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Ultimately, weight loss comes down to burning more calories than you take in. This can be achieved by either reducing extra calories from food and beverages, increasing physical activity, or ideally, doing both. Losing one pound requires an expenditure of about 3,500 calories. That means, for example, eating 500 fewer calories—one less quarter-pound hamburger with cheese—each day for a week, or burning an additional 500 calories through exercise—about 1.5 hours of brisk walking—per day for a week. But a recent discovery may one day make it a little easier to achieve a leaner physique.

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Neuroscience in New York say they have found a way to trick the body into burning extra fat—in mice, at least! In a laboratory test, mice treated with a compound to block an enzyme called Fyn kinase displayed not only significant weight loss but also an increase in energy expenditure. The new findings build on the team’s previous research showing that mice lacking the enzyme burn more fatty acids and were leaner than their normal littermates. The enzyme-deficient mice also showed other metabolic improvements, including increased insulin sensitivity.