Research

Mixed

High-carbohydrate overfeeding induces the greatest increase in 24-hour energy expenditure (EE) compared to other macronutrient compositions, while substrate oxidation shifts (e.g., fat vs. carbohydrate) are primarily driven by the availability of the ingested macronutrient.

If you are overfeeding, eating a high-carbohydrate diet will boost your daily energy expenditure more than high-fat or high-protein diets of the same caloric excess. Furthermore, your body will primarily oxidize the macronutrient you just ate (carbs for carb diets, fat for fat diets), rather than forcing a specific fuel source regardless of intake. This suggests that macronutrient composition is a key lever for managing metabolic rate and fuel selection during overfeeding.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
High carbohydrate overfeeding induced greatest increase in 24-h EE. Substrate oxidation rate changes were generally consistent with the availability of macronutrients (Figure 2): for example, we observed a shift toward fat oxidation (in lieu of carbohydrate) as quantified by lipid oxidation rates and a fall in 24-h RQ in fasting and high-fat diets (with the converse in diets with greater carbohydrate content).
Andrew Perry et al. · medRxiv · 2024

Why this rating

High-quality controlled metabolic chamber study with precise calorimetry, though it is a preprint and has limitations on sample size and metabolite coverage.

Source

Human metabolic chambers reveal a coordinated metabolic-physiologic response to nutrition

Andrew Perry et al. · medRxiv · 2024

DOI 10.1101/2024.04.08.24305087

preprint · n=94
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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