A new study claims dieting can actually make you eat more.

Scientists say dieting causes brain cells to start eating themselves, triggering your brain to send out signals that make you hungry and slow down your metabolism, making it more difficult to lose weight.

The study was conducted by a team of researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York.

The research was done with mice but the scientists say the results likely apply to humans as well.

Researchers say a medicine could be developed that blocks those hunger signals from the brain, leading to more successful diets.

"The study is a pathway that is really important for every cell to turn over components in a kind of housekeeping process also required to regulate appetite," Dr. Rajat Singh, lead author of the study, said.

"Treatments aimed at the pathway might make you less hungry and burn more fat, a good way to maintain energy balance in a world where calories are cheap and plentiful," he said.

The study's findings have been published in the journal Cell Metabolism.