I haven't kept statistics or anything....but it seems to me, that most athletes either die rather young, or end up with lots of problems later in life. While moderate exercise may be good, and being sedentary bad, I've always thought that a lot of exercise and/or hard-core athleticism speeds up one's metabolim. I come from a family of long livers; We all seem to have slow metabolisms; no athletic types among us- most are just shy of being sedentary; and the only exercise they get is walking. I'm beginning to think about this a lot. If it worked for my relatives/ancestors.......and they're living into their 90's with no artificial joints or heart ailments, maybe they're doing something right- at least for our particular genetics/metabolism.

Trouble with most medical studies and such, is that they treat all humans as being exactly the same. We're not. To ignore genetics and metabolism, and other such personal differences, is tantamount to making such studies absolutely meaningless. Some of our body composition/health/metabolic rate/etc. comes from what we do.....but more comes from who our mommy and daddy and grandpappy are- and IMHO, it's downright foolish and counterproductive to try and fight your genetics.

Coming from a family of slow metabolism long-livers, I think I'd be doing myself HARM if I exercised to the point where I sped-up my metabolism.