Eli5: How can you get more ill if you exercise vigorously with an underlying cold or fever?
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Your body is really efficient, sometimes too efficient. It will prioritize it’s energy flow for the most immediate task (in this case, the exercise), and steal it from the less important needs (like fighting infections, etc). The body can only convert energy so fast, so there is a limited supply of “free” energy to be used at any given point. Given enough time, the body adjusts to it’s energy needs so that it’s almost at equilibrium with how much energy is being released vs stored. Having an infection or cold is a drastic change to the energy requirement your body has and so it doesn’t have time to adapt and will actively steal energy from other processes to fight that ailment. This is generally why you feel tired and terrible when you are sick as your body tries to conserve energy in order to use it to fight your cold.
Think of it like this: Running from predators (immediate short term need) > Fighting illness (secondary long term need) > Repairing damage (Tertiary longer term need).
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