Macro partitioning
Low-carbohydrate diets (5-25% energy from carbs) improve cardiometabolic markers (weight, waist circumference, HDL, triglycerides) in healthy adults, with greater carbohydrate restriction yielding larger improvements in lipid profiles despite similar weight loss.
Adopting a low-carbohydrate diet (15-25% of calories from carbs) for 12 weeks can significantly improve your metabolic health markers, including weight, waist size, and blood lipids (specifically raising good HDL cholesterol and lowering triglycerides). You do not need to go to extreme ketosis (5% carbs) to see benefits; moderate restriction is easier to maintain and still yields superior lipid improvements compared to higher carb intakes, all while eating enough calories to maintain your usual energy levels.
Low-carbohydrate, high-fat diets have a positive effect on markers of health... greater improvements in HDL-c and TG with greater carbohydrate restriction.
Why this rating
Randomized clinical trial but with high dropout (49%) and small sample size (39 completers), limiting statistical power for between-group comparisons.
Source
Low-carbohydrate diets differing in carbohydrate restriction improve cardiometabolic and anthropometric markers in healthy adults: A randomised clinical trial
Cliff Harvey et al. · PeerJ · 2019
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