Research

Macro partitioning

Dietary methionine restriction (MR) significantly increases fat oxidation and reduces intrahepatic lipid content in obese adults with metabolic syndrome, independent of weight loss.

If you have metabolic syndrome, restricting methionine (found in meat, dairy, and grains) to very low levels (approx 2mg/kg body weight) for 16 weeks can help your body burn more fat and reduce liver fat, even if you lose the same amount of weight as someone eating a normal restricted diet. However, achieving this requires a highly restrictive diet that eliminates many common foods, which may be difficult to sustain long-term.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
dietary MR produced a significant increase in fat oxidation (MR, 12.1 ± 6.0% increase; control, 8.1 ± 3.3% decrease) and reduction in intrahepatic lipid content (MR liver/spleen attenuation ratio, 8.1 ± 3.3% increase; control ratio, 2.2 ± 2.1% increase) that was independent of the comparable reduction in weight and adiposity that occurred in both groups.
Eric P. Plaisance et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 2011

Why this rating

Small sample size (n=26), short duration (16 weeks), and potential compliance issues with the experimental diet.

Source

Dietary Methionine Restriction Increases Fat Oxidation in Obese Adults with Metabolic Syndrome

Eric P. Plaisance et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 2011

DOI 10.1210/jc.2010-2493

rct · n=26Cited 183×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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