Research

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Long-term caloric restriction (25% reduction) slows the pace of biological aging as measured by DunedinPACE in healthy adults, though it does not significantly alter static biological age estimates from PhenoAge or GrimAge clocks.

If you can sustain a moderate calorie deficit (even around 10-15%), it may slow the rate at which your body ages biologically, as measured by specific epigenetic markers. This does not necessarily reverse your current biological age, but it may slow the accumulation of age-related damage. Consistency over two years is key, and behavioral support helps maintain the deficit.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
We found that CALERIE intervention slowed the pace of aging, as measured by the DunedinPACE DNAm algorithm, but did not lead to significant changes in biological age estimates measured by various DNAm clocks including PhenoAge and GrimAge.
Reem Waziry et al. · Nature Aging · 2023

Why this rating

High-quality randomized controlled trial (CALERIE Phase 2) with long-term follow-up (2 years) and rigorous statistical analysis, though effect sizes are small.

Source

Effect of long-term caloric restriction on DNA methylation measures of biological aging in healthy adults from the CALERIE trial

Reem Waziry et al. · Nature Aging · 2023

DOI 10.1038/s43587-022-00357-y

rct · n=220Cited 180×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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