Why You Should Avoid Exercise (2 page)

A. The study is based on averages rather than on specific individuals. It could be that individuals who did intense exercise in the study did not, in fact, gain a longer life. It could also be that individuals who avoided exercise and limited themselves to physical activity that did not make them breathless/sweaty did in fact gain a longer life. We simply don't know because average figures across the whole cohort were used when drawing conclusions about increased longevity.

B. The data collected by the study was based on self-reporting rather than on objective scientific observation. Participants were asked to send in completed questionnaires about their lifestyle and degree of exercise. This method of scientific investigation is notoriously unreliable.

This study reviewed other studies and concluded that "
These studies indicate that, although exercise training does not consistently decrease bodyweight or body mass index, it is associated with beneficial changes in fat and lean body mass. Exercise training improves cardiovascular fitness and muscular strength
". Source: Watts K, et al, Exercise training in obese children and adolescents: current concepts, Sports Med. 2005; 35(5):375-92.

So this Watts study is saying that exercise does not reduce bodyweight or body mass, but that it does help to strengthen muscles and cardiovascular fitness. Clearly, exercise will strengthen muscles, but at a terrible cost because it causes a host of health problems. Muscles are best strengthened by doing physical activity that does not make you breathless/sweaty, such as walking, lifting and pulling activities.

As regards cardiovascular fitness, the Watts study in fact says that exercise improves 'endothelium function'. This refers to the flow of blood through the arteries. The reality is that the efficiency of endothelium function cannot be tested through exercise or by any other means. All that can be tested is endothelium dysfunction. There is no known evidence to show that endothelium dysfunction benefits from exercise. On the contrary, recent research is showing that exercise greatly accelerates the accumulation of plaque in arteries.

This study is often quoted by those who wish to argue that exercise suppresses appetite. [Source: Broom DR, et al, Influence of resistance and aerobic exercise on hunger, circulating levels of acylated ghrelin, and peptide YY in healthy males, Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2009 Jan; 296(1):R29-35]. The study concludes that "
ghrelin (the hunger-causing hormone) may regulate appetite during and after exercise, but further research is required to establish whether exercise-induced changes in ghrelin influence subsequent food intake
".

Exercise is known to play havoc with the body's hormones because of the stress that is put on the respiratory system, energy levels, and so on. This in turn affects appetite during and immediately after exercise (who wants to eat when you're exhausted and recovering from the exercise!). So although some research (such as the Broom Study) may show that appetite is suppressed during and immediately after exercise, there are no studies showing that appetite suppression has any lasting effect, resulting in genuine weight loss.

Indeed, anecdotal evidence clearly shows that later in the day the degree of hunger and food consumption is increased following a bout of exercise (and we all know this from personal experience). The drain on energy eventually compels the body to want to eat more to regain the lost energy. The Broom Study readily admits that it did not pursue the long-term effects of appetite suppression as a result of exercise by concluding "
further research is required to establish whether exercise-induced changes in ghrelin influence subsequent food intake
."

This study is a good example of research that reaches vague, generalized and meaningless conclusions, without producing any clear specific evidence. The study concludes that "
To combat the epidemic of overweight and to improve cardiovascular health at a population level, it is important to develop strategies to increase habitual physical activity and to prevent overweight and obesity in collaboration with communities, families, schools, work sites, health care professionals, media and policymakers
". Source: Lakka TA, et al, Physical activity, obesity and cardiovascular diseases, Handb Exp Pharmacol. 2005;(170):137-63.

This study specifically looked at whether exercise can help children lose surplus body-fat, and unlike many other studies, followed up a year later t
o assess the long-term effect. Source: M Maziekas, et al, Follow up exercise studies in paediatric obesity: implications for long term effectiveness, Br J Sports Med. 2003 October; 37(5): 425–429.

The study concluded that: "
exercise is efficacious for reducing percentage body-fat in obese children and adolescents, and exercise intervention may encourage long term maintenance of the observed gains.
"

But the Maziekas Study goes on to say that "
The most significant limitation relates to the inability to control for numerous confounding variables during the one year follow up period—that is, dietary changes, illness, medication, etc
." Clearly, when parents and their children become part of a health study (and knowing there will be a one year follow up), it is highly likely that this will influence behaviour in terms of diet and so on. Therefore, any conclusion that "exercise is efficacious for reducing percentage body-fat" becomes highly suspect.

This is regarded as a landmark study because it is claimed that a new hormone was discovered called 'irisin'. The study stated: "
We examined blood levels of irisin after exercise in mice and human subjects. Mice had significantly elevated concentrations of irisin after they were subjected to 3 weeks of free wheel running. Similar analysis in healthy adult humans subjected to endurance exercise for 10 weeks revealed a twofold increase in irisin compared to the non-exercised state. Exercise increases energy expenditure in mice and humans.... with no changes in movement or food intake. This results in improvements in obesity
". Source: Pontus Bostrom, et al, A PGCI-a-dependent myokine that drives brown-fat-like development of white fat and thermogenesis, Jan. 2012 vol 281 Nature 463.

