Low glycemic index (LGI) diets are often reported to benefit metabolic health, but the mechanism(s) responsible are not clear. This review aimed to systematically identify studies investigating metabolic effects of high glycemic index (HGI) versus LGI diets in mice and rats. A meta-analysis was conducted to calculate an overall effect, Hedge’s d, for each trait, with moderator variables taken into consideration in subsequent meta-regressions. Across 30 articles, a HGI diet increased five of the seven variables examined: body weight (d=0.55; 95% confidence interval: 0.31, 0.79), fat mass (d=1.08; 0.67, 1.49), fasting circulating insulin levels (d=0.40; 0.09, 0.71), and glucose (d=0.80; 0.35, 1.25) and insulin (d=1.14; 0.50, 1.77) area under the curve during a glucose tolerance test. However, there was substantial heterogeneity among the effects for all traits and the small number of studies enabled only limited investigation of possible confounding factors. HGI diets favour body weight gain, increased adiposity and detrimentally affects parameters of glucose homeostasis in mice and rats, but whether these effects are a direct result of GI per se, is difficult to say due to variation in other dietary constituents, such as dietary fibre, a factor which is known to reduce the glycemic index of food and promote health.