Research
Energy balance
Severe caloric restriction decreases resting metabolic rate, but regular exercise can help maintain relative resting metabolic rate during such restriction.
If you are restricting calories to lose weight, incorporating regular endurance exercise can help prevent your resting metabolic rate from dropping as much as it might otherwise, particularly when measured relative to your fat-free mass.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Some investigators have shown that endurance exercise during caloric restriction may prevent a decline in relative (expressed per kg fat free mass) resting metabolic rate.
Why this rating
The paper notes conflicting results among investigators, indicating some variability.
Source
Influence of Diet and Exercise on Energy Expenditure—A Review
Robert Zant · International Journal of Sport Nutrition · 1992
DOI 10.1123/ijsn.2.1.1
narrative_reviewCited 36×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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