"In the 1 hour before work, a person can use more than 50 labor devices. At work, between logging-on to logging-off, a person can remain nearly continuously in their chair. At the end of the work-day, if the home is the castle, the chair is its throne. From their throne, a person can order food, purchase a car, find a new life-partner, and play war; all this—and more—without ever getting up. With creativity, a person can eat, work, reproduce, play, shop, and sleep without taking a step." Dr. James Levin, Health Chair Reform - Your Chair: Comfortable But Deadly.
Of course you know the health benefits of exercise, but we've somehow come to believe that fitness can only be attained through intentional exercise, which can only be done in a gym and in order to be effective, it must take 60 minutes...once you're there. (and being strapped to a chair with a seat belt while staring blankly at a tv screen and considering the thought of a chest press for 10 minutes counts as exercise!) Tack on 30 minutes before and 30 after and boom - 2 hours down the drain - who has that kind of time? Pretty much no one, which is why gym usage is low (only 17% of Americans have a membership and they go less than once a week) and obesity and its related diseases are high. But now, Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis studies are telling us that just a little bit of movement can have a BIG impact.
Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis or NEAT for short is essentially plain old everyday movement - going to the mailbox, emptying the dishwasher, fidgeting, talking on the phone, holding a child - not structured exercise. The researchers recruited 20 healthy but self-described “couch potatoes” for this pilot study—10 who were lean (BMI∼23) and 10 who were mildly obese (BMI∼33). Sleep and diet were similar. Each was outfitted with movement sensors and data-logging technology. They were instructed to go about their normal routine. Movements were monitored every half-second during the 10-day study period. The study discovered that overall, the obese subjects sat an average of 164 minutes more during the day than their lean counterparts.
The lean group is simply standing 2.5 hours longer throughout the course of a day than their obese counterparts. Just 352 calories/day may be the difference between being lean and being obese. A little bit of movement, has a significant impact!
So consider an action plan to increase the amount of time you spend on your feet. Here are a few simple interventions you can do at work and at home to get on your feet more and on your butt less. If you are interested in going into more detail, contact me to get your own Metabolic Profile Assessment.
At the Office:
- Every 30 minutes, get up and walk around
- Stand up when drinking water
- Go to the farthest bathroom in your office
- Park as far away as you safely can
- Coffee break = walk break
- Walk and talk when you are on the phone
At Home:
- Stand during commercials and opening segments
- Walk and talk when you are on the phone
- Get up every 4, 6 or 8 pages when reading
- When getting home from the grocery store, take in one bag at a time!
Remember, its standing - you dont even need to go anywhere, just get up!! For more helpful ideas, visit SmallStep.org
That explains why the leader at our WW meetings would tell us to march in place while watching TV. I used to chuckle about that...
ReplyDeleteI was wondering where you got the stat that 17% of Americans have a membership and they go less than once a week?
ReplyDeleteHey Matt - it was from a lecture at a conference i recently attended so i dont have a specific reference. IHRSA releases an annual report of national industry stats and data so if you are looking for citations, they are the place to go.
ReplyDeleteHaha, that is funny because I was trying to find that exact stat, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy IHRSA's annual report.
ReplyDeleteVery good post by the way! Look forward to reading more of your posts.
I like sitting on a yoga ball at my desk at work, too.
ReplyDelete