Why You Should Avoid Exercise (5 page)

Many studies show that leptin resistance is caused by obesity: "
leptin resistance is extremely common in obese individuals which suggests it may simply be an adaptation to excess body weight. The major physiological role of leptin is suggested to be not as a 'satiety signal' to prevent obesity in times of energy excess, but as a 'starvation signal' to maintain adequate fat stores for survival during times of energy deficit, and leptin resistance in overweight individuals is the standard feature of mammalian physiology, which possibly confers a survival advantage
." Source: Wikipedia.

To put it succinctly: leptin resistance arises when a fat person eats junk food. This is so because surplus body-fat continually 'drip-feeds' leptin into the blood stream and this in turn creates leptin resistance. And a junk food diet deprives the body of good nutrition, making the body think it is facing famine ('starvation signal'). These two factors provide an ideal cocktail of ingredients for leptin resistance, and a vicious circle of obesity.

"
In obese individuals, the leptin response to caloric intake is theorized to be blunted due to chronic low-grade hyperleptinemia [chronic high levels of leptin], depressing the signal-to-noise ratio such that acute leptin responses have less of a physiological effect on the body
". Source: Wikipedia.

Now we come back to exercise. There is overwhelming evidence that exercise reduces levels of leptin circulating in the blood. When blood leptin goes down, feelings of hunger go up and you generally eat more. Study after study shows that exercise makes leptin go down. Here are just some of those studies:

"
Long-term changes in lifestyle consisting of decreased intake of dietary fat and increased physical activity reduced plasma (blood) leptin concentrations in humans
". Source: Janne E Reseland , et al, Effect of long-term changes in diet and exercise on plasma leptin concentrations, Am J Clin Nutr February 2001 vol. 73 no. 2 240-245.

"
Our research showed that short-term exercise lowers leptin levels in coronary patients....physical exercise of any type contributes to achieving lower leptin plasma levels
". Source: Dana Pop, et al, The Response of Circulating Leptin Levels to Exercise Stress Testing in Subjects Diagnosed with Metabolic Syndrome, Endocrinology, Volume 2014 (2014), Article ID 689260, 5 pages.

"
Subjects were admitted to an exercise program (45-minute walking sessions at 60-80 percent of maximum heart rate) every day.... Significant leptin decrement was evident at the first week and lasted during the entire four weeks exercise session
". Source: Sari R, et al, Acute effect of exercise on plasma leptin level and insulin resistance in obese women with stable caloric intake, Endocr Res. 2007; 32(1-2):9-17.

"
Serum leptin and free fatty acid concentrations were determined in two groups of subjects undergoing strenuous exercise. The negative energy balance of exercise can reduce serum leptin concentrations, but that the significant decrease occurs only at extremes of severity/duration of the exercise-induced negative balance
". Source: Landt M, et al, Prolonged exercise decreases serum leptin concentrations, Metabolism, 1997 Oct; 46(10): 1109-12.

"
Leptin level is chronically reduced by physical exercise training
". Source: Wikipedia.

"
It is speculated that exercise training decreases resting levels of.... leptin
". Source: B. F. de Salles, et al, Effects of Resistance Training on Cytokines, Int J Sports Med 2010; 31(7): 441-450.

"
Serum leptin concentration decreased 17.5 percent in females (P < 0.05) after 12 wk of aerobic exercise training
". Source: Hickey MS, et al, Gender-dependent effects of exercise training on serum leptin levels in humans, Am J Physiol. 1997 Apr; 272(4 Pt 1): E562-6.

"
This study was designed to determine whether serum leptin levels were affected by a 5 day military course after 3 weeks of combat training. A 4 week strenuous military training program, which induced an energy deficiency, reduced serum leptin to a third of normal levels. The decrease in serum leptin was attributed to the exercise-induced elevation in catecholamines and hypoinsulinemia
". Source: Gomez-Merino D, et al, Decrease in serum leptin after prolonged physical activity in men, Med Sci Sports Exercise, 2002 Oct; 34(10): 1594-9.

Note: The above Gomez-Merino study states that the stress of exercise releases 'catecholamines' into the bloodstream and that this lowers leptin in the blood. Wikipedia states that the "
Release of catecholamines in the blood is part of the fight-or-flight response...High catecholamine levels in blood are associated with stress
".

