CALERIE (Comprehensive Assessment of Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy)

node · earth · United States, multi-site

The National Institute on Aging's multi-site randomised controlled trial of sustained caloric restriction in healthy non-obese adults — the only such trial that exists. Its second phase randomised roughly two hundred participants to a target twenty-five percent restriction or ad libitum eating for two years; the achieved restriction was closer to twelve percent, which is itself an important finding about what humans will actually sustain. Reported effects included improvements in cardiometabolic risk markers, blood pressure and inflammatory markers, alongside reductions in bone mineral density and lean mass whose long-term significance is unclear. A 2023 reanalysis of stored samples reported a small slowing of the DunedinPACE pace-of-ageing measure without significant effects on first-generation epigenetic clocks. The trial cannot address lifespan: no human caloric restriction trial ever will, because the required follow-up exceeds the working life of the investigators.