I find it interesting how quickly the body appears to decondition when you stop exercising. I suspect the consensus is that this is intended to lower basal meta

I find it interesting how quickly the body appears to decondition when you stop exercising. I suspect the consensus is that this is intended to lower basal metabolism, which would make one better adapted to a food scarce environment. However, if you consume high quantities of food, the body still deconditions. It ignores this data. So what is the true reason why the body prefers a state of lower conditioning? Even if I lazed around for months in my cave, I'd still want to be at maximum ready for when a neighboring tribe appeared or if I suddenly needed to increase exertion for food. I find it plausible that exercise has costs that are being overlooked. I'm always impressed by the longevity of academic-types I find in wikipedia, who I presume don't run marathons often. NFL players have extremely low lifespans. Marathon runners tend to have higher rates of heart damage.