Research
Hormonal
Baseline Respiratory Quotient (RQ) can predict which diet (Low-Carb or Low-Fat) will be more effective for an individual's short-term weight loss.
If you can measure your baseline Respiratory Quotient (RQ), a high RQ suggests you might lose more weight on a Low-Carb diet, while a low RQ might suggest a Low-Fat diet could be more effective.
GoodConditionalHIGH confidence
baseline RQ may provide additional information in selecting efficient dietary interventions for weight loss... individuals with higher RQ at baseline... lost more weight compared with HLF participants in the first 6 months
Why this rating
Strong correlation (r=0.22, p=0.001) between RQ reduction and weight loss in HLC group; significant interaction with baseline RQ.
Source
Distinct factors associated with short-term and long-term weight loss induced by low-fat or low-carbohydrate diet intervention
Xiao Li et al. · Cell Reports Medicine · 2022
DOI 10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100870
rct · n=609Cited 23×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- For short-term weight loss (first 6 months), dietary adherence and diet quality are primary drivers, whereas caloric restriction alone is a weaker predictor of success.Good
- Long-term weight loss maintenance is not significantly predicted by dietary adherence or caloric restriction, but is associated with baseline proteomic and gut microbiome signatures.Good
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