Energy-based model explains how chronic stress transforms into disease over time

Does it mean exercising regularly does the same?

Exercise seems to stimulate the mechanisms it’s claiming stress depresses, so probably no.

But exercise does use lots of energy. Probably more than stress.

My understanding is yes.

However moderate exercise (and stress!) stimulates the body to activate trash/repair/rebuild mechanisms which improve health overall.

EDIT:

For example, aerobic exercise stimulates capillary growth lowering pressure required for blood flow. Periodic, moderate fasting triggers the elimination of accumulated fats which might have toxins built up in them (or have oxidized) Healthy, emotional stress teaches us to deal with inevitable tragedies.

I had a somewhat similar question about exercise vs physically demanding work, since the former helps to have a healthy heart and the latter seems to do the opposite. Explanations I've found were tied to the average daily heart rate. Exercises are intense but it's only a few hours per week, and over time they tend to lower the average heart rate. Physical work is typically less straining but it takes a big portion of the week and as the result increases the average heart rate.

I guess the problem of exercise (intense but short) vs chronic stress (moderate but 24x7) could have a similar explanation.

I don’t think the claim is that it just uses energy, it’s that it uses energy to the detriment of other processes.

The body is extraordinarily complex, so I don’t think you can extrapolate that to anything else that uses energy.

Any garden variety gym rat will tell you that when you worked out you eat a lot more. And that may be the same for stress, but perhaps what your body does with the energy when you exercise is different.

I would be willing to bet that there are just confounding factors. People who do physical work differ from people who do not in so many ways that it would be impossible to do any sort of controlled study.

The body tends to use the same amount of energy regardless of what you do in a day. You can certainly over exercise which causes undue stress on the body. However other than an adaptive period at the start of regular exercise your body adapts to the increased caloric use from exercise by down regulating other processes to conserve energy. Typically an excess of calories is used by production of lipid fluid in adipose tissue and over expression of global inflammation. Once you begin exercising regularly the body generally stops using stored lipids for extra energy to compensate for the exercise and instead down regulates inefficient and generally harmful processes like random global inflammation.

As mentioned the Goldilocks zones are where you’re not forcing the body beyond what it can safely allocate to exercise in a day without causing stress in other processes. Generally though that Goldilocks zone is significantly greater than most people do in exercise in a week, but would typically fall in the zone of “moderate” exercise from a clinical point of view. This is effectively 3-6 times the expenditure of energy from rest for 150 minutes per week spread over a week for at least 10 minutes of moderately strenuous exercise at 70% heart rate per session. Most people in their 40’s or 50’s would typically find this fairly grueling, but that’s because of that homeostatic adaptation - the body resists changing its homeostasis and induces all sorts of negative experiences during the adaptation phase. Once you’ve adapted the opposite feelings present for the same reason - you begin to crave a routine of exercise because you body resists the adaptation to a more sedentary life.

N.b., This is why while exercise definitely helps lose weight, it’s primarily by managing inflammation and mood. This is why the only significant way you can lose weight over time is to reduce caloric intake materially under your homeostatic energy consumption.

How did you come by this information and do you have any sources / further reading on this?

This is basically exercise physiology 101.

I'm not saying that to be snarky. Just as an FYI that it can be kinda hard to even describe how one came across this knowledge. Like asking someone how they know LC circuits act as a resonator.

And I guess exercise science is even less popular than physics. You can find the latter on Wikipedia, and a bit of the former too:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise_physiology

There is a lot of great YouTube content about exercise physiology too, if you can cut through the "bro science" ecosystem.

I wouldn't be so sure. The brain is responsible for about 20% of resting metabolic rate, which translates to 300-350 calories per day for the average person.

300 calories is about the same as 30 minutes of zone 3 cardio (70-80% max heart rate, i.e. pretty high perceived exertion).

Most people in an exercise routine would only do that a couple times per week.

An "overactive" brain, day in day out, could add up to more than most people deliberately exercise.

Exercise modulates hunger (generally, cardio increases perceived hunger while resistance training actually blunts it for a time). But people putting in work at the gym are already in a health conscious mindset and will apply that to their food choices, even if they aren't on an explicit diet plan. If you just left a gallon of sweat on the treadmill you're probably not gonna buy a pizza or McDonald's burger in the way home. It just feels like an obvious step backwards in the moment.

Meanwhile, being in a stressed state that reduces executive function is going to lead people to the quick, easy, hyper palatable, high energy density, unhealthy food options available.

Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell : We Need to Rethink Exercise (Updated Version) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSSkDos2hzo

Their videos have a section where they link the sources. In this case https://sites.google.com/view/sources-workoutparadox