Research
Energy balance
Short-term caloric restriction increases myocardial triglyceride content and impairs diastolic function in healthy and diabetic individuals, whereas prolonged caloric restriction (6-16 weeks) reduces myocardial fat and improves diastolic function.
Be cautious with extreme, short-term crash diets, as they may temporarily increase heart fat and stress. A sustained, moderate caloric restriction over several weeks is more likely to reduce heart fat and improve heart function.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
In healthy subjects, short-term caloric restriction and starvation provoked a dose-dependent increase in myocardial triglyceride content and decrease in diastolic function... Conversely, the prolongation of a very-low-calorie diet for 6–16 weeks reduced myocardial fat content in nondiabetic obese and in type 2 diabetic patients... accompanied by... an improvement in diastolic function.
Why this rating
Based on multiple human studies with imaging confirmation.
Source
Myocardial, Perivascular, and Epicardial Fat
Patricia Iozzo · Diabetes Care · 2011
DOI 10.2337/dc11-s250
narrative_reviewCited 269×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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