Regular exercise is hard. Some days, you are swamped with work. Other days, you’re just too tired. Sometimes things pop up, and sometimes you get sick. Next thing you know, a couple of weeks have passed since the last time you exercised.
According to a recent study from the University of Liverpool, that’s all it takes to derail your health and jump-start diabetes.
Yup, it’s true.
The researchers wanted to know just how quickly your body could spiral into diabetes with poor lifestyle choices. So they collected 28 men and women with fairly healthy weights who reported walking, on average, about 10,000 steps a day.
They put activity monitors on the participants and then asked them to significantly reduce their steps per day, by about 80% which is the equivalent of 1,500 steps per day. The participants didn’t change anything else in terms of their diet or lifestyle.
Basically, the researchers asked them to lead a sedentary lifestyle.
The Damaging Effects of a Sedentary Lifestyle
At the end of two weeks, the participants had gained weight and lost muscle mass. That’s not all, though.
They weren’t able to perform tasks as easily as they had at the beginning of the study, such as running. They also experienced a decreased insulin sensitivity and increased fat in the liver. They also had a dangerous increase in cholesterol, as well.
All of these negative changes resembled the same characteristics of diabetes and heart disease. The shocking part of the results is that these were pretty healthy, young adults that led otherwise active lifestyles. Within the span of two weeks, they completely reversed their health and put themselves on the track for disease and illness.
The results especially shook medical professionals as they realized that most people aren’t suddenly becoming sedentary for short periods of time. People are sedentary for years at a time, usually, and are slowly killing themselves as a result.
The major lesson here? A sedentary lifestyle is a deadly one. You don’t need to be a fitness expert to be well, but at the very least get yourself moving.
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Health. URL Link. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
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