ArticleObesity (Silver Spring, Md.)2022
Macronutrient (im)balance drives energy intake in an obesogenic food environment: An ecological analysis.
Article in Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Protein oxidation in non-exercising healthy adults under varying dietary conditions: Physiological determinants, effects on fuel partitioning, and implications for body weight regulation.Metabolism: clinical and experimental · 2025Trial
- Rapid benefits in older age from transition to whole food diet regardless of protein source or fat to carbohydrate ratio: Arandomised control trial.Aging cell · 2024Trial
- Macronutrient mixtures and interactions in health and disease.Nature reviews. Endocrinology · 2026Review
- Protein Decoys, Alcohol, and Energy Intake: Testing a Mechanistic-Ecological Model.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Review
- Dietary Macronutrient Composition and Protein Concentration for Weight Loss Maintenance.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2025Article
- Preferences for fat, sugar, and oral-sensory food qualities in monkeys and humans.Physiology & behavior · 2025Review
- Integrated behavioral and metabolically flexible responses of wild orangutans to ecologically driven dietary variation.Science advances · 2025Article
- Dietary macronutrient content and energy intake in the mouse: hedonic or homeostatic override?Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2025Article
- Macronutrient composition of plant-based diets and breast cancer risk: the E3N prospective cohort study.European journal of nutrition · 2024Article
- Sucrose overconsumption impairs AgRP neuron dynamics and promotes palatable food intake.Cell reports · 2024Article
- Protein appetite as an integrator in the obesity system: the protein leverage hypothesis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Testing for Protein Leverage in Patients with Gastric Bypass: A Pilot Study.Annals of nutrition & metabolism · 2023Article
- Macronutrient (im)balance drives energy intake in an obesogenic food environment: An ecological analysis.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThe protein leverage hypothesis (PLH) postulates that strong regulation of protein intake drives energy overconsumption and obesity when human diets are diluted by fat and carbohydrates. The two predictions of the PLH are that humans (i) regulate intake to maintain protein within a narrow range and that (ii) energy intake is an inverse function of percentage energy from protein because absolute protein intake is maintained within narrow limits.
methodsMultidimensional nutritional geometry was used to test the predictions of the PLH using dietary data from the Australian National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey.
resultsBoth predictions of the PLH were confirmed in a population setting: the mean protein intake was 18.4%, and energy intake decreased with increasing energy from protein (L = -0.18, p < 0.0001). It was demonstrated that highly processed discretionary foods are a significant diluent of protein and associated with increased energy but not increased protein intake.
conclusionsThese results support an integrated ecological and mechanistic explanation for obesity, in which low-protein highly processed foods lead to higher energy intake because of the biological response to macronutrient imbalance driven by a dominant appetite for protein. This study supports a central role for protein in the obesity epidemic, with significant implications for global health.
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