At the time that the Bostrom Study was published, it prompted press headlines around the world to the effect that exercise combats obesity by using up energy without making you eat more, but let's look at the facts.

It is well known to medical science that any kind of physical activity that moves the muscles will (over time) result in the muscles becoming firmer, thus increasing their capacity to store more energy. Flabby muscles mostly consist of white adipose tissue. Firm muscles mostly consist of brown adipose tissue. So the browner your muscle tissue the better. The Bostrom Study discovered that one of the hormones that help to convert white tissue to brown tissue is the so-called 'irisin' hormone. So when muscles are made to move (i.e. to expand and contract) this stimulates the body into producing irisin, and this in turn assists the process of converting white tissue into healthy brown tissue.

The importance of having firm muscles in the arms and legs cannot be overemphasized; this provides the body with a good 'energy warehouse' that serves for everyday activities and for keeping us alive. Flabby (white tissue) muscles store much less energy than firm (brown tissue) muscles.

The greater your capacity to store energy, the greater your level of energy for work, rest and play. When you lack energy, you lose the motivation to be active and you eat more to compensate for generally feeling lack-lustre in your daily life - it's a vicious circle. When you have plenty of energy, you thrive in your daily life, food cravings and over-eating disappear, and you will be motivated to be normally active without becoming exhausted.

The Bostrom Study concludes that exercise increases irisin and that this in turn increases firm muscles with brown tissue. This in fact is so because any kind of sustained physical activity will do this. But it does not follow that exercise is in any way beneficial. Firm muscles can quite easily be developed by doing physical activities that do not make you breathless or sweaty, such as walking, swimming, dancing, rowing, lifting, pulling and pushing movements, all of which can be done without becoming breathless or sweaty.

The Bostrom Study does not differentiate between breathless/sweaty exercise and non-breathless/non-sweaty physical activity. Also, the study does not take into account the serious and harmful effects of exercise. Hence, doing exercise to improve muscles is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut - it's not worth the health-risk.

Furthermore, giving irisin to an obese person will not in itself make that person less obese, as implied by the Bostrom Study. Diet apart, you become less obese through physical activity that increases the energy storage capacity of the muscles. Irisin is simply one of the many hormones that are triggered by the body as a result of the physical activity. Therefore, putting irisin into the body of an obese person who remains inactive will have no effect on weight loss.

Making your muscles firmer and more capable of storing more energy does indeed combat obesity because when you feel more energetic you will be more active, you will be less likely to over-eat and be less likely to succumb to junk food. But the way to make your muscles firmer is by being physically active, NOT by doing exercise that makes you breathless or sweaty.

"
High intensity exercise suppresses subsequent ad-libitum energy intake in overweight, inactive men compared with those at rest. These findings also corroborate.... that a single bout of high-intensity exercise suppressed spontaneous energy intake in the subsequent 24 hours compared with either a single bout of lower intensity exercise or rest in obese adolescents
". Source: A.Y. Sim, et al, High-intensity intermittent exercise attenuates ad-libitum energy intake, International Journal of Obesity (2013), 1–6.

This study prompted headlines to the effect that intermittent high-intensity exercise can help you lose weight by suppressing appetite. But when you examine the detail of the study the following points arise:

1. The participants were not compared with random controls from the population at large. Rather, they were compared with in-house controls that participated in the trials, albeit without exercising. This throws some doubt on the Study's conclusions. Controls that take an active part in experimental trials are notoriously unreliable because they are influenced by the trials themselves.

2. It is well known that exercise inhibits hunger, both during the actual exercise and for some time afterwards (even up to a day afterwards), particularly after intense exercise. But eventually, when the body has 'recovered' from the exercise, excess feelings of hunger will result in over-eating and body weight gain. The study monitored participants within short trial periods, but failed to check body-weight loss or gain once the trials were over, i.e. once the participants returned to their usual lives.

3. The Study monitored food consumption for participants and controls in order to assess appetite suppression. But the Study did not monitor overall body-weight gain or loss for participants and controls. For example, it would have been useful to record body weight for all participants and controls at the commencement of the study, and then again say three months after the termination of the study. As such the findings of the Study throw no significant light on weight management.

4. As with many studies, this Study failed to differentiate between exercise that makes you breathless and sweaty, and physical activity that does not. It would have been very interesting to see the results of any study into exercise that makes this differentiation.

Here are some examples of the growing evidence that weight loss does not benefit from exercise: