Research

Hormonal

Males with severe obesity experience significantly greater excess body weight loss and greater reduction in gamma-glutamyl transferase (a marker for NAFLD) compared to females following a 25-day very low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet (VLCKD).

If you are female, you may lose less weight and see less improvement in liver health markers than a male following the exact same very low-carb ketogenic diet protocol. This is likely due to differences in body fat distribution and hormones. Do not assume your results will match male benchmarks; focus on consistency and consult a professional to adjust expectations.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Males experienced a significantly larger excess body weight loss (EBWL) and a greater reduction in γ-glutamyl transferase (γGT) than females.
Marco D’Abbondanza et al. · Nutrients · 2020

Why this rating

The study is a pilot study with a small sample size (n=70) and short duration (25 days), limiting generalizability.

Source

Very Low-Carbohydrate Ketogenic Diet for the Treatment of Severe Obesity and Associated Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: The Role of Sex Differences

Marco D’Abbondanza et al. · Nutrients · 2020

DOI 10.3390/nu12092748

cohort · n=70Cited 75×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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