F. Bahrami, E. Buetler, K. Freiburghaus, P. Seubnooch, L. Bally, J. Maurer, CE. Flück, R. Wiest, et al. (2026). Short-term effect of Ketogenic diet and Low-calorie diet on Ketometabolism and lipid metabolism. The Journal of nutritional biochemistry, 149, 110188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2025.110188

PubMed 41265582

[Abstract]
The ketogenic diet (KD) has shown therapeutic potential for epilepsy, neuroprotective effects, and, more recently, metabolic complications. In this study, we explored the impact of the KD on the promotion of ketometabolism and the improvement of dyslipidemia. To this end, we investigated the outcomes of two different diets, eucaloric KD and low-calorie diet (LCD), on ketogenesis, circulating intact lipids, bile acids, and neuro and pancreatic peptides. Based on our results, the concentration of ketone bodies, namely 3-hydroxybutyric acid, increased significantly by an average of ten and two times for KD and LCD, respectively. Additionally, the concentration of several triglyceride (TAG) species decreased up to 98.3% and 99.1% for KD and LCD, respectively, while these reductions were only significant for LCD. Moreover, our results showed that 3 d of KD led to an increase in the baseline concentration of pancreatic polypeptide 3-36, which suggests that short-term KD has the potential to suppress the appetite. Finally, no significant change in the baseline and kinetic postprandial concentration of bile acid species was observed during the KD. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the ketogenic diet, being less restrictive than the low-calorie diet, has a greater impact on ketometabolism. However, while KD reduces TAG species, this reduction is not statistically significant, unlike the significant decrease observed with LCD.