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Isocaloric Replacement

Meaning

A precise nutritional strategy where one specific component of the diet is substituted with another component, ensuring that the total caloric content of the meal or the entire daily intake remains mathematically unchanged. This technique is fundamentally used in metabolic and clinical research to isolate the specific physiological effects of a single macronutrient or food component, entirely independent of any change in energy balance. For example, replacing fat calories with an equal amount of carbohydrate calories allows researchers to study the unique hormonal and metabolic impact of the carbohydrate itself. This precision is essential for determining the intrinsic metabolic value of different nutrients in controlled settings.