Why staying active keeps your body burning more calories even when resting
High energy flux mediates the tonically augmented beta-adrenergic support of resting metabolic rate in habitually exercising older adults.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
When older adults who exercise regularly stop working out and eat less to match their lower activity, their bodies burn fewer calories at rest — but only because they’re moving less and eating less.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
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A snapshot of a population at a single point in time. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine the direction of cause and effect.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
When older adults who exercise regularly stop working out and eat less to match their lower activity, their bodies burn fewer calories at rest — but only because they’re moving less and eating less.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 533 / 44
Evidence Score
A snapshot of a population at a single point in time. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine the direction of cause and effect.
Publication
Authors
Bell C, Day DS, Jones PP, Christou DD, Petitt DS, Osterberg K, Melby CL, Seals DR
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Claims (5)
When two people consume the same net calorie deficit, their resting metabolic rates and hormone levels may differ depending on how much total energy they are expending through activity and metabolism.
Regular physical activity that keeps energy use high may help maintain a higher resting metabolic rate and lower the risk of losing metabolic function and gaining weight as people age.
In older adults who regularly exercise, lowering both physical activity and food intake reduces the number of calories burned at rest and decreases nerve activity in skeletal muscle, indicating that higher energy use is linked to a higher resting metabolic rate.
In older adults who exercise regularly, the contribution of beta-adrenergic receptors to resting energy use is detectable when energy expenditure is high but disappears when energy expenditure is lowered, suggesting that higher energy flux maintains this physiological mechanism.
In older adults who exercise regularly, the extent to which their resting metabolic rate changes during periods of lower energy intake is closely related to how much their body's beta-adrenergic signaling contributes to that change.