Research

Energy balance

Caloric restriction (20-30% reduction) significantly improves cardiometabolic health by reducing body weight, BMI, fat mass, total cholesterol, and LDL, while having no significant effect on blood pressure or HDL.

To improve metabolic health, reduce your daily caloric intake by 20-30% while ensuring you still get all essential nutrients. Expect significant weight loss and improved cholesterol levels, but do not expect blood pressure or HDL changes to be guaranteed outcomes.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Meta-analyses proved benefit of CR on reduction of body weight, BMI, fat mass, total cholesterol, while a minor impact was shown for LDL, fasting glucose and insulin levels. No effect emerged for HDL and blood pressure after CR.
Silvia Caristia et al. · Nutrients · 2020

Why this rating

Based on a systematic review and meta-analysis of 8 RCTs with 704 subjects, though some heterogeneity and bias risks exist.

Source

Is Caloric Restriction Associated with Better Healthy Aging Outcomes? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Silvia Caristia et al. · Nutrients · 2020

DOI 10.3390/nu12082290

Meta-analysis · 8 studiesCited 41×
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 →