For people with type 2 diabetes, how closely they follow a reduced-calorie diet matters more for losing weight and reducing body fat than whether their diet is higher in fats or carbohydrates.
Mechanism
Synthesis from 1 study
When you eat fewer calories than your body needs, it starts burning stored fat for energy — no matter if those calories came mostly from carbs or fat. Your body doesn’t care where the energy restriction comes from; it just uses what’s available to keep running, and that means losing fat.
Most probable mechanism
When a person eats fewer calories than their body needs, the body starts breaking down stored fat for energy. This happens regardless of whether the food they eat has more fat or more carbs, because the body uses the same basic process to burn fat when there isn't enough incoming energy.
A sustained negative energy balance reduces circulating glucose and insulin levels, lowering the inhibition of hormone-sensitive lipase in adipose tissue.
Reduced insulin signaling permits the activation of hormone-sensitive lipase, which breaks down triglycerides into free fatty acids and glycerol.
Free fatty acids are released into the bloodstream and transported to skeletal muscle and liver, where they undergo beta-oxidation to produce ATP.
The rate of fatty acid oxidation exceeds the rate of de novo lipogenesis, resulting in net loss of adipose tissue mass.
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
Community contributions welcome
One-Year Comparison of a High–Monounsaturated Fat Diet With a High-Carbohydrate Diet in Type 2 Diabetes
Contradicting (0)
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Gold Standard Evidence Needed
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