Whether you eat a high-protein diet with carbs or without carbs, your body burns about the same number of calories — carbs don’t make you burn more energy.

Pro

Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

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Presence or absence of carbohydrates and the proportion of fat in a high-protein diet affect appetite suppression but not energy expenditure in normal-weight human subjects fed in energy balance

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

2010 Nov

Contradicting (0)

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No contradicting evidence found

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Source Study

Presence or absence of carbohydrates and the proportion of fat in a high-protein diet affect appetite suppression but not energy expenditure in normal-weight human subjects fed in energy balance

Score: 59

DOI: 10.1017/S0007114510002060

Similar Assertions

Even though people still ate more calories than they burned, eating high-protein, low-carb ultra-processed foods made them much less likely to store excess energy as fat compared to normal-protein ultra-processed foods.

83%

After losing weight, people who eat very little carbs burn about 190 more calories per day than those who eat a lot of carbs, even when they’re eating the same amount of food and not exercising more.

80%

When lean adults increase their protein intake from 15% to 25% of daily calories, they do not eat fewer total calories over four days, indicating that the body adjusts energy intake when protein is too low but not when protein is too high.

80%

Eating ultra-processed foods with more protein and fewer carbs makes your body burn about 130 extra calories per day just to digest and process the food, even if you’re not moving more.

79%

When lean adults reduce their protein intake from 15% to 10% of their daily calories, they tend to eat about 12% more calories over four days, mostly by snacking more on savory foods, suggesting that lower protein levels may lead to increased overall food consumption.

78%