Could “cellular exercise” be the missing ingredient in a healthy life? Diets, caloric restriction, and exercise-induced hormesis

•Poor dietary choices and physical inactivity are the leading causes of death from stroke, heart disease, and cancer worldwide.•Chronic overnutrition triggers can lead to diabetes, atherosclerosis, and hypertension through mechanisms triggered by chronic glycemic and lipid overload.•“Cellular exercise” is a concept where low levels of cellular stress, induced by chronic calorie restriction or physical exercise, can lead to molecular adaptations on the cellular level that can protect the body from cancer and cardiovascular disease.•An increase in reactive oxygen species induced by caloric restriction and physical exercise can activate nuclear factor erythroid and phase II improvements in redox equilibrium that can result in a more adaptive capable cell.•Insulin-like growth factor-1 has a dual effect wherein calorie restriction downregulates insulin-like growth factor-1 inhibiting pathways of carcinogenic proliferation and metastasis and physical exercise can upregulate insulin-like growth factor-1 to promote mitochondrial biogenesis and protein synthesis thereby strengthening healthy muscle against hypoxic ischemic damage and muscular regenerative properties.•Transcription of Nrf2 is also upregulated to attenuate inflammation induced by nuclear factor-κB, AMPK upregulates genes through PGC-1α to prevent sarcopenia and induce lipolysis.•This molecular melody is the complex composition that explains the cellular adaption that occurs to strengthen the body from cognitive dysfunction, cardiometabolic failure and carcinogenic implantation and metastasis via mechanisms of redox equilibrium, oxidative protection, attenuation of inflammation, and attenuation of carcinogenic proliferation and growth. Overnutrition is a poor dietary habit that has been correlated with increased health risks, especially in the developed world. This leads to an imbalance between energy storage and energy breakdown. Many biochemical processes involving hormones are involved in conveying the excess of energy into pathologic states, mainly atherosclerosis, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. Diverse modalities of regular exercise have been shown to be beneficial, to varying extents, in overcoming the overnutrition comorbidities. Cellular exercises and hormesis are triggered by dietary protocols that could underlie the cellular mechanisms involved in modulating the deleterious effects of overnutrition through activation of specific cellular signal pathways. Of interest are