From the above studies and others it is clear that exercise causes a drop in leptin and that the greater the exercise, the greater the drop in leptin in the blood. Why does leptin go down when you exercise? Quite simply, when the body detects serious stress it triggers the fight-or-flight response. When you exercise you hyperventilate and sweat and this tells the body it is under serious stress.

The body doesn't know that you are deliberately causing this stress by exercising - the body only knows that it is under some kind of threat. This triggers a hormonal response inside the body to save as much energy (i.e. to save as much body-fat) as possible in the event of food shortage. Among the many hormones that are galvanised in a fight-or-flight response, the body lowers leptin so as to increase hunger and food consumption. The end result is more body-fat.

If a fat person with leptin resistance takes to exercise it is a disastrous situation. Exercise will simply make the person fatter for all the reasons given in this book. A fat person with leptin resistance needs to urgently do two things: switch to a nutritious diet bereft of junk food, and switch from exercise to physical activity. Doing this will make you lose weight quickly, safely and permanently, and leptin resistance will disappear.

As mentioned, the fight-or-flight response continues for some time after you finish exercising and will not be switched off until all the energy drained from the muscles and liver has been fully replaced. Assuming you cease exercising, the fight-or-flight response may not be switched off for a day or so, during which time the body will continue to store a higher than otherwise percentage of food-energy as body-fat. Furthermore, during this time you are likely to overeat as a result of increased feelings of hunger.

So exercise gives you a 'double whammy': it makes you overeat and it makes you store excess body-fat. If you exercise daily you will be permanently fighting a tendency to overeat and put on weight. And the excess body-fat that accumulates around the stomach, hips and thighs is notoriously difficult to get rid of.

But it gets worse (can it get worse?): when exercise causes leptin resistance, this can dramatically increase the risk of diabetes. The sequence of events is as follows:

1. Exercise makes you fat for a variety of reasons as explained in this book.

2. Surplus body-fat creates leptin resistance (the incidence of leptin resistance in the overweight is very high, almost universal).

3. Leptin resistance prevents beta cells from producing insulin in a timely manner (not too much, not too little).

4. This ultimately causes beta cells to become damaged or worn out and as a result, when insulin is required to control the level of glucose in the blood, body cells cannot make enough insulin (known as insulin resistance).

5. Insulin resistance leads to diabetes.

The solution, of course, is to simply switch from exercise to (non-sweaty) physical activity. The body craves physical activity that does not make you breathless or sweaty because this is super-healthy. Physical activity does not invoke the fight-or-flight response and does not drive down leptin levels in the blood. Physical activity helps you lose excess weight by allowing the body to store less fat than the amount of fat that is always melting away as part of your metabolic rate.

5. Exercise and Stress

Exercise stresses the body adversely (however much you may enjoy the exercise) and this makes you gain surplus body-fat.

Perhaps the greatest harm caused by exercise is that it forces you to pant as the body tries to gain more oxygen. Exercise by definition makes you breathless. And when you become breathless, you breathe more quickly (the medical term for this is 'hyperventilation').

The irony is that the greater the hyperventilation, the less oxygen you receive. The slower and lighter the breathing, the more oxygen you receive. Throughout life, you want to breathe as little air as possible. Many studies show this to be true (for a comprehensive list of the studies into this area, please see the excellent website 'normalbreathing.com').

Another myth is the widely held belief that the air we exhale (carbon dioxide or CO2) is a waste gas that is toxic. Having a normal level of CO2 in the lungs and arterial blood (40 mm Hg or about 5.3 percent at sea level) is imperative for normal good health.

"
This myth that CO2 is a toxic, waste, and poisonous gas is one of the greatest modern superstitions. Thousands of medical studies have proven that reduced carbon dioxide levels in cells, tissues, organs, and fluids of the human organism cause numerous adverse effects.
" Source: www.normalbreathing.com/CO2.php

Normal breathing, as any medical textbook will tell you, provides the arterial blood with nearly ideal or maximum possible oxygenation: about 98-99 percent. Therefore, breathing more deeply or quickly will not increase oxygenation of the blood; as mentioned, it has the opposite effect - it reduces oxygenation of the blood. So-called 'deep breathing exercises' should, of course, always be avoided; rather, it would be much better to do 'exercises' that reduce the amount of air breathed in, as this is beneficial to health.

We know instinctively that when we pant for air and become breathless through physical exertion, we are doing this from a lack of sufficient oxygen. But it may seem contradictory to say that when you breathe more quickly and deeply this results in receiving less oxygen. The explanation is twofold: