Attention, sedentary men: your mitochondria are a s—tshow. They’re weak, sluggish, and nowhere near as good at producing energy as the mitochondria inside active men. According to a new study published in Clinical Bioenergetics, detailed by Study Finds, that’s probably a good reason to stand up and move around a little more often.
Researchers at the University of Colorado compared muscle samples from nine sedentary men with those of ten moderately active men. Researchers looked closely at the participants’ cells to find out how far the damage goes.
We’ve known for a while now that a sedentary lifestyle has all sorts of negative consequences, leading some to perhaps melodramatically declare that sitting is the new smoking. But this team of researchers certainly doesn’t help the reputation of the sedentary lifestyle.
The biggest problems showed up inside the mitochondria, which, as you probably learned in school, are the powerhouses of the cell. They turn food into usable energy. Sedentary men produced around 30 to 35 percent less cellular energy than active men and burned significantly less fat in the process.
Sedentary Men Produce Less Cellular Energy Than Active Men, According to New Study
During a stationary bike test, they burned only about half as much fat while producing more than 60 percent more lactate, indicating their muscles were struggling to produce energy efficiently.
What was especially interesting was what was happening with a protein called MPC1, which acts as a delivery service, transporting fuel into mitochondria, where it can be burned. Sedentary guys had nearly 50 percent lower levels of MPC1 in their muscles, though their muscles could still absorb sugar normally. This means that the fuel needed to generate energy wasn’t reaching the cells’ power plants as efficiently as it did in active men.
Absolutely none of this would show up on any of the tests administered during a routine doctor’s visit. Standard blood tests miss this kind of cellular analysis. To combat mitochondrial-level downsides of a sedentary lifestyle, the researchers think something as simple as a supervised stationary bike test, which measures fat burning and blood lactate levels, could eventually serve as an early warning sign of mitochondrial dysfunction.
The point is, the research is getting harder to ignore: we simply were not meant to sit as much as we do today. But luckily, the early warning signs of damage from long stretches of inactivity are measurable and observable. Luckily, all you have to do to fight back is just get up and move around a little bit.
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