Research

Macro partitioning

In overweight/obese sedentary men, a high-carbohydrate diet (67% energy) significantly impairs glycaemic control compared to a high-fat diet (67% energy), resulting in higher peak, mean, and total area under the curve glucose levels, while meal provision itself does not alter daily physical activity patterns.

For overweight or obese sedentary men, replacing carbohydrates with fat in meals significantly improves blood sugar control after eating. If you are managing blood glucose, prioritizing lower-carbohydrate, higher-fat meals may be more effective than high-carbohydrate meals. However, simply providing meals does not reduce your daily physical activity, so you should maintain your usual movement habits regardless of how your food is prepared.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
The HCD increased peak (+1.6 mmol/L, p < 0.001), mean (+0.5 mmol/L, p = 0.001), and total area under the curve (+670 mmol/L/min, p = 0.001), as well as 3-h postprandial meal glucose concentrations (all p < 0.001) compared with the HFD. ... Meal provision did not alter the patterns of reduced physical activity, and increased sedentary behaviour following dinner, compared with following breakfast and lunch.
Evelyn B. Parr et al. · Nutrients · 2018

Why this rating

Randomized crossover design with controlled meals, but small sample size (n=8) and short duration (5 days per condition).

Source

Effects of Providing High-Fat versus High-Carbohydrate Meals on Daily and Postprandial Physical Activity and Glucose Patterns: a Randomised Controlled Trial

Evelyn B. Parr et al. · Nutrients · 2018

DOI 10.3390/nu10050557

crossover · n=8Cited 21×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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