Exercise has been recognized as an extremely effective tool to improve human health—it can have a preventative and even therapeutic effect on non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

By promoting physical activity not only among athletes, but also among the general population, several non-communicable diseases can be prevented, eventually reducing the financial burden upon the health care system.

However, the exact changes that occur at a molecular level due to different types of exercise have not been explored thoroughly. One reason for this is that, traditionally, collecting molecular information (such as metabolite data) required invasive tissue or muscle biopsies, limiting the scale of studies that could be performed.

Now, in a study published in Sports Medicine—Open, Dr. Kayvan Khoramipour from Miguel de Cervantes European University, along with other co-authors, and Professor Katsuhiko Suzuki from the Faculty of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, Japan, introduce and review literature in two emerging fields that could advance our understanding of exercise physiology in humans.

These disciplines use “multi-omics” data, or data from multiple sets of biological molecules (such as proteins, metabolites, or even RNA). Prof. Suzuki and his colleagues have termed these fields as “resistomics” and “enduromics.”

The authors explain that enduromics and resistomics are fields that examine the molecular changes induced by endurance and resistance training, respectively. While endurance training is what we might refer to as aerobic exercise (that increases your breathing and heart rate), resistance training involves improving your muscle strength.

To better explain these two terms, Prof. Suzuki further elaborates that, “Enduromics and resistomics examine unique molecular adaptations to endurance and resistance training in a larger population, as opposed to the field of ‘sportomics,’ which focuses on molecular alterations in competitive athletes.”

More specifically, enduromics reveals the biological pathways involved in processes such as lipid metabolism, generation of new mitochondria, and aerobic efficiency, or your body’s ability to effectively use oxygen—all of which adapt and change in response to moderate-to-intense aerobic exercise.

On the other hand, resistomics specifically focuses on muscle hypertrophy or muscle growth, synthesis of new proteins, and neuromuscular adaptations in the body. These fields can identify the biomarkers and metabolic fingerprints, aiding in understanding how specific metabolic states differ between individuals.

Taken together, both resistomics and enduromics can give us a clear picture of the molecular adaptations that arise in different individuals in response to both resistance and endurance training.

Emphasizing the practical applications of enduromics and resistomics, Prof. Suzuki explains, “By utilizing molecular profiling, these disciplines pave the way for personalized exercise prescriptions, using molecular insights to tailor training to an individual.”

He adds that these personalized training plans can enhance fitness and rehabilitation while reducing injury risks for both athletes as well as the general population. The team also believes that by transitioning the focus from athletes to the general population, the collective health of society can be strengthened.

In the long term, Prof. Suzuki and his colleagues would like to discover molecular mechanisms underpinning adaptation to exercise, which could even prove helpful for disease prevention and treatment.

The latest research shows exercise has little to no effect on the rate of your metabolism

IT

seems straightforward — if you want to boost your metabolism and lose weight, burn calories by moving and exercising more. But the latest research shows exercise has little to no effect on the rate of your metabolism.

Dr. Herman Pontzer, an anthropologist at Duke University, is an expert on human metabolism and energy expenditure. Through his research, he discovered that the average daily expenditure — the amount of calories we burn per day — is the same for everyone, regardless of how much you move.  This means the office worker and the personal trainer both burn the same amount of calories a day, and the amount of time one spends being active has very little to do with the speed of metabolism. Not only is the rate of metabolism the same from person to person regardless of gender, it also remains steady for most of a person’s life. The biggest metabolism drop is at your first birthday, followed by a drop in your twenties. There is a drop again when you hit 60, accompanied by an overall slowdown throughout the body.

Dr. Pontzer’s studies included a wide range of subjects — a modern-day tribe in Tanzania, marathon runners who raced across the US, and people who are sedentary. Study after study showed that active people and sedentary people use the same amount of calories per day.

Before beginning his research, Dr. Pontzer assumed exercise pushes your body into to a calorie deficit, forcing it to burn more calories than you put in. That’s why he chose to study the Tanzanian hunter-gatherers. He assumed that because of the enormous energy they put into their daily activities, they’d be burning thousands of calories a day. However, the research showed otherwise.

The results of his research counter much of what we think about exercise and weight loss. It may also generate questions among those who’ve seen weight loss results after beginning a new fitness routine.

