Proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates are essential nutrients and main energy sources for the growth and development of organisms. When dietary protein is excessive, it is metabolized as energy, which not only increases the organism’s metabolic burden, affecting normal growth, but also causes water pollution through the discharge of waste products such as ammonia nitrogen. Reasonable use of lipids and carbohydrates can improve the utilization of dietary protein, save breeding costs, and promote the growth of aquatic animals. To explore the effects of different energy sources and dietary levels on the growth performance of Litopenaeus vannamei, we prepared a control diet (C) with 37% protein content and a protein-energy ratio of 20.23 mg/kJ. Four experimental diets were formulated to investigate the effects of different energy sources and levels on L. vannamei growth. These diets had protein-energy ratios of 19.51 mg/kJ (medium carbohydrate group, MC), 18.85 mg/kJ (high carbohydrate group, HC), 19.45 mg/kJ (medium lipid group, ML), and 18.54 mg/kJ (high lipid group, HL). These ratios were prepared by increasing the dietary energy content through carbohydrates or lipids. Juvenile shrimps, initially weighing (0.6±0.02) g, were fed these diets for 56 days under freshwater conditions. Before the end of the experiment, the shrimps underwent a 24-hours fast, followed by weighing and counting after removal from the net cage to calculate the survival rate, weight gain rate, specific growth rate, feed coefficient, protein efficiency ratio, and protein deposition rate. The muscle and hepatopancreas were collected from six shrimps in each cage to assess muscle composition, digestive enzymes (protease, lipase, and amylase), and antioxidant enzyme activities (T-AOC, MDA, and CAT). Serum samples were collected from 12 shrimps from each cage to determine serum biochemical indexes (GOT, GPT, and TG), serum antioxidants, and non-specific immune indexes (T-AOC, MDA, and AKP). The results evidenced that, compared with the control group, increasing dietary lipid levels significantly increased the growth performance and protein deposition rate of shrimp (P＜0.05). The HL group exhibited the highest specific growth rate and protein deposition rate. Conversely, increasing dietary carbohydrate levels did not significantly affect shrimp growth and protein deposition rate (P＞0.05). These results indicate that L. vannamei has a strong ability to utilize dietary lipids, and increasing dietary lipid levels can significantly improve both growth performance and the utilization of dietary protein in L. vannamei. Conversely, increasing dietary carbohydrate levels has limited effects on the growth and dietary protein utilization of L. vannamei. In terms of muscle composition, compared with the control group, the ML, MC, and HC groups evidenced significant increases in crude protein content (P＜0.05), while the HL group displayed a slight increase in crude protein content compared with the control group, although this difference was not significant (P＞0.05). The total lipid content in shrimp muscle increased significantly with the rise in dietary energy levels in all groups (P＞0.05). The ML, HL, MC, and HC groups all demonstrated significantly higher protease and lipase activities in the hepatopancreas compared with the control group (P＜0.05). The hepatopancreas amylase activity of shrimp in MC and HC groups was significantly higher than that in the control group (P＞0.05), but no significant difference was observed in the activities of amylase in the hepatopancreas of ML and HL groups compared with the control group (P＞0.05). Increasing dietary lipid levels led to a significant rise in the activity of serum GPT and TG contents (P＜0.05). In addition, HL group demonstrated significantly higher serum GOT activity than the control group (P＜0.05). Increasing dietary carbohydrate levels also significantly increased serum GPT and TG (P＜0.05), but had no significant effect on serum GOT (P＞0.05). At the same protein level, ML and HL groups exhibited significantly higher serum and hepatopancreatic MDA levels than the control group (P＜0.05), while MC and HC groups also had significantly higher serum and hepatopancreatic MDA levels than the control group (P＜0.05). In HC and HL groups, AKP activity was significantly higher than that in the control group (P＜0.05). Compared with the control group, increasing dietary lipid levels significantly increased the serum and hepatopancreatic T-AOC in shrimp. Increasing dietary carbohydrate levels also elevated the T-AOC in the serum but evidenced a trend of initially increasing and then decreasing in the hepatopancreas (P＜0.05). CAT activity exhibited a trend of initially decreasing followed by an increase compared with the control group (P＜0.05). These results suggest that shrimp fed a diet with a lipid content of 9.59% and a protein-energy ratio of 18.54 mg/kJ exhibited the best growth performance under the experimental conditions. Lipids, as a dietary energy source, are more suitable for L. vannamei than carbohydrates.