Research
Macro partitioning
Low-carbohydrate, high-protein, low-fat diets mitigate the negative side effects of standard low-carb diets (such as lean mass loss and calcium excretion) while preserving fat loss benefits.
If you choose a low-carb diet, make sure it is also high in protein and low in fat. This combination helps you keep your muscle, protects your bones by providing enough calcium, and keeps you full, making it easier to stick to the diet and lose fat.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
However, these undesirable effects may be counteracted with consumption of a low-carbohydrate, high-protein, low-fat diet, because this type of diet has been shown to induce favourable effects on feelings of satiety and hunger, help preserve lean body mass, effectively reduce fat mass and beneficially impact on insulin sensitivity and on blood lipid status while supplying sufficient calcium for bone mass maintenance.
Why this rating
Supported by specific studies (e.g., Layman et al.) but described as needing more research.
Source
Low‐carbohydrate diets: nutritional and physiological aspects
A. Adam‐Perrot et al. · Obesity Reviews · 2006
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-789x.2006.00222.x
narrative_reviewCited 247×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Low-carbohydrate diets (defined as <30% energy from CHO or <50-100g/day) acutely reduce fasting glucose, insulin, and triglycerides while promoting rapid initial weight loss, primarily through glycogen depletion and increased fat oxidation.Good
- Long-term adherence to strict low-carbohydrate, high-fat diets may increase cardiovascular risk factors, including plasma homocysteine levels and potentially insulin resistance, due to elevated circulating free fatty acids.Moderate
Related findings · Macro partitioning
- Total daily protein intake of 1.6 g/kg/day is sufficient for maximizing resistance training-induced muscle gains, with an upper confidence interval of 2.2 g/kg/day.Strong
- Resistance exercise training combined with sufficient dietary protein intake acts synergistically to maximize skeletal muscle hypertrophy, with protein intake saturating around 1.6 g/kg/day for general populations and potentially requiring 2.0-2.2 g/kg/day for resistance-trained individuals.Strong
- Trans fats should be completely eliminated from the diet, as they increase LDL cholesterol, decrease HDL cholesterol, and are directly associated with increased coronary risk.Strong
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