#007 - Danny Lennon

Daniel Lennon is an expert in the principles of nutrition, holding a masters degree in Nutritional Sciences and coaching top athletes in combat sports. Lennon is the founder of Sigma Nutrition and focuses on helping clients make weight for competition and how they can fuel properly and recover faster to improve performance. He spoke with Robbie Bourke on the principles of nutrition in this episode of The OPEX Podcast: Fitness Explained.

Bio:

Danny is the founder of Sigma Nutrition, a company providing educational media content on evidence-based nutrition & performance. Sigma Nutrition also provides an online coaching service to a wide array of clients. Danny works as a performance nutritionist to a number of professional MMA fighters and boxers.

Danny hosts the top-ranked weekly podcast, Sigma Nutrition Radio. Each week a world-renowned expert from one of the fields of nutrition, health, medicine, or sports performance, comes on the show to dive deep into a specific topic with Danny. The show is regularly at the top of the iTunes health and fitness charts, having amassed over 2.8 million downloads as of January 2018.

Danny has an academic background in science and nutrition, including earning a master’s degree (MSc.) in Nutritional Sciences at University College Cork. During this time Danny was involved in research on vitamin D, directly under the world-renowned researcher Professor Kevin Cashman. Previous to this Danny also completed a BSc. Degree in biology and physics education and spent a year teaching these subjects.

Outside of the nutrition world, Danny is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blue belt, competes as a drug-free powerlifter and is a life-long Arsenal fan.

 

Show Notes:Websites and Social Media Links:

 

Sigma NutritionFacebook – Sigma NutritionTwitter - @NutritionDannyInstagram - sigmanutritionBooks Mentioned:

 

Danny’s Book Recommendations

4-Hour Work Week

 

Books Mentioned by Robbie

Non-Linear Pedagogy in Skill Acquisition

How to Eat Move and be Healthy

 

Articles Mentioned:

 

The Triangle of Focus

Calorie Deficits #1: Understanding the Nuances of Energy Balance

Is Slow & Steady Actually the Best Way to Diet? (Calorie Deficits #2)

The Pros and Cons of Aggressive Dieting [Calories Deficits #3]

Podcasts Mentioned:

Sigma Nutrition: Episode 38: Dan Pardi

Sigma Nutrition: Episode 131: Dan PardiSigma Nutrition: Episode 154: Jeff Rothschild Sigma Nutrition: Episode 213: Greg PotterAll Things Strength and Wellness: Episode 114: Eric Helms – Nutrition Hierarchy Part 1

All Things Strength and Wellness: Episode 115: Eric Helms – Nutrition Hierarchy Part 2All Things Strength and Wellness: Episode 142: Eric Helms – Nutrition Hierarchy Part 3

Websites/ Apps Mentioned:

Cronometer Nutrientoptimiser.com

Resources Mentioned: Eric Helms – 3D Muscle Journey Renaissance Periodization MASS – Greg Nuckols, Eric Helms, and Mike ZourdosMac Nutrition – Martin MacDonaldWeightology – James KreigerAlan Aragon’s Research ReviewExamine.com

 

Time-Line:0:00 – 0:17 – Robbie’s Intro

0:18 – 1:57 - Danny’s Background

1:58 – 3:52 - Robbie ask Danny about this thoughts on how big Sigma Nutrition has grown since Danny established the company and the podcast3:53 – 5:53 - Robbie and Danny discuss – being happy but never satisfied when striving for more success and achievement, and realizing that it’s all about the process5:54 – 9:44 - Robbie asks Danny to discuss the nutritional principles 9:45 – 11:10 - Robbie talks about the difference in nutritional strategies for – hypertrophy, fat loss, sports performance, and health and wellness, and discusses the difference between health vs fitness

11:11 – 13:11 - Danny talks about the “The Triangle of Focus” between health, performance, and body composition

