Research

Energy balance

Exercise and caloric restriction promote longevity and healthy aging by downregulating mTORC1 activity and upregulating autophagy, thereby maintaining proteome quality.

To support longevity, incorporate regular physical activity and consider moderate caloric restriction (20-40% reduction) while ensuring adequate nutrition. These interventions work by inhibiting mTORC1 and boosting autophagy, which clears damaged cellular components. This is not about starvation or extreme exercise, but consistent, moderate lifestyle habits.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Exercise and CR result in a concomitant downregulation of TORC1 activity and upregulation of autophagy in a number of tissues. Moreover, exercise-induced TORC1 and autophagy signaling share common pathways with that of CR. Therefore, the longevity effects of exercise and CR may stem from the maintenance of the proteome by balancing the synthesis and recycling of intracellular proteins and thus may represent practical means to promote longevity.
Kurt A. Escobar et al. · Aging Cell · 2018

Why this rating

The paper is a review of animal models and mechanistic studies; human data is observational or short-term.

Source

Autophagy and aging: Maintaining the proteome through exercise and caloric restriction

Kurt A. Escobar et al. · Aging Cell · 2018

DOI 10.1111/acel.12876

narrative_reviewCited 223×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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