subject: If you want to lose weight, sit less [print this page] If you want to lose weight, sit less
When we are wanting to lose weight, we don't want to end up thinking about food all the time. The ideal weight loss plan would be simple to do, easy to remember, and realistic - not requiring a radical lifestyle overhaul. Most people who are overweight are not gym addicts, so while the advice to ratchet up the physical activity is good, it may not be sustained. So a piece of research by University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher Barry Braun looks likely to meet my criteria to be included as part of the ideal weight loss plan. Sitting less uses up calories and does not increase hunger. Great.
He compared a group of volunteers who sat all day - the sitters(they even used wheelchairs to visit the loo) to a group that didn't sit down at all - the movers. The difference in energy expenditure was hundreds of calories. That means, just standing rather than sitting, uses up "hundreds of calories". If it was just 200 calories that comes to half a pound weight loss each week.
It would be reasonable to expect the movers in the research to want more food than the sitters. But not so, the level of appetite hormones and hunger in the two groups remained identical. Moving rather than sitting means you burn calories but you won't feel you need any more to eat. This is significant, because after a hard workout in the gym, you do feel hungry and the hunger drive is very strong, with the attendant risk of overeating.
This links up with other research that shows that watching more than a couple of hours telly is a risk factor for obesity. You can read more here. Clearly part of the risk is just the sitting down part. But telly can make you hungry. Just think how many ads there are encouraging you to think about chocolate. And once you think about it, you are up raiding the cupboards. And then sitting back down again to eat it in front of the telly.
So how can we use this insight from Barry Braun. Sit less. Stand rather than sit whenever you can. Fidget. Get up and down if you are watching television. Watch less telly. Even unvigorous movement uses up those calories. Remember, you will lose weight faster if you sit less. And it will benefit your general health.
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