13:12 – 14:46 - Danny discusses the first nutritional principle – energy balance

14:47 – 15:15 - Danny outlines the reminder of the nutritional principle – macronutrient breakdown, micronutrient breakdown, nutrient timing/ meal frequency, and supplementation15:15 – 16:31 - Danny mentions and acknowledges the great nutritional hierarchies put forth by Eric Helms and Renaissance Periodization as extremely helpful resources

16:32 – 18:27 - Danny shares with us the big rocks that he feels need to be in place for most of the general populations dietary needs to attain decent levels of overall health and well-being

18:28 –  22:38 - Robbie askS Danny to clear up some confusion that a lot of individuals have when understanding energy balance

22:29 –  25:04 - Robbie and Danny continue the discussion about understanding how energy balance is the main factor that will influence your bodyweight, while macronutrient breakdown will have a larger effect on body composition25:04 – 26:45 - Danny talks about a very important concept surrounding energy balance – that is that the energy balance equation is a two-way process, meaning a change in energy input will have an impact on energy output, and vice versa.

26:46 –  27:32 - Robbie adds to Danny’s last point on energy balance and mentions how Dr. Ben House has observed how individual a persons’ response can be to energy balance adjustments27:32 – 34:38 - Robbie askS Danny – How does he get a general population client to understand caloric intake, and what caloric estimation models does he like to use?34:39 – 41:08 - Robbie asks Danny about what rates of fat loss and muscle mass gain he generally likes to see? Robbie also asks Danny why he likes to use percentages of bodyweight to monitor fat loss and lean mass gains41:09 – 46:42 - Robbie asks Danny to share the strategies he uses with clients to adjust their caloric intake without his clients having to count calories46:43 – 52:07 - Robbie asks Danny to discuss how he sets ups his macronutrient guidelines for his clients and what strategies he uses to help his client accomplish their macronutrient intakes52:08 – 54:59 - Robbie asks Danny to give us his insights into protein requirements as we age55:00 – 57:20 - Robbie speaks about how self-limiting beliefs based off misunderstood information can effect individuals health and  reaching their potential57:21 – 1:00:05 - Danny discusses how he decides carbohydrate and fat intakes once protein intake has been established for both general population and athletes1:00:05 – 1:00:54 - Robbie asks Danny about what tracking tools he likes to recommend1:00:55 – 1:02:12- Robbie asks Danny about what he recommends for fibre intake1:02:13 – 1:03:12 - Robbie asks Danny if he incudes fibrous vegetables towards total carbohydrate intake?1:03:13 – 1:05:13 - Robbie ask if Danny knows of any “Gold Standard” tests for looking into micronutrient status for individuals?1:05:14 – 1:08:32 - Robbie asks Danny if micronutrient intake should be covered as long as food quality and variety are high in the diet? Danny mentions here that the only time you may have issues with variety in the diet is when someone is dieting for fat loss as you are taking in less calories, and also a lot of individuals like to decrease food options/variety in a dieting phase due to easier adherence1:08:33 – 1:10:06 - Danny discusses nutrient timing and meal frequency for mainly the general population 1:10:07 – 1:15:05 - Robbie asks Danny about the links between meal timing and circadian rhythms?

1:15:06 – 1:21:37 - Danny discusses the final and least important nutritional aspect of the hierarchy – supplementation, and shares with us some supplements that he feels may be worth recommending depending on the situation/context1:21:38 – 1:22: 37 - Robbie asks Danny what has changed his mind on the most of the past 2-4 years?1:22:38 – 1:26:22 - Robbie asks Danny if he thinks the evidence-based movement has swing too-far in one direction? Danny gives a great answer here!1:26:23 –  1:34:00 - Robbie asks Danny for his top resources and his top life advice? Danny gives another outstanding answer!1:34:01 – 1:36:42 - Robbie talks about the influence Alan Watts has had on how he perceives the world, and Danny speaks about how Jordon Peterson has been an influence on his way of thinking lately 1:36:43 – 1:41:37 - Robbie asks Danny the BIG QUESTION – If Danny could invite 5 people to dinner, dead or alive, who would he invite and why?1:41:38 – 1:42:31 - Robbie Wraps up the Show!