The Role of Compensatory Adaptations and Individual Variability in Exercise Prescription

Abstract

Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for public health. Due to the decline in physical demands of daily living exercise becomes an increasingly important contributor to an active lifestyle. The evidence on health benefits of exercise, particularly regarding weight loss, however, remains equivocal. In addition to lack of adherence to an exercise program, participants display behavioral and physiological adaptations that potentially mitigate exercise-induced health benefits. Specifically, a reduction in non-exercise physical activity (PA) and/or an increase in energy intake along with metabolic adaptations have been suggested to affect exercise-induced health benefits. There is also a large inter-individual variability, which makes some participants more receptive to exercise-induced weight loss than others. Even in the absence of weight loss exercise, however, provides various health benefits such as an increase in cardiorespiratory fitness, beneficial changes in blood lipids and blood pressure. In fact, some of these benefits have been more pronounced in participants who did not experience weight loss. In order to enhance the understanding of the role of exercise in health promotion a better understanding of compensatory adaptations is needed along with an identification of characteristics that contribute to inter-individual variability in response to exercise interventions.

CC002/Unc females are mouse models of exercise-induced paradoxical fat response

“…In fact, some humans gain weight (King et al. ; Drenowatz ) and gain body fat (Barwell et al. ) in response to exercise; and similar paradoxical responses have been observed in outbred mice (Kelly et al.…”

“…This observed variation can be partially attributed to insufficient exercise dose, lack of adherence, and physiological and behavioral compensatory adaptations (e.g., energy intake, habitual activity levels, metabolic adaptations) (King et al. ; Drenowatz ). Furthermore, the individual variation in response to exercise treatments suggests genetic variation contributes to differences in exercise‐induced responses (Bouchard and Tremblay ; Phares et al.…”

“…Although exercise reduces health risks, the effects on body composition are still unknown. Exercise is expected to reduce body mass and fat, but exercise-induced weight loss is often less than expected (Drenowatz 2016). In both human and rodent populations, individual variation across a multitude of exerciseinduced responses occurs, with some individuals experiencing paradoxical responses (Goedecke et al 2000;Swallow et al 2001;Venables et al 2005;Barwell et al 2009;Garland et al 2010;Karavirta et al 2011;Bouchard et al 2012;Mann et al 2014).…”

“…Even when exercise doses and energy expenditures are controlled, there is large individual variation in body mass and composition responses to exercise programs (Barwell et al 2009;Kelly et al 2011;Blundell et al 2015). In fact, some humans gain weight (King et al 2009;Drenowatz 2016) and gain body fat (Barwell et al 2009) in response to exercise; and similar paradoxical responses have been observed in outbred mice (Kelly et al 2011). This observed variation can be partially attributed to insufficient exercise dose, lack of adherence, and physiological and behavioral compensatory adaptations (e.g., energy intake, habitual activity levels, metabolic adaptations) (King et al 2012;Drenowatz 2016).…”

“…In fact, some humans gain weight (King et al 2009;Drenowatz 2016) and gain body fat (Barwell et al 2009) in response to exercise; and similar paradoxical responses have been observed in outbred mice (Kelly et al 2011). This observed variation can be partially attributed to insufficient exercise dose, lack of adherence, and physiological and behavioral compensatory adaptations (e.g., energy intake, habitual activity levels, metabolic adaptations) (King et al 2012;Drenowatz 2016). Furthermore, the individual variation in response to exercise treatments suggests genetic variation contributes to differences in exercise-induced responses (Bouchard and Tremblay 1997;Phares et al 2004;Barwell et al 2009;Bray et al 2009;Nehrenberg et al 2009;Garland et al 2010;Booth et al 2012;Gordon et al 2016).…”