According to newly published article in The Conversation, Aoife Egan and Adam Collins write that when people do dieting, it may slow their metabolism but it may also improves in many positive ways.

In the article, Egan and Collins explain that when dieting we consume less calories than we normally do which forces our body to use its energy stores – like fat – more efficiently to meet the shortfall.

The loss of lean tissue (muscle) when you diet – which burns around 15-25 calories per kilogram each day – lowers resting metabolic rate, meaning you need fewer calories than you previously did. But the body also deliberately slows down metabolism to preserve energy stores and minimize weight loss.

When we limit calories through dieting, our body senses depleted fat stores which triggers a process known as “adaptive thermogenesis“, they write. “The process which further reduces resting metabolic rate – and may stunt weight loss despite strict dieting. … (it) is suggested to persist way beyond dieting – even hampering weight maintenance and favouring weight regain.”

Metabolic Changes

Explaining our diet triggered metabolic changes, they write:

When we lose weight, the main change we see is a decrease in body fat. This decrease is actually our fat cells shrinking in size – they don’t actually disappear. This shrinking of fat cells signals the body’s fuel stores are emptying, causing a drop in the hormone leptin. Ordinarily leptin inhibits appetite and increases metabolic rate – but when leptin levels plumment, metabolic rate slow and hunger increases.

To help restore the lost fuel due to dieting, the shrunken fat cells absorb glucose and store fats more efficiently leading to lower levels of sugar and fat in the blood thus decreasing risk of insulin resistance, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, they write.

So dieting doesn’t technically ruin your metabolism but rather improves it by helping it work better. … Studies show exercise (or simply physical activity) may be one way to prevent weight regain, by improving our ability to maintain our weight and can potentially minimise metabolic slowing. Exercise can also help regulate appetite and fuel burning in the short term, and may make weight loss more sustainable in the long term.