with age
• Why breakfast should be your most anabolic meal
• How high-protein meals increase energy expenditure
• Stretch-based resistance (like yoga and Pilates) vs. heavy weights for muscle preservation
• The truth about meal distribution and muscle protein synthesis (MPS)
• Real-world protein targets and strategies for fat loss
This is Part 1 of a two-part solo recap. Tune in next Friday for Part 2 where Vanessa explores Dr. Layman’s take on the new Protein Hub, essential amino acid requirements, the role of insulin and AMPK in fat loss, and optimal carb intake by training status and age.
Links mentioned:
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Free high-protein keto guide: The Keto Reset eBook
👤 Connect with Vanessa:
• Instagram: @ketogenicgirl
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The content provided in this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. Consult with a healthcare professional before making significant changes to your diet or exercise regimen.
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Instagram: @ketogenicgirl
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Optimal Protein Podcast. I'm Vanessa Spina. Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm your host, Vanessa, and I am so excited for today's episode because we are diving into part one of a special two-part recap based on my recent interview with none other than Dr. Donald Lehman, one of the world's |
| 0:22.9 | most influential protein researchers and one of our most featured guests of all time on this |
| 0:29.1 | podcast. |
| 0:30.1 | What's incredibly exciting as well was that he shared some breaking news with us. |
| 0:35.6 | If you didn't get a chance to listen to the episode yet, you may not know |
| 0:39.1 | what it is. I'm going to be recapping it on today's episode. We're going to be diving into so many |
| 0:45.7 | incredibly exciting topics like how protein quality and timing can affect fat loss and metabolism |
| 0:52.4 | and his opinion on whether or not protein timing and |
| 0:56.8 | distribution matters for people over the age of 30 for women in Perry and postmenopause |
| 1:04.2 | and he has a slightly different opinion and his reasoning makes a lot of sense so I am really |
| 1:10.7 | excited to recap what we spoke about as well as talking about the breaking news that he mentioned and how this has to do with the U.S. dietary guidelines. |
| 1:22.1 | And we're also going to be talking about why plant-based proteins may not be equivalent to animal source proteins and some of the |
| 1:29.1 | big headlines that have been happening when it comes to plant-based versus animal-based sources |
| 1:35.3 | of protein. And especially in the context of him having recently created a new protein scoring |
| 1:41.8 | system, which we're also going to talk about in depth. So I am so excited |
| 1:47.0 | to recap this part one of the episode with Dr. Don Lehman. He truly is the most brilliant |
| 1:53.9 | protein researcher and such an incredible expert in these topics. And I'm always so, so honored |
| 2:00.7 | to get to have him on the |
| 2:01.7 | podcast. And I'm so excited to recap the biggest takeaway is the most key pertinent information |
| 2:08.2 | that you can take away today, apply into your life and benefit from this cutting edge research |
| 2:14.5 | when we get to speak to these cutting edge researchers themselves and hear |
| 2:19.1 | it directly from them. It makes all the difference. And we're really going to unpack all of that |
... |
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