Research

Energy balance

Dietary fat intake (both long-chain and medium-chain triglycerides) does not increase postprandial fat oxidation rates, leading to positive fat balance and net fat storage when consumed with carbohydrates.

Eating dietary fat does not trigger your body to burn that fat for energy. Instead, when you eat fat alongside carbohydrates, your body stores the fat. To lose body fat, you must create an overall energy deficit, as simply changing the fat content of your meals does not increase fat burning.

GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
The results demonstrate that the rates of fat and of carbohydrate oxidation are not influenced by the fat content of a meal... The complete failure of common dietary fat (LCT) to alter the composition of the metabolic fuel mix oxidized at any time during the 9-h period after breakfast is quite remarkable and demonstrates how effectively LCT are channeled toward storage.
J. P. Flatt et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 1985

Why this rating

Controlled clinical trial with indirect calorimetry, though small sample size (n=7).

Source

Effects of dietary fat on postprandial substrate oxidation and on carbohydrate and fat balances.

J. P. Flatt et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 1985

DOI 10.1172/jci112054

crossover · n=7Cited 413×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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