---
title: Exercise Pills May Be In Our Future, But Are Workouts Over?
description: It may be possible to pack the benefits of exercise into a pill. Scientists are starting to develop exercise pills that show potential
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author: Mandy Oaklander
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article:content_tier: free
article:published_time: 2015-10-05T19:57:39.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:40.155Z
article:section: Health
og:title: Exercise Pills May Be In Your Future
og:description: It may be possible to pack the benefits of exercise into a pill. Scientists are starting to develop exercise pills that show potential
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twitter:title: Exercise Pills May Be In Your Future
twitter:description: It may be possible to pack the benefits of exercise into a pill. Scientists are starting to develop exercise pills that show potential
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---
# Exercise Pills May Be In Your Future
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## Video: The Truth About Fat
[Watch (HLS stream): The Truth About Fat](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uYGhfNfS.m3u8) (5:15)
_Published 2014-06-12. When you want to lose weight or get healthy, what is the first thing you would normally cut from your diet? If you said fat, you're not alone_
by
[Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)
## Mandy Oaklander
Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.
Oct 5, 2015 7:57 PM UTC
Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME
by
[Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)
## Mandy Oaklander
Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.
Oct 5, 2015 7:57 PM UTC
It sounds too good to be true and for now, it is. But what if some of the benefits of exercise could be packed into a pill? Scientists are beginning to develop “exercise pills” that show some potential, according to two [new papers—a review](http://www.cell.com/trends/pharmacological-sciences/abstract/S0165-6147%2815%2900187-X) published in the journal _Trends in Pharmacological Sciences_ and another small study published in the journal [_Cell Metabolism_](http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/abstract/S1550-4131%2815%2900458-1).
“Everyone’s looking for a pill to replace exercise, but we’re just not there yet,” says the first study’s co-author Ismail Laher, professor in the department of anesthesiology, pharmacology and therapeutics at the University of British Columbia in Canada. “It’s not going to make a couch potato into Arnold Schwarzenegger.”
**MORE**: [Here’s The Amount Of Exercise That Lowers Breast Cancer Risk](http://time.com/3960035/exercise-breast-cancer/)
So-called “exercise pills” are made from compounds that have been shown—mostly in studies done in animals—to mimic one or more of the effects of exercise, like developing new blood vessels, forming new mitochondria in cells or increasing the body’s capacity for exercise. “They’ll let you get muscles that are stronger and faster and reach your exercise goals much quicker,” Laher says.
But no single pill can reproduce every benefit exercise has on the body. Popping an exercise pill won’t flood you with endorphins, for instance, while also making your bones stronger. speeding up the blood flow through your arteries and making your heart beat faster, Laher says. “It’s a very small slice of the pie.”
What exercise pills _can_ do is largely localized to muscles, the new review finds. “You’re increasing efficiency of ATP, the currency by which every cell goes about its daily life,” Laher says.
### QUIZ: Should You Eat This or That?
Which is better for you: Half cup of ice cream or 3 scoops of sorbet? Getty Images (4)
Answer: A half cup of ice cream If you eat what you’re craving, you’re more likely to feel satisfied and eat less. And scoop for scoop sorbet contains twice the sugar with none of the filling dairy protein and fat. Getty Images (5); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
Which is better for you: Real butter or spray on fake butter? Getty Images; Tara Johnson for TIME
Answer: Butter Serving size for spray butters (even low-calorie ones) are around a 1/3 second spray. What on earth does that mean? You're better off using a small amount of real butter as opposed to guessing how much you're using of the mystery melange of up to 20 ingredients. Getty Images (1); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
Which is better for you: A turkey burger or a sirloin burger? Getty Images (2)
Answer: Sirloin burger Restaurant turkey burgers are often made with dark meat and the skin, so they’re not necessarily better for you (and for the record, they aren't low-fat). You can get a sirloin burger that’s 95% lean meat and gives you 20 g of protein. Just be careful with the toppings. Getty Images (1); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
Which is better for you: Almonds or pretzels? Getty Images (2)
Answer: Almonds Almonds are high in protein, fiber and fat and will keep you feeling fuller longer. Give high-sodium pretzels about an hour and you'll feel hungry again thanks to the high-carb no-fat or protein content. Getty Images (1); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
Which is better for you: Special K or eggs? AP; Getty Images
Answer: Eggs In the morning, you want a meal that will fill you up. Eggs offer protein and fat for satiety, but Special K cereal really only offers carbs and, well, air. If you want carbs to kick off the day, you're better off pairing eggs with a slice of 100% whole grain toast. Getty Images (1); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
Which is better for you: Fat free salad dressing or regular salad dressing? Tara Johnson for TIME
Answer: Regular salad dressingTo absorb fat soluble vitamins like Vitamins E and K in vegetables you need to consume them with a fat to aid nutrient absorption. Fat-free dressing, meanwhile, is low-calorie but gets its flavor from added sugar and salt. Tara Johnson for TIME (5); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
Which is better for you: A low fat cookie or dark chocolate? Getty Images (2)
Answer: Dark chocolate “People believe fat free is calorie free,” says Keri Gans, a registered dietitian in New York City. “Go for the real thing.” Fat free cookies tend to be high in carbs, sugar and fake sugar. Try a nice piece of antioxidant-rich dark chocolate instead. Getty Images (2); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
Which is better for you: Low fat Greek yogurt or 100 calorie Yoplait yogurt? Tara Johnson for TIME
Answer: 2% Greek YogurtA little fat is good in the morning to keep you full—plus it has upwards of 17g of protein per container. Fat-free "fruit" yogurt is high in sugar—7 to 10 g per serving—and lower in protein. Tara Johnson for TIME (2); Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME
**MORE**: [It’s Getting Harder To Lose Weight, Study Shows](http://time.com/3960035/exercise-breast-cancer/)
In the second study, researchers biopsied the muscles of four healthy men after they exercised vigorously for 10 minutes. After analyzing the samples, the researchers discovered 1,004 molecular changes in the muscle—most of which scientists hadn’t before attributed to exercise. “While scientists have long suspected that exercise causes a complicated series of changes to human muscle, this is the first time we have been able to map exactly what happens,” said study co-author Dr. Nolan Hoffman, of the Charles Perkins Centre and Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney in Australia, in a statement. This new research, he said, would allow scientists to use this information to design a drug that mimics the positive changes from exercise.
