Cutting down for summer or a physique contest is one thing. Researchers from the Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute in Jena, Germany found that cutting calories long-term can have both positive and negative consequences, as a study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicinesuggests.

A few years back, scientists were able to extend the lifespans of worms, fruit flies and lab rats through caloric restriction. Sometimes they lived 50% longer than normal. More recently, tests on mice showed that 30% food restriction slowed the aging of stem cells while reducing production of blood cell lymphocytes used for immune defense up to 75%