International society of sports nutrition position stand: diets and body composition.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review and expert consensus position stand
PubMed 28630601 · doi:10.1186/s12970-017-0174-y
What was done
The International Society of Sports Nutrition conducted a critical literature review and consensus evaluation to establish an official position stand regarding the effects of dietary archetypes, macronutrient distributions, and eating patterns on body composition.
What was found
The abstract synthesizes consensus conclusions without reporting trial-level pooled statistics. Fat loss requires a sustained caloric deficit, with slower rates of loss preserving more lean mass in lean individuals, while muscle gain requires a sustained caloric surplus alongside resistance training. Diverse dietary archetypes from low-fat to ketogenic approaches demonstrate similar efficacy for body composition. Lean, resistance-trained individuals in hypocaloric states require 2.3 to 3.1 g/kg of fat-free mass of dietary protein to retain muscle, with emerging data evaluating intakes exceeding 3 g/kg. Intermittent caloric restriction shows no significant body composition advantage over continuous daily caloric restriction.
Why it matters
This position stand highlights that energy balance and total protein intake govern body composition outcomes rather than specific macronutrient ratios or meal timing strategies.
Limits
The paper is a narrative position stand without meta-analytic pooling. The authors explicitly note a lack of literature evaluating women, older populations, behavioral modification strategies, and specific permutations of feeding frequency combined with training.
Cited by
- supports Protein requires more energy to digest than other macronutrients.