The real promise of exercise pills is not to replace exercise, Laher says, but to help people who have reduced muscle ability due to paralysis, obesity, stroke or spinal cord injuries. For those who aren’t physically able to exercise, the hope is that they can recover more muscle control when they use pills alongside physical therapy.
The quest for the exercise pill has been ongoing since 2004, and the review looks at several compounds that can trigger at least one beneficial exercise effect. Before any single one is determined to be the silver bullet, much more research—in humans, especially—is needed. Scientists also have to figure out effective dosages in people and possible side effects.
Even with the promise of these compounds, sweating isn’t off your to-do list. “We’re in early days,” Laher says.
## Transcript
[ MUSIC ] There's something we all enjoy about staying for dinner. You ever thought why? What was on your dinner table when you were younger? Chances are it had a lot to do with, what your doctor was telling you is healthy. Building a strong healthy body is like building a strong, beautiful building. If the foundation is weak, the whole building will be weak. It takes five fingers to point the way to healthful eating habits. Well, here we go. For years, the government published dietary guidelines. Meant to keep Americans healthy. There's a great deal to learn. Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you what you are.
The body needs certain substances to live and grow. And remember, your body isn't just like an automobile. For years, the key measures of those guidelines were the same, cut fat from your diet. The committee's original report urged Americans to reduce their risk of heart attack. By reducing their intake of cholesterol down to the equivalent of about one egg a day. And those guidelines had an effect. From 1977 to 2012, per capita consumption of eggs fell by 9 %, beef by 37 %, whole milk by 72 %. Calories from saturated fat fell, while calories from supposedly safe carbohydrates increased. As one expert put it, it was a vast nutritional experiment.
With nearly a million American's a year dropping dead from heart disease in the mid 80s, we had to try something. Nearly four decades later results are in. The experiment was a failure. Americans are sicker than they've ever been before. The prevalence of diabetes has gone up 157 % from 1980 to 2011. Nearly one in ten Americans now has the disease. Causing the public health system $ 245 billion a year. Heart disease is still the number one killer in the country. Americans are as obese as ever. So, what went wrong? Good old granola. Great for taste but loaded with fat. It doesn't take much of imagine a leap to assume that fat would make us fat, clog our arteries and raise the risk of heart disease.
It turns out that saturated fat is a lot more complicated than we think. Carbohydrates and fats are nutrients. Like man, you need nutrients to live and grow. [ MUSIC ] Firstly, there are two kinds of cholesterol. LDL which is linked to heart disease and HDL which can be protective. Fats that course through the blood are known as triglycerides and high levels of those are linked to heart disease. Saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol but also raises HDL. Moving LDL buildup on arterial walls. So raising both, makes saturated fat a cardio wash. One key piece of information is that LDL seems to come in two forms.
Large and fluffy, small and dense. Those smaller particles are linked to heart disease, while the larger ones are mostly benign. Saturated fat increases the number of large particles. The opposite happens with carbs. I don't get it. Researchers have long since discovered the kind of fats found in olives and in fish like salmon. Are actually heart protective. Now it turns out the fats found in meat and dairy, aren't as bad as we feared before. So that means by focusing so much on fats. We may actually have been making ourselves sicker. So, she brings up the subject of reduced- fat cheese. It's a fat- free [ UNKNOWN ].
Fat- free, cholesterol free. Low- fat granola. Reduced- fat Kettle chips. Reduced- fat Chips Ahoy. Lowfat cottage cheese. Non- fat yogurt is the perfect example. The thinking for consumers was simple. Fat was dangerous. This product had no fat. Therefore, it must be healthy. It's non- fat, which means less calories. [ MUSIC ] But amid the confusion about fat, we end up replacing it in our diets with sugars and carbohydrates, which meant our calorie intake was actually going up. When carbs and things like corn and white bread are ingested into your body, their converted into sugars. Those sugars convert to insulin cuz it's fat cells go into storage overdrive, leading to weight gain.
Since fewer calories are then left to fill the body, you begin to feel hungry it means our metabolism begins to slow down in effort to save energy, we eat more and we gain more weight, never quite feeling full. As this process repeats, our cells become more resistant to insulin, which causes us to gain more weight, which increases insulin resistance in a vicious circle. Cut calories, and people just get hungrier. Obesity, diabetes, high triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol can all follow. Study after study has found it's very difficult to lose weight on a very low- fat diet. Possibly because fat and meat can produce a sense of satiety, that's hard to achieve with carbs, making it easier to simply stop eating.
But it isn't just the increase in carbs that affects us. These processed, low saturated fat alternatives, come loaded with sugars, salt, preservatives, and even some unhealthy fats. So what's the real alternative? As one extra puts it, the cold hard truth about diet is that the only way to eat well, is to eat well. You'll be happier and you'll be healthier, if you focus on real whole foods, whether they have fat or not. Got it. And thanks, we'll never forget what we've learned.
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