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High-calorie foods will save you from obesity
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have found that a carefully planned high-fat diet can lead to weight loss and speed up metabolism. Thanks to such a diet, calories are not converted into fat, but are used to produce energy when a person is not eating.
Previous studies have shown that disruption of mammals' daily routines and a high-fat diet disrupts metabolic processes, which subsequently leads to obesity.
The goal of the specialists was to find out how a high-calorie diet affects the body if such a diet is used long-term and strictly according to a schedule.
They hypothesized that such a "precision" diet would regulate the biological clock and reduce the risk of weight gain that occurs with such a diet under normal, uncontrolled conditions.
For 18 weeks, the scientists fed the experimental mice to answer the question that interested them. The mice were divided into four groups: some "sat" on a low-fat diet, but ate according to a strict schedule, the second group ate the same food, but in a random mode (this concerned both the time of feeding and its amount). Mice from the third group ate high-calorie food at a certain time, adhering to a strict schedule, and the fourth team of test subjects ate fat-rich food, but in a random mode.
The results showed that all four groups gained weight. The mice in the fourth group, which were fed fatty foods without following a precise schedule, had the highest percentage of body weight gain, while those in the group that ate high-calorie foods at a precise time had the lowest percentage.
In addition, the rodents in this group did not convert calories into fat, but were used up while the animals were not receiving food.
"Our study demonstrates that timing of food consumption over the amount of fat in the diet improves metabolism and helps prevent obesity. Improving metabolism through careful meal planning, without restricting the components of the daily menu, can be used as a therapeutic tool to prevent obesity in humans."
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