Research

Hormonal

Caloric restriction (25% deficit) improves metabolic flexibility, evidenced by amplified fasting-to-postprandial differences in acylcarnitines and free fatty acids, which correlates with improved insulin sensitivity.

To improve metabolic flexibility, consider a sustained caloric restriction of about 25% below your maintenance needs. This approach helps your body better switch between burning fat and glucose, which is linked to better insulin sensitivity. This is most effective if you are currently sedentary and have a normal-to-overweight BMI.

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Based on changes in intermediates of FA oxidation following a food challenge, CR imparted improvements in metabolic flexibility that correlated with improvements in SI.
Kim M. Huffman et al. · PLoS ONE · 2012

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with objective metabolite profiling, though sample size is modest (N=46).

Source

Caloric Restriction Alters the Metabolic Response to a Mixed-Meal: Results from a Randomized, Controlled Trial

Kim M. Huffman et al. · PLoS ONE · 2012

DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0028190

rct · n=46Cited 51×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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