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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Researchers have long wondered why some people gain weight easily while others, who eat approximately the same amount, don’t put on pounds. One answer to this puzzle may be the fidget factor – finger tapping, leg jiggling, foot wiggling, or even chewing gum.
What were once considered nervous habits or fidgety behaviors actually burn calories, some times as many as a few hundred a day. These movements are not measured by standard activity tests, but they use up calories. Chewing gum burns about 10 extra calories an hour. It may not seem like much, but if you regularly chew gum, over the course of time these calories count and they add up. Researchers call these spontaneous ordinary movements NEAT – non-exercise activity thermogenesis.
Americans average 23 hours a week in front of the TV. That is almost one day out of each week or 10 years over a lifetime. Lying on the couch watching TV burns only 15 calories an hour. If you simply sit up, you’ll burn 20 calories. Getting the picture? Add toe-tapping and the calories go even higher. If you got off the couch and walked leisurely on the treadmill for just 10 minutes each day, you can burn close to 12,000 calories a year!
Most of us can walk – from the end of the parking lot, around the mall, through the building at work, around the neighborhood, or in the park – but we don’t. It’s been estimated that many Americans walk 1.4 miles a week, barely 1,000 feet a day. A quarter of all trips we routinely make are under a mile, yet 75% of us take the car.
Can you spare 10 minutes? A 10-minute daily walk is all it takes to increase your NEAT factor. To track your progress write down how far you can walk in 10 minutes (blocks, laps, miles, or even the number of times you walk up and down a hallway). A pedometer measures steps and is a good way to monitor the distance you walk. Test yourself again at the end of a month and you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find out that as your endurance improves, you can walk faster and further. A 150 pound person, walking 2 miles per hour (strolling) burns 32 calories in 10 minutes. At 4 miles per hour (a moderate intensity activity) the same person burns 64 calories. Walking is a great calorie burner.
Just 150 years ago, many of us would have been farmers. Today, more than half of the people in developed countries work at a desk all day. That is a major shift in our daily movement over a very short period of time. Couple that with an affordable, abundant food supply and it’s no wonder most of us are carrying too many pounds. The more people weigh the more sedentary they become. It’s been estimated obese individuals move 2.5 hours less each day than lean people and burn 350 fewer calories a day.
The notion is motion. Increase your NEAT. Stand up from your desk every time the phone rings. Get off the couch to change the channel. Park the car at the furthest end of the lot. Play your guitar. Wash a sink full of dishes. Try to integrate movement, any movement, into your daily life.
Happy people burn more calories. Hearty laughing is equal to light aerobic exercise. Laughing stimulates muscles throughout your body, increases the oxygen in your blood, and increases your breathing rate. Add jokes to your daily activity. They’re good for your mood and you’ll burn calories laughing.
If you are not already a fidgeter, it is not likely you’ll turn into one, but the next time you nervously tap your pencil on your desk, don’t stop. It’s NEAT and you’re burning calories!
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of the nutrition counter series for Pocket Books with 12 current titles and sales in excess of 7 million books. The books are widely available at your local or on-line bookseller.
Current titles include:
The Complete Food Counter, 3rd ed., 2009
The Fat Counter, 7th ed., 2009
The Healthy Wholefoods Counter, 2008
The Cholesterol Counter, 7th Ed., 2008
The Diabetes Carbohydrate and Calorie Counter, 3rd Ed., 2007
The Calorie Counter, 4th Ed., 2007
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to The Nutrition Experts
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