ScienceAlert - A new mouse study challenges conventional wisdom that cutting down on calories can lead to a drop in exercise performance. Even when dieting, it seems mammalian bodies are able and willing to keep up previous activity levels.
Researchers looked at mice that spent time on a treadmill as their diets were cut down. These lab tests are easier to get fixed figures from, compared to real-world conditions, where our relationships to dieting and exercise are often irregular and hard to quantify.
After three weeks of baseline measurements, the team led by researchers from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) cut down the calories given to the mice by 20 percent for one week, and then by 40 percent the following week. They included normal mice as well as 'high-runner' mice bred to enjoy running.
"Voluntary exercise [in mice] was remarkably resistant to reducing the amount of food by 20 percent and even by 40 percent," says biologist Theodore Garland Jr from UCR. "They just kept running."