Uploaded May 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
In this hypothesis paper, we provide the first formal description of the Lipid Energy Model: -------mdpi.com/2218-1989/12/5/460
The Lipid Energy Model (LEM) examines the phenomenon of rising cholesterol levels for those on low carbohydrate diets and how this may provide powerful insights into lipid metabolism overall.
The LEM provides a mechanistic explanation for:
(i) the Lean Mass Hyper-Responder (LMHR) phenotype, characterized by the triad of high LDL (at or above 200 mg/dL), high HDL (at or above 80 mg/dL or above), and low triglycerides (at or below 70 mg/dL), as well as for
(ii) the phenomenon that LDL-C change on low-carbohydrate diets tends to associate inversely with BMI.
The LMHR phenotype and observation that leaner people with better metabolic health markers are possibly at greater likelihood for increases in LDL-C were described in our prior observational cohort study: doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzab144.
We have also recently provided a particularly comprehensive clinical vignette of an LMHR: doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.830325.
As a personal aside from the first and last authors (Nick Norwitz and Dave Feldman), while we've longed looked forward to this milestone, we wish to note that this is just the first of many. Interest in LMHR continues to grow, not only within the low-carb community, but within academic medicine. The publication of the LEM hypothesis paper is a landmark, not because it provides a comprehensive theory with rigorous support from human trials assessing the model, but because it presents a concrete hypothesis with direct and testable predictions.
It is our hope that the publication of the LEM paper (version 1.0) will encourage fellow researcher to help us test these ideas in interventional trials and, thereby, advance scientific knowledge regarding LMHR and, perhaps, human lipid metabolism more broadly.
In this hypothesis paper, we provide the first formal description of the Lipid Energy Model: -------mdpi.com/2218-1989/12/5/460
The Lipid Energy Model (LEM) examines the phenomenon of rising cholesterol levels for those on low carbohydrate diets and how this may provide powerful insights into lipid metabolism overall.
The LEM provides a mechanistic explanation for:
(i) the Lean Mass Hyper-Responder (LMHR) phenotype, characterized by the triad of high LDL (at or above 200 mg/dL), high HDL (at or above 80 mg/dL or above), and low triglycerides (at or below 70 mg/dL), as well as for
(ii) the phenomenon that LDL-C change on low-carbohydrate diets tends to associate inversely with BMI.
The LMHR phenotype and observation that leaner people with better metabolic health markers are possibly at greater likelihood for increases in LDL-C were described in our prior observational cohort study: doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzab144.
We have also recently provided a particularly comprehensive clinical vignette of an LMHR: doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.830325.
As a personal aside from the first and last authors (Nick Norwitz and Dave Feldman), while we've longed looked forward to this milestone, we wish to note that this is just the first of many. Interest in LMHR continues to grow, not only within the low-carb community, but within academic medicine. The publication of the LEM hypothesis paper is a landmark, not because it provides a comprehensive theory with rigorous support from human trials assessing the model, but because it presents a concrete hypothesis with direct and testable predictions.
It is our hope that the publication of the LEM paper (version 1.0) will encourage fellow researcher to help us test these ideas in interventional trials and, thereby, advance scientific knowledge regarding LMHR and, perhaps, human lipid metabolism more broadly.
