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Cutting out afternoon snacks and exercising may be the best way to keep your heart healthy in old age, research suggests.
Experts found combining crash diets with regular half-hour treadmill work-outs had little benefit other than weight loss.
Instead, chopping out 250 calories – the equivalent of three chocolate digestives or two packets of crisps – was the only one of three methods that appeared to boost heart health.
Academics at the Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina admitted their discovery took them by surprise.
Researchers stuck 160 obese adults in their sixties and seventies into three different groups for 20 weeks.
A third of volunteers were asked to keep their regular diet but go on a treadmill four days a week for 30 minutes.
The others were also told to carry out the same amount of exercise but were instead asked to restrict their calorie intake.
Half were instructed to shave off 250 calories per day, while the others were told to cut out 600 calories.
The NHS says women should have 2,000 calories a day, while men should have 2,500.
The dieting volunteers received pre-made lunches and dinners, but were given a list of breakfast items they could eat.
Results showed weight loss rates were similar between the calorie-restricted groups.
Those who cut the most calories lost 19.8lbs (9kg), on average.
For comparison, those in the moderate calorie-restricted group lost 17.6 lbs (8kg), while those who only exercised lost just 3.7lbs (1.7kg).
But only those who cut out fewer calories saw significant improvements to their
