Am I an Exercise Fanatic?...

... or is this a really cool desk? I'm going to make up a drawing so Fuzz can build a simple table top like this one that I can attach to my treadmill. Some researchers at the Mayo Clinic have deduced that restless (fidgeting, pacing, even just standing around) people basically burn more calories, to the tune of 350 extra a day.

One of the study leaders is Dr. James Levine (pictured below in a Mayo Clinic photo), nutritionist, endocrinologist and medical professor. He built a desk over his treadmill because "Standing still is quite difficult," he said. "You have a natural tendency to want to move your legs. Zero point seven is the key. You don't get sweaty, you can't jiggle too much. It's about one step a second. It's very comfortable. Most people seem to like it around 0.7."


I tried that speed out on my treadmill while reading a book and watching tv. It's very slow, kind of the speed you might use just browsing clothes at the Gap, and it's pretty comfortable. After a few minutes I barely noticed I was moving. I also wonder if it might be the answer for the sore butt I get after spending too much time slumped in a chair or bed while on my laptop.

Dr. Levine talks about other benefits he's noticed from his new desk: "Walking at work, first of all it's addictive," he said. "It's terribly good fun. I actually feel happier, particularly in the afternoon. You might think you come home exhausted, but you don't. You come home energized."
For him, the treadmill has supposedly eliminated his afternoon slump, when a lot of people feel sleepy and crave candy and/or caffeine.


Another intriguing thing noted by Dr. Levine's studies is that when participants' diets were altered to make more obese subjects lose weight and the leaner subjects gain weight, the subject's activity levels did not seem to change, leading the researchers to believe that just altering diet will not necessarily make someone more or less likely to exercise or move more. There may be a setpoint factor when it comes to activity levels, or it may have to take a conscious effort to change activity levels. Ugh, "just" changing habits has got to be one of the hardest things in the world.

Or as I heard a guy in a Manhattan OA meeting say with a sigh once, "I gotta eat less and move more!"