Research

Mixed

Short-term resistance exercise (3 bouts over 9 days) combined with a high-fat diet does not prevent the high-fat diet-induced upregulation of immune and inflammatory genes in skeletal muscle, although it does remodel genes associated with muscle growth and structure.

If you are eating a high-fat, low-carb diet, doing resistance exercise for just a few days will not stop your muscles from turning on inflammatory genes. While exercise does build muscle structure genes, it doesn't stop the inflammation caused by the diet. You likely need longer-term training to see protective effects, but don't assume a few workouts cancel out the dietary stress.

GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
HFD markedly induced expression of immune and inflammatory genes, which was not attenuated by Ex. Conversely, Ex markedly remodelled expression of genes associated with muscle growth and structure.
Rhianna C. Laker et al. · Scientific Reports · 2017

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with genome-wide profiling, though short duration (9 days) and small sample size (n=13).

Source

Transcriptomic and epigenetic responses to short-term nutrient-exercise stress in humans

Rhianna C. Laker et al. · Scientific Reports · 2017

DOI 10.1038/s41598-017-15420-7

rct · n=13Cited 63×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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