- Ditta Valsdottir is a PhD candidate at the Department of Physical Performance.
- On March 5th, she will defend her dissertation: "Combined and Independent Effects of a Low-Carbohydrate High-Fat Diet and Exercise on Cardiometabolic Risk Factors."
- Read the full dissertation (nva.sikt.no).
- The defense will be streamed on NIH's YouTube channel.
About the study
The thesis examines how a low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) diet and endurance exercise, both alone and in combination, affect metabolic health. By studying normal-weight, overweight, and individuals with obesity, including both women and men, the work highlights how lifestyle interventions involving an LCHF diet and/or exercise can result in different effects depending on context and baseline characteristics.
The results show that LCHF does not lead to consistent improvements in glucose tolerance or lipid profiles, and that the effects vary with the amount of carbohydrates and fat, as well as individual factors such as body fat percentage and metabolic status.
Endurance exercise, in contrast, emerges as a robust intervention for improving metabolic health, also when combined with different dietary patterns.
The thesis thus contributes to a more nuanced understanding of diet and exercise and underscores the importance of tailoring lifestyle advice rather than seeking universal solutions and trends.
Results
- An LCHF diet does not produce consistent improvements in glucose tolerance or lipid profiles
- The effects of LCHF vary depending on context and individual characteristics, including body fat and metabolic status
- Endurance exercise leads to robust and consistent improvements in metabolic health across groups
- Combining LCHF with endurance exercise does not result in uniformly greater benefits than exercise alone
- The findings support the importance of tailoring lifestyle interventions to individual contexts rather than relying on general recommendations and trends
Program
- 10:15-11:00: Trial lecture: "The role of dietary fat in endurance performance and regulation of training adaptations.”
- 13:00-16:00: Defense of the dissertation: "Combined and Independent Effects of a Low-Carbohydrate High-Fat Diet and Exercise on Cardiometabolic Risk Factors."
Committee:
Chair:
Professor Trine Stensrud, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences
Opponents:
Professor Erlingur Sigurður Jóhannsson, University of Iceland
Associate Professor Andreas Mæchel Fritzen, University of Copenhagen
Main supervisor: Jørgen Jensen, Professor at the Department of Physical Performance, NIH
Co-supervisor: Christine Henriksen, Professor at the Department of Nutrition Sciences, Section for Clinical Nutrition, University of Oslo
The defense is open to all and will be chaired by Rector Aage Radmann.