Diet-induced thermogenesis is simply a measurement of how much something increases the speed of your metabolism compared with the amount of calories it contains. It’s typically expressed as a percentage; the higher the number, the more easily you’ll burn calories.

Fats, for example, have a value of 3%. Carbohydrates are 7%, so they’re a bit better than fat but still not very helpful.

Proteins have a diet-induced thermogenesis value of 25%.