Research

Hormonal

Low-carbohydrate diets (20% of energy) increase Total Energy Expenditure (TEE) by approximately 250 kcal/day compared to high-carbohydrate diets (60% of energy) during weight-loss maintenance, supporting the carbohydrate-insulin model.

Adopting a low-carbohydrate diet (around 20% of calories from carbs) may increase your daily energy expenditure by about 250 calories compared to a high-carb diet, even when maintaining the same weight. This metabolic advantage may facilitate long-term weight management.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
We found that TEE measured by doubly-labeled water (DLW) was approximately 250 kcal/d greater on the low- vs high-carbohydrate diet [4].
David S. Ludwig et al. · European Journal of Clinical Nutrition · 2020

Why this rating

Based on a large, well-controlled feeding study, though the current paper is a reanalysis/methodological critique.

Source

Testing the carbohydrate-insulin model of obesity in a 5-month feeding study: the perils of post-hoc participant exclusions

David S. Ludwig et al. · European Journal of Clinical Nutrition · 2020

DOI 10.1038/s41430-020-0658-8

rct · n=145Cited 10×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →