Do you love low carb but are confused about how to dial in your macros to increase satiety and crush your cravings?
Maybe you stalled out on keto and are not sure where to turn next to lose weight.
Should you cut your carbs more? Add more fat to boost your ketones.
To bring some clarity to these questions, we analysed 310,069 days of data for people who get most of their energy from fat.
This article will show you exactly how to get the desired results.
Low Satiety Danger Zone 1: The Fat+Carb Bliss Points
Our first chart shows the satiety response to varying protein, fat and carbs on a lower-carb diet, highlighting two danger zones that align with lower satiety and eating more.
The first low satiety danger zone is in the centre of the chart, where the bliss point for carbs and fat coincides at around 43% when protein is also low.
The snip from our interactive food search tool shows foods like burgers, pizza, and Doritos fit into this window. We often think of these foods as ‘bad carbs’, but they’re a similar blend of fat and carbs with low protein.
Low Satiety Danger Zone 2: Low Protein + High Fat
The second danger zone occurs at the top of the chart with low protein (around 12.5%) and very high fat (more than 70%), which aligns with consuming much more energy. Foods like peanut butter, high-fat sausage and nuts (shown below) fit into this low-satiety window.
How Much Does Reducing Carbs Increase Satiety?
The satiety analysis also highlights that reducing carbohydrates from the carbohydrate blis point to about 20% carbs aligns with a modest increase in satiety. However, going zero carb doesn’t help improve satiety, especially if we end up in the high-fat, low-protein scenario noted above.
In our Macros Masterclass, after ensuring they’re getting enough protein, we guide Optimisers to reduce carbs enough to stabilise their blood glucose (i.e., a rise of less than 30 mg/dL or 1.6 mmol/L after eating).
With protein and carbs dialled in, we use ‘fat as a lever’ in the Macros Masterclass to achieve a weight loss of between 0.5 and 1.0% per week.
How Much Fat Do You Need on a Low-Carb Diet?
Toward the left of the low-carb satiety chart, we see it’s hard to overeat very low-fat, low-carb (i.e. very high-protein) foods. But this doesn’t mean you must go “low fat”. If your carbs are low, you need energy from somewhere.
Notice the dip in the blue fat vs. satiety line around 61% fat. This is the sweet spot for low-carb maintenance, which avoids the fat+carb bliss point foods while still getting plenty of protein without overdoing the fat.
This snip from our food search tool shows the low-carb staples like steak, bacon and lower-fat cheese that fit into this healthy low-carb maintenance window. These foods are great if you’re happy with your weight and body composition and enjoy a lower-carb diet.
The Biggest Satiety Lever: Protein
Finally, you’ve probably noticed the big red line cutting the whole chart.
Many believe the magic of low carb is the lower carb, the higher fat, or something related to insulin or ketones. But the reality is that protein is the dominant satiety factor in a low-carb diet. Because it is critical to maintain our muscles and organs, our appetite ensures we get enough. But once we get enough protein, our appetite subsides.
People who reduce their carbs typically significantly increase their protein percentage. This suggests that the real satiety magic of a low-carb diet is that we usually get plenty of bioavailable protein.
As you can see from the snip below from our foods search tool, foods like chicken breast, sirloin steak, non-fat Greek yogurt and most seafood, which provide more than 50% protein, are extremely hard to overeat. They provide a ton of satiety per calorie.
So, to increase your satiety, lose fat, stabilise your blood glucose, and reduce your insulin, start by prioritising protein-rich foods.
Don’t be surprised if you lose your appetite for the other comfort foods that you previously felt “addicted to” that were undoing all your hard work and discipline.
Summary: Low Carb Satiety
- Avoid food that provides a similar blend of fat and carbs with low protein.
- The high fat, low protein combination may provide even lower satiety than the fat+carb bliss point foods.
- Reducing carbs from 43 to 20% increases satiety a little. We see a sweet spot at around 60% fat, which allows for balanced low-carb maintenance.
- However, protein is the biggest satiety lever, especially on a low-carb diet.
- When you increase your percentage of energy from protein, how you balance the carb vs fat equation doesn’t matter too much.
Postscript
The satiety charts above are created using a subset of the data for which people get more non-protein energy from fat vs carbohydrates. After I published it on X, @patrickestarian commented that this is not what most people consider “low carb”.
So, I re-ran the analysis with the 103,243 days of data with less than 26% carbohydrates. The resulting chart below shows that the satiety equation is even simpler for those already on a lower-carb diet: swapping your fat for protein aligns with eating less!
But fear not; you don’t need to jump from one extreme to the other to increase satiety. Instead, we see the best results when people incrementally dial back energy from added fats while prioritising protein.
Agree about nuts, I can eat them like potato chips all night long. Not sure about sirloin, seems like I can eat an enormous amount of just about any kind of beef before satiety sets in. I know from experience that my weight seems to vary depending on the amount of carbs I’m eating–I can gain weight very quickly with just a modest boost. I also know that protein seems to stop the appetite better than anything else. That’s why I do best when I’m eating mostly meat/eggs and non-starchy veggies and a few berries. Have to avoid anything in a box like the plague. Also have to dial back the cheese, although low fat string cheese is great.
Nuts are like a magical combination of fat, carbs and salt together with low protein that keeps us eating. Everything in a box with a label in the centre isle of the supermarket or that you buy at a fast-food chain tends to follow the same formula. Dairy can be OK if you chose the higher protein % versions.