Research

Energy balance

Consuming high-fiber rye products as part of a hypocaloric diet for 12 weeks causes greater body weight and body fat loss compared to consuming refined wheat products, independent of subjective appetite responses.

If you are trying to lose weight on a calorie-restricted diet, replace your refined wheat products (bread, cereal, crispbread) with high-fiber rye products. In this 12-week study, this swap resulted in significantly more weight and fat loss (1.08 kg and 0.54% body fat more) compared to wheat, even though participants didn't feel less hungry. You must still maintain your calorie deficit; rye is not a free pass to eat more calories.

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Consumption of high fiber rye products as part of a hypocaloric diet for 12 weeks caused a greater weight loss and body fat loss, as well as reduction in C-reactive protein, compared to refined wheat. The difference in weight loss could not be linked to differences in appetite response.
K Iversen et al. · Clinical Nutrition ESPEN · 2021

Why this rating

Parallel randomized controlled trial with 242 participants, high compliance, and objective DXA measurements.

Source

A hypocaloric diet rich in high fiber rye foods causes greater reduction in body weight and body fat than a diet rich in refined wheat: A parallel randomized controlled trial in adults with overweight and obesity (the RyeWeight study)

K Iversen et al. · Clinical Nutrition ESPEN · 2021

DOI 10.1016/j.clnesp.2021.07.007

rct · n=242Cited 37×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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