Research
Macro partitioning
Increased dietary fat intake (specifically >20% of energy) combined with reduced physical activity leads to obesity because humans lack short-term regulatory mechanisms to compensate for high-fat energy density.
Limit dietary fat to around 20% of total energy intake, especially if you have a sedentary job. High-fat foods are less satiating per calorie, making it easy to overconsume energy.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Stubbs showed several years ago that volunteers fed 20%, 40% or even 60% fat diets continue to eat the same quantity of food for at least a week (11) without the normal short- or medium-term regulatory measures responding to reduce consumption.
Why this rating
Based on cited intervention studies (Stubbs) and observational data.
Source
The fundamental drivers of the obesity epidemic
W. P. T. James · Obesity Reviews · 2008
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-789x.2007.00432.x
narrative_reviewCited 179×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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- Government policies such as traffic light labeling, import duties on unhealthy foods, and promoting local produce are effective strategies to limit obesity.Good
- Urbanization-driven reductions in physical activity (PAL) of 400-800 kcal/day are the primary driver of population-level obesity, outweighing individual behavioral choices.Moderate
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