Expend more than 3500 cals/wk in exercise and risk your life!

I just took a real age test at www.realage.com

Anyway in my report I got back the Section titled "Fitness" said the following...
"Working out too much could cause injury and oxidative damage."

"Recommended for maximum Age Reduction benefits, which is 1,000 to 3,500 calories each week"

I knew over exercising could lead to injury but I did not know that it could also lead to oxidative damage! Oxidation, is the damage caused to cellular constituents such as DNA, proteins and lipids by reactive oxygen species (ROS) and free radicals. Accumulation of such damage can result in progressive destruction of cells and tissues. Oxidative damage is believed to be the root cause of many diseases including cancer, heart disease and aging

So scary - too much exercise could lead to cancer!!

I did some further digging on the net and found many references to...
"A famous study of 17,000 Harvard alumni showed that those who exercised over 3,500 kilocalories a week had a slight increase in death rate as compared to the control group. Researchers postulate that over-exercise leads to an increase in cellular oxidation. This in turn leads to increased free radical formation, some of which can lead to cellular mutation and cancer."

Scary stuff!

This is the first I've heard anything about an actual maximum calorie burn in exercise per week. My plan is to start adding up my weekly exercise calories and make sure I'm not over doing it!!

By the way - the realage test is lots of fun! I found out I'm REALLY a 23 yr old stuck in a 31 yr old body!

Sun. Jan 29, 1:14am

What about antioxidents?

So the study said that "excessive" exercise can lead to oxidative damage that can lead to many diseases. But what if you had a diet high in antioxidents (like the humble, but oh so yummy, blueberry)? Was all this information from one study? It just seems odd that there are so many extreme athletes living long healthy lives?

I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm cynical about any and all new studies. It just seems sooo weird that it goes against everything else out there.

(And whenever people tell me that "X can lead to cancer" I point out that in today's day and age, EVERYTHING can lead to cancer...lol)

Sunday, January 29, 2006, 11:55 AM

Correlation is NOT causation

This is only one study, and may not have stood up to efforts to duplicate it. Also, the subject line is an old adage of scientific research, so a scientist "postulating" about something is only what we call a S.W.A.G. (scientific wild-ass guess) as opposed to everybody elses opinions which are merely W.A.G.s (wild-ass guesses) Cheers...I'm sure none of really need an excuse to exercise less, that's why we're here! Debs

Sunday, January 29, 2006, 12:31 PM

Not sure about antioxidents

I was just reporting what my realage report said and what I found after doing some digging on the net because it was the first I had heard about a maximum amount of exercise per week. I think many of us have heard that we should exercise a minimum each week.

This report was for an everyday person - I'm sure athletes follow strict regimines for eating habits to make sure they aren't depriving themselves too much and causing more harm than good with their activities.

I don't know why an average person would need to expend more than 3500 calories a week in exercise anyway - it's just not feasible that you could keep up that pace safely.

Many places I found on the net said to start with 1000 calories expended in exercise a week when you first start an exercise regimine and slowly increase it to 2000 calories which is the optimal amount for health benefits.

It all makes sense to me....
If you're expending more than 3500 calories a week in exercise alone it would take a lot of food and/or supplements to make sure you don't have too much of a deficit everyday. Really no different than starving yourself - if you're burning waaaaay more calories than you're taking in your body will go into starvation mode.

Sunday, January 29, 2006, 12:33 PM

2nd poster here

What is an "everyday person"? I dated a guy who played lacrosse for our university, and then for fun on the sides with friends. Between his practices and scrimmages he was probably spent close to 10 hours running around with a lacrosse stick (not including training time in the gym). But he, along with most of the guys didn't really think of themselves as "athletes", they just loved playing the game. I don't consider myself an athlete and but before I moved to the city, I would burn crazy amounts of calories every week. If I was stressed, upset, or just feeling crappy I would go for a run or walk through my small town, a hike through the woods nearby or swim laps in the community pool. If I DIDN'T get a fair amount of exercise in, I would get irritable because exercise relaxed me so much. At the same time, if my friends and I were going out, I would be the first to argue we should drive instead of walking. I was very active in some ways and waaay too lazy in others but most definitely not considered an "athlete" by anyone I knew.

I did that for 5 years and only stopped when I moved to a different province and basically went through culture shock. Exercise is not bad for you if you eat properly, listen to your body for "enough's enough" signals and warm up and cool down. Obviously 3500 worth of exercise while being on a 1200 cal diet will not be good, but people who exercise that much tend to accommodate their nutritional needs (and not necessarily through supplements). Until other studies come up with the same results (unlike all the other hundreds of studies that say exercise is FANTASTIC) I'm going to assume it's full of it.

Sunday, January 29, 2006, 2:23 PM

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