Macro partitioning
A eucaloric low-carbohydrate/high-fat diet reverses metabolic syndrome in obese individuals independent of weight loss, primarily by improving atherogenic dyslipidemia (triglycerides, HDL, LDL particle size) and reducing circulating saturated fatty acids and de novo lipogenesis markers.
If you have metabolic syndrome, switching to a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet can improve your blood lipids and metabolic markers within 4 weeks, even if you do not lose weight. Focus on reducing carbohydrates (to ~6% of calories) and increasing fat, while keeping total calories stable. This approach improves triglycerides, HDL, and LDL particle size more effectively than high-carbohydrate diets, regardless of changes in body weight.
Consistent with the perspective that MetS is a pathologic state that manifests as dietary carbohydrate intolerance, these results show that compared with eucaloric high-carbohydrate intake, LC/high-fat diets benefit MetS independent of whole-body or fat mass.
Why this rating
Randomized crossover design with controlled feeding eliminates confounding by weight loss, but sample size is small (n=16).
Source
Dietary carbohydrate restriction improves metabolic syndrome independent of weight loss
Parker N. Hyde et al. · JCI Insight · 2019
DOI 10.1172/jci.insight.128308
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