Initially, when you change the intensity of your workout, you may see a change in your weight. But over time, your body makes adjustments to reduce what you burn. For example, say you start a weekly routine where your daily workout burns 500 calories a day. Logically, what would follow is a burn of an extra 3,500 calories per week, resulting in a loss of a pound per week. Instead, what happens is that your body notices the change, and then adjusts to prevent the loss of so many calories. Over time, you’ll notice diminishing returns as your body returns to the baseline metabolic rate.

This is what Dr. Pontzer observed among the marathon runners. The runners ran 26 miles a day from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, over five months. He measured their metabolic levels at three points: prior to beginning the five-month race, a week into the race, and then at the end of the race, a week or two before they reached their final destination. The metabolic rate during the first week of racing rose from pre-race levels as expected. The runners were burning an average of an extra 2,600 calories per day — think 100 calories per mile. But five months later it was below what you’d expect. The runners were burning only an extra 600 calories per day after running 26 miles.

When you think about it, burning an extra 600 calories a day is pretty impressive. But considering the input needed to burn those calories — running a marathon a day — the results are negligible. Also, notice how the bodies of the runners made adjustments so that the initial loss dwindled by 2,000 calories per day.

According to Dr. Pontzer, only the reduction of caloric intake will result in weight loss.

While exercise can’t make you lose weight, it can help control weight in other ways.

A recent study suggested that some exercise could suppress appetite. Researchers focused on ghrelin levels of both men and women before and after exercise. Ghrelin, also known as the hunger hormone, is associated with feelings of hunger. Researchers found that high intensity exercise suppressed ghrelin levels.

Exercise also protects against cardiovascular disease, diabetes, inflammation, and dementia. It’s a mood booster, and has been linked to longevity. So even though exercise won’t kick those extra pounds, it has multiple benefits that make it worth your while.

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 947)

Creatine, the supplement popular with athletes for its ability to help build strength and power, is increasingly being recognized for its broad health benefits.

The compound’s usefulness extends well beyond the gym, according to Dr. Richard Kreider, professor and director of the Exercise & Sport Nutrition Lab at Texas A&M University. Kreider has spent more than 30 years investigating the effects of creatine, a naturally occurring compound stored in the muscle that combines with phosphate to form creatine phosphate, which is needed for cellular energy.

When the body is stressed, like in exercise or under metabolic conditions like some diseases, creatine phosphate is needed to maintain energy in the cell, and therefore has a lot of protective and health benefits, in addition to the exercise performance effects that have been seen.”

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Dr. Richard Kreider, professor and director of the Exercise & Sport Nutrition Lab, Texas A&M University

How much creatine do we need?

Our bodies create about a gram per day, but it’s recommended to get two to four grams of creatine per day, depending on muscle mass and activity levels. According to Kreider, most people fall short of getting enough creatine from diet alone. The best sources of creatine in the diet are meat and fish.

“You only get about a gram of creatine per pound of red meat or fish, like salmon, so it’s expensive and takes a lot of calories to get a gram,” Kreider said. This is why supplementation matters, especially for vegetarians or vegans who do not consume enough creatine in their diet.

For athletes with performance-related goals, Kreider said it’s recommended to supplement 5 grams, four times a day for a week. Supplementation “helps load the muscle up with more energy,” which makes for improved high-intensity exercise, recovery and even cognitive function. After that, consuming 5 to 10 grams per day will maintain creatine stores and provide enough creatine for the brain.

Beyond boosting athletic performance, creatine is important for everyone as they age throughout their lives, Kreider said. It can help older adults who lose muscle mass and cognitive function as they age, he said, and in adolescents, low dietary creatine intake is associated with slower growth, less muscle mass and higher body fat.

Is creatine safe?

In a comprehensive review published in February in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, Kreider and colleagues analyzed 685 clinical trials on creatine supplementation to assess its safety and the frequency of reported side effects. The analysis showed there were no significant differences in the rate of side effects for participants taking a placebo and those taking creatine.

As for anecdotal concerns like bloating or cramping, Kreider says those claims don’t hold up under scrutiny, and studies have shown creatine can actually prevent cramping because it helps the body retain more fluid.

Despite the strong evidence base, Kreider said creatine has long been the subject of misconceptions and misinformation. He’s among the members of the International Society of Sports Nutrition who recently issued a letter affirming the safety and efficacy of creatine, urging lobbyists and policymakers not to restrict access to it.

“There’s absolutely no data supporting any negative side effect anecdotally reported about creatine on the internet and in the media,” he said. “Creatine is safe, and it’s important for everybody, not just bodybuilders and athletes.”