TV Review: Horizon - The Truth About Exercise

I recently watched Horizon - The Truth About Exercise by Michael Mosley, which I had been told was very interesting and would change our outlook on exercise today. The aim set out in his introduction was to get healthier and not follow in the footsteps of his father who had type two diabetes. He revealed that a scan he had had on a previous horizon program had given him cause for concern and that despite wanting to get fitter and healthier, he simply had neither the conviction nor the time to do so. He showed this when he went to a running track and ran for 15 minutes, only to find out the he had barely burned off the calories he had from a quick snack of coffee and a muffin.

He first of all investigated an idea by James Levin, the doctor who invented "non-exercise activity thermogenesis" (Neat), arguing that the energy expended by running and jogging was negligible in comparison to the natural movements like fidgeting, bending and walking. Using three volunteers who wore the "fidget pants", he showed that there was a massive difference in results for people with different lifestyles. Unfortunately for Mosely, NEAT was a dead end for him, as his work involved sitting down for 12 hours each day and in contrast to some of the other volunteers, they found that the energy used up in his routine of natural movements was negligible. 

The next port of call was a new idea called HIT (High Intensity Training) developed by researchers and scientists at the universities of Nottingham and Birmingham. This radical training regime proposed that three twenty second workouts three times per week can deliver exactly the same benefits as training in a gym for longer periods. Mosley underwent the exercise regime on a bike and didn't make any attempt to hide just how intensive and tiring the training was. Fortunately, it turns out that HIT was indeed a hit! Mosely had not only become fitter but also increased his insulin sensitivity. At the same time, the professor James Timmons revealed that Mosely had not increased his aerobic volume and explained that it was consistent with his prediction having screened Mosely's DNA. This was news to me - that a quick screening of someone's DNA can tell them just how much they could benefit from exercise!

As for the HIT regime, it is feasible that such a thing could work. Whenever I venture into the gym or do any sort of exercise for long periods, I tend to unconsciously eat more. Short bursts of exercise tend to kill off your appetite and result in breaking a sweat - the same outcome as longer sessions - only quicker. Timmons argued that the government guidelines of 150 minutes moderate and 75 minutes vigorous activity a week were "not personalised" and that people responded "very differently to the same exercises." Whether HIT will take over in the future and we shall all be screened to deduce what benefits we could get from exercise, eventually leading to personalised regimes remains to be seen. One message that was certainly hammered home by Mosely was that sitting in our chairs was the worst thing we could possibly do. Dieting was not the answer he claimed, as the body slows our metabolic rate and that exercise was the only answer.