Research
Adherence
Manipulating energy density does not significantly alter the total amount of food consumed (in grams), meaning volume intake remains constant.
Do not worry about shrinking your portions. When you lower the energy density of your food (e.g., by adding vegetables), you can eat the same amount of food by weight. This helps maintain satiety and makes the diet easier to follow long-term.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Dietary ED did not affect the amount of food intake.
Why this rating
Based on meta-analysis of 26 studies, though heterogeneity was moderate.
Source
Impact of energy density on energy intake in children and adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Bea Klos et al. · European Journal of Nutrition · 2022
DOI 10.1007/s00394-022-03054-z
Meta-analysis · 38 studiesCited 23×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Lowering dietary energy density (ED) significantly reduces total energy intake in both children and adults without requiring portion size reduction.Good
- The reduction in energy intake from lower energy density meals is linearly related to the change in energy density, with stronger effects in adults than children and in entrée designs compared to preloads.Moderate
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