Study	Reason for exclusion
Evering 2008	RCT The trial was excluded, as the intervention was feedback on physical activity
Gordon 2010	RCT Compares the relative effectiveness of 2 different types of exercise therapy. Even though this is an interesting question, it was beyond the scope of this version of the review
Guarino 2001	The trial was excluded, as the population was "Gulf War veterans"
Nunez 2011	RCT Combination treatment of which exercise therapy is a minor part
Ridsdale 2004	RCT No clinical diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome. Our inclusion criteria state that the duration of fatigue needs to > 6 months, whereas inclusion criteria in Risdale 2004 is > 3 months The trial was excluded, as the intervention did not include exercise: "cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) with counselling"; the population was "patients with chronic fatigue"
Ridsdale 2012	RCT The trial was excluded, as the population was "people presenting with chronic fatigue in primary care"
Russel 2001	RCT The trial was excluded, as exercise was not the main part of the intervention: "Group rehabilitation (psycho‐education, graded exercise, goal setting and pacing, breathing control and challenging unhelpful thoughts)"
Stevens 1999	RCT The PhD was excluded, as exercise was a minor component of the intervention: "conducted to implement the use of sleep hygiene education, biofeedback assisted relaxation and breathing retraining, graded aerobic exercise, and cognitive therapy...."
Taylor 2004	RCT The trial was excluded, as exercise was not the main component of the intervention: "In our program, group topics included activity pacing using the Envelope Theory (Jason et al., 1999), cognitive coping skills training, relaxation and meditation training, employment issues and economic self‐sufficiency, personal relationships, traditional and complementary medical approaches, and nutritional approaches"
Taylor 2006	The trial was excluded, as the study used a "cross‐sectional design"
Thomas 2008	The trial was excluded, as "between‐group comparisons were used." This was a controlled trial, but participants were not randomly assigned
Tummers 2012	RCT The trial was excluded, as interventions included variations of CBT: "additional CBT (stepped care) or regular CBT (care as usual)"
Viner 2004	The trial was excluded, as the population consisted of "young people (aged 9–17 years) with CFS/ME"
Wright 2005	The trial was excluded, as the population included young people 0 to 19 years of age