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Cutting calories not enough to lose weight

PORTLAND, Ore., April 16 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers confirm what some dieters have long claimed -- cutting calories may not result in weight loss.

Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University say they were surprised to find simply reducing caloric intake in monkeys by 30 percent was not enough to promote significant weight loss in one month.

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The study, published in the American Journal of Physiology -- Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, also finds a significant change in the activity levels for these monkeys and when caloric intake was further reduced in a second month, physical activity in the monkeys diminished even further.

"This research shows that simply dieting will not likely cause substantial weight loss," Judy Cameron, a professor of behavioral neuroscience at the OHSU School of Medicine, says in a statement. "Instead, diet and exercise must be combined to achieve this goal."

Cameron and colleagues fed 18 female rhesus macaque monkeys a high-fat diet for several years and then tracked weight and activity as calorie consumption was reduced. A comparison group of three monkeys fed a normal monkey diet and trained to exercise on a treadmill did lose weight, the study says.

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The researchers suggest the body may have a natural compensatory mechanism that causes physical activity to decrease in response to decreased calories.

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