Forget weight loss. Exercise fights a hidden enemy

What causes chronic inflammation? It’s complex, but our everyday choices often do.

You already know that eating lots of ultra-processed foods, skimping on sleep, constant stress, excessive drinking, or skipping exercise isn’t great for your health. But here’s what you might not realise: each of these choices triggers a small inflammatory response in our body.

Here’s the thing: our body reacts to these everyday stressors much like it would to an infection or injury. It releases those inflammation-causing proteins we talked about earlier. But instead of fighting off a real threat, it’s responding to the chips we ate or the sleep we missed.

The problem compounds when we make these choices day after day. That low-level inflammation never really goes away, keeping our body in a constant state of alert. We can’t see or feel it happening, but over time, it can lead to serious health issues.

In fact, just last week, an op-ed in the New York Times highlighted how chronic inflammation continues to puzzle medical professionals. Its causes and exact biological impact are even more complex than we currently understand, underscoring the importance of the choices we make every day.

So how do we combat this invisible threat? The answer lies in something we’ve been talking about all along: exercise. It’s one of the most powerful tools we have to lower chronic inflammation.

When you exercise, your body goes through a fascinating process.

First, your muscles react to the stress of exercise much like they would to an infection or wound, triggering a small inflammatory response.

But then something amazing occurs: your body activates a much larger anti-inflammatory response to return to a non-inflamed state. And because muscles make up about a third of our body, this anti-inflammatory effect is potent and widespread.

This is why exercise is so powerful—it’s not just about burning calories or building muscle. It’s actively fighting inflammation at a cellular level, providing benefits we can’t see but that profoundly impact our health.

The beauty of this process is that even modest levels of physical activity can dampen chronic inflammation—even in people who are overweight.

Lieberman explains this brilliantly. Exercise, he says, is like giving your body a deep clean. Yes, it causes some initial stress—like how cleaning might stir up dust. But the end result is a body that’s healthier overall.

How? Think of your body’s energy like a budget. When a large portion goes to exercise, your body becomes more frugal elsewhere. It suppresses unnecessary inflammatory actions and focuses only on real threats, reducing false alarms.

In essence, exercise is like scrubbing your kitchen floor so thoroughly after a small spill that the whole floor ends up cleaner than before. The modest stress of exercise triggers a repair response that yields benefits throughout your body. (Read more about it here.)

With this understanding, I’ve started thinking about healthy habits, especially regular workouts, in a new way. Every day, we’re making choices that either fuel or fight inflammation in our bodies. The challenge is that we can’t see or feel this process directly. We can’t know what’s broken or how our actions are improving things. But it is happening.

When we choose a salad over fries, or go for a run instead of sitting on the couch, we’re not just making decisions about calories or muscle tone. We’re actively reducing our body’s inflammatory load. Each healthy meal and workout is like depositing money in a health savings account—the benefits compound over time.

The true value of these choices often lies in what doesn’t happen: the heart disease that never develops, the type 2 diabetes that doesn’t manifest, the cognitive decline that’s delayed or prevented, and the chronic pain that never sets in.

You won’t know what you’ve gained—because the problem didn’t appear in the first place. And this ‘problem’ of not knowing is infinitely better than the alternative.

If we can keep this long-term vision in mind, our everyday choices become more meaningful. The most significant benefits are happening at a cellular level, invisible to the naked eye. That’s why judging the impact of healthy habits solely by visible metrics like weight, muscle definition, or mood misses the bigger picture.

So yes, while the short-term kicks of a good workout are great, it’s this invisible battle against inflammation that makes exercise invaluable for our long-term health.

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PS: Yes, I started this post by saying no reader needs convincing, but I guess sometimes we do need nudges. I do. Take this as one. Why it’s worth showing up for, day after day. Pat yourself on the back if you do. 🙂