The Effects Of Lack Of Exercise On The Body

It's no surprise that exercise has numerous benefits such as keeping off excess weight, making your bones strong and keeping your heart healthy, but not exercising can actually make your bones and some organs weaker. Lack of exercise can also cause you to gain weight and develop a variety of obesity-related medical conditions such as high cholesterol, diabetes and hypertension.

Muscle Atrophy

Muscle atrophy is the medical term that describes the process of your muscles breaking down or wasting away. When your muscles aren't exercised to their full capacity, they begin to break down, according to the American Council on Exercise. Not only do you lose lean muscle, you gain fatter tissue after your muscle has broken down. Muscle burns fat, but when your body doesn't have muscle, your metabolism slows and you begin to gain even more fat.

Cardiac Decline

When you don't get enough exercise, your heart, which is a muscle, begins to rapidly decline in cardiovascular fitness, according to the American Council on Exercise. While your heart won't waste away like your arm or leg muscles would, fat will begin to attack it. This is how conditions such as atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, and heart disease develop. Fatty deposits will begin to build up in your arteries from lack of exercise and those fat deposits can also enter the valves and chambers of your heart. This situation can be very lethal. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that, in 2006, approximately 2.4 million Americans died from heart disease, and that heart disease ranked first out of the top 15 causes of death.

Increased Visceral Fat

Visceral fat is fat that becomes entrapped deep inside your abdomen, according to the MayoClinic.com. Visceral fat is toxic because not only because it causes such health problems as heart disease, gallbladder problems and metabolic syndrome, but also because it secretes dangerous hormones. Some of the hormones produced by these fat cells can increase your risk of developing breast cancer or can promote insulin resistance, which can lead to diabetes.

Intestinal Effects

Lack of exercise can cause constipation, according to KidsHealth.org. Exercise promotes digestion and helps your body pass solid waste. When you don't exercise, your body's digestion process slows, causing constipation. If you have visceral fat you also put yourself at an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer. The MayoClinic.com reports that there's not enough evidence to link constipation with colorectal cancer, but regular screening can help ensure early detection and successful treatment.