Not Exercising Worse For Your Health Than Smoking, Diabetes and Heart Disease, Study Reveals (cnn.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: We've all heard exercise helps you live longer. But a new study [published in the journal JAMA Network Open] goes one step further, finding that a sedentary lifestyle is worse for your health than smoking, diabetes and heart disease. Researchers retrospectively studied 122,007 patients who underwent exercise treadmill testing at Cleveland Clinic between January 1, 1991 and December 31, 2014 to measure all-cause mortality relating to the benefits of exercise and fitness. Those with the lowest exercise rate accounted for 12% of the participants. Dr. Wael Jaber, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic and senior author of the study, said the other big revelation from the research is that fitness leads to longer life, with no limit to the benefit of aerobic exercise. Researchers have always been concerned that "ultra" exercisers might be at a higher risk of death, but the study found that not to be the case. "There is no level of exercise or fitness that exposes you to risk," he said. "We can see from the study that the ultra-fit still have lower mortality."

Comments

Worked for me

[MikeDataLink]

I had high blood pressure, borderline blood sugar levels, anxiety, and a big belly.

I started an evening exercise routine, lost 30 lbs. Blood pressure is perfect, blood sugar normal, anxiety gone, and my pants fit again.

Re:Worked for me

[MikeDataLink]

What was your exercise program like ?

Super simple.

I walk-jog about 30-45 minutes at least 3-4 days a week.
I do very light weight training with dumbells 3-4 days a week.

Nothing more. I also significantly reduced my calorie intake by cutting junkfood mostly.

Re:Worked for me

[alvinrod]

I've heard the opposite and that it actually takes pathetically little effort to get a large amount of benefit, as in 15 minutes of brisk walking each day and it's going to have an impact. This has even been previously covered on Slashdot.

If you want to look like Mr. Universe or something like that, obviously you'll need to do a substantial daily workout, but basic health benefits don't require all that much. Just because you don't look like a gym rat doesn't mean that you're completely unhealthy. The minimum amount of exercise might not let you run a marathon in anything approaching a good time, but it will mean you live longer and will probably be happier as well.

Re:Worked for me

[arth1]

I only went from 30 BMI to a 28 BMI, which doesn't sound like much and still puts me as obese

No, 30+ is obese. 25-30 is "merely" overweight.
I'd still recommend that you start moving more and get more fit and lean. Glad you're on the right track with food, but that's not the whole equation, as I'm sure you know.

Re:Worked for me

[arth1]

Weight loss (which mostly comes from calorie restriction and not exercise, however exercise is great for many other things)

I hear this a lot, and it's false. People look for easy solutions and excuses, and it's a heck of a lot easier to do a diet than change your lifestyle, and this is an excuse for doing just that. But it's not true.
Calorific deficit is what causes weight loss.
If you do it through diet, chances are you lose both fat and muscle, and the deficit cannot be all that large or you'll get other deficiency problems. And at any rate, you cannot eat less than zero.
If you do it through exercise, you'll only lose fat, not muscle, and the deficit can be as high as you push it.

The reason I can state with certainty that you can lose weight (and more importantly, fat) through exercise and not calorie restriction is that I did it. It was simple maths: I burned around 1500 kcal a day if doing nothing, and no safe diet would be under 1000 kcal a day (and even that's pushing it). So that would be a 500 kcal deficit per day. But if I started exercising, burning 3000 kcal a day, without changing my calorie intake, that would be a 1500 kcal deficit per day.
The path was clear, and it worked beautifully.

The main problem was all the times people asked what diet I was on, and how they wouldn't believe me when I told them "none", because of the old wives' tale that weight loss starts in the kitchen and is 80% diet. It's a bloody lie that people use as an excuse for not getting off the couch.

Now I am lean and no longer lose weight, but I continue exercising and simply eat more to keep my weight.

Why is this on Slashd...

[93 Escort Wagon]

Oh.

turns out I was right all along

[c6gunner]

I've thought about quitting smoking, but I always figured my lack of exercise would kill me long before the smoking did. Now I have scientific proof that my theory was sound! Thank you, JAMA, for setting my mind at ease!

It's your fault

[DogDude]

The world is an infinitely interesting place that you and I will never have any idea of understanding a fraction of it. If you're bored, that's your problem. Pick something to do and quit being such a pussy.

Re:What if I don't WANT to have a long life?

[Misagon]

The point is not to become old.
The point is to be healthy when you have become old.

It is when you have realised that you will never be able to do the things that you want to do that you wish you'd rather be dead.