Have you ever wondered why some people are thin and some aren’t? You may have noticed that it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the amount of food that they eat. An article in this months Healthy Cooking (April/May 2010) sited that movement is the key. It seems that lean people just plain move more. Lean people are on their feet for 152 more minutes per day than others were.
The article was based on a study done by the Mayo Clinic a number of years ago, which measured the activity levels between lean people and overweight people. This study was not about measuring how many calories people burned off while actually exercising, but about how much people moved during their activities of daily living.
People who are heavier tend to sit more. Lean people were more restless and spent more than two more hours a day on their feet (standing, pacing, and fidgeting). The difference translated into 350 calories a day.
According to an article written by Denise Grady (New York Times: New York, N.Y. May 24, 2005) researchers concluded that the tendency to sit still or not, is biological and inborn. This tendency influences weight. The amount you move (energy expenditure) associated with activity (including your occupation, leisure, sitting, standing, walking, toe-tapping, guitar playing, dancing, shopping to name a few) makes the difference. It isn’t necessarily the amount of time that you spend at the gym that influences how much you weight but all of the non-exercise activities (anywhere from 15% in a sedentary person to 50% in someone who is very active).
What makes people want to move around more? The scientists seem to feel that increasing movement will work where diet alone doesn’t seem to. They learned that lean people spent more time on their feet than heavier people. They concluded that the tendency to be inactive led to obesity, and not the other way around.
The reason, they concluded, that obesity is on the rise is that activity levels have declined. What has changed is the artificial environment. We have more opportunity today to be sedentary than in the past. The solution may be to change the environment, making it easier to move around and sit less.
Experts have been advising people for years to find small ways to burn extra calories (taking the stairs instead of an elevator, parking at the far end of the parking lot and walking to the door). Come on, surely I’m not the only one that will circle the parking lot for 15 minutes in order to find a parking space by the door of the gym? Use your imagination. You can turn everyday activities into calorie burners. For this to happen you have to commit to changing your habits and your environment.
Comments