VS: Re: Fitting in Training with Work?

[Guest guest]

Hi,

If you have a heard rate monitor, energy monitor or some kind of step

counter, wear it at home. Compare a normal day with a slightly increased

activity. It does not need very much to make a difference…

I have been recording my energy consumption for almost a year now. I use

a heard rate monitor + Bodymedia activity monitor and a Metpro program.

My experience at the moment is the same what and Ralph

Giarnella wrote.

Physical activity is very much more than just going to gym or jogging.

I use 4 week period for my diary. Here is a example of my energy

consumption from last summer.

Total energy 1050 METh (100 000 Kcal)

work 300 METh (30 000 Kcal)

going to work 50 METh (30 000 Kcal)

All sports 250 METh (25 000 Kcal)

Other activities 200 METh (20 000 Kcal)

If you look at all sports, it is about 25% of my energy, but to get

there I have done 15 hours of sports every week.

(Many “sports”, but a lot of golf:-)

To make my point more clear I will take one small item from “other

activites”. I walk my dog two times a day for a 15 minute walk. In 4

weeks that add up to 40 METh (4 000 Kcal).

Very important thing about low intensity is that you can do it for long

time and do more things that by doing high intensity physical activity.

After jogging I like to rest and I feel very contempt about my self. I

feel like I have “taken my medicine”. During this year I have lost about

22 kg and people ask me how. My advise is, “do not sit down”, be active,

do something that keeps you and your thoughts away from food. (That’s

why I started to play golf:-) – but also I am more active at home – like

vacuuming…

I will write a report on my experience, but it will not be published

until year 2007.

So low intensity is good for burning fat, but also the fact that we can

do it more is important.

BUT AS WE ALL KNOW:

To improve your aerobic condition or strength you need some moderate or

high level intensity physical activity.

Here is one Finnish reference for energy consumption.

http://ffp.uku.fi/cgi-bin/energynet03/index.pl?language_id=2

Hannu Leinonen

Jyväskylä, Finland

-----Alkuperäinen viesti-----

Lähettäjä: Ralph Giarnella

Lähetetty: 6. tammikuuta 2006 21:49

Vastaanottaja: Supertraining

Aihe: RE: Re: Fitting in Training with Work?

--- wrote:

> lee, I love your advice. You are so correct

> about moving and feeling

> good about it!

> Work can also include any housework done while at

> home, and many things

> constitute

> exercise; scrubbing, vacuuming, hauling groceries.

> Using good body

> mechanics

> while doing these activities helps prevent

> repetitive stress injuries, and

> it's amazing how many

> calories one can burn by just cleaning house.

> I am going to add your 300 squats/25 push ups to my

> day.

> Thank you!

>

>

> Sacramento, CA

>

There are numerous studies that have shown that the

difference between individuals who are lean vs those

who are overweight is the amount of spontaneous

physical activity each group has. The most recent and

most thorough study is outlined in my quotation below.

For most individuals weight gain over the years is

caused more by decrease in daily activities rather

than an increase in dietary calories. In today's

efficient society very few individuals perform truly

manual labor. For most of us we spend most of our day

sitting down or just standing around. Does anybody

walk to the grocery store anymore? Our children don't

walk to school anymore, they don't even walk to the

park to play.

Carpenter's don't use hammers anymore they nail guns,

telephone repair men don't climb the poles they have

power lifts etc.

We have so many energy saving device from riding lawn

mowers to powered snowblowers, escalators and

elevators. We have drive in banks and drive-in

pharmacies. We don't have to go to the mall to shop

anymore, we use the internet and have Fedex deliver

the goods.

The energy saved by these devices becomes fat in our

bellies and our butts.

When I was growing up in the 50's the only exercise

facility in town was the local YMCA. Worker swould

take the bus to work and walk from the bus stop to the

factories. The only students bused to school were the

middle school and high school students. Most mothers

did not have a car to drive so in order to play we had

to walk or ride our bikes to the nearest park to play

sports.

Studies have shown that people in the suburbs are

fatter than city dwellers. The city dwellers have to

walk to the subway and walk from the subway to work.

The city dwellers do a great deal more of walking than

the suburbanites. Many suburban towns do not even

have sidewalks. How many people do you see driving

around the parking lot trying to find a parking space

just a little closer to the store entrance.

My advice to my patients who wish to lose weight is to

first keep a diary for a week to see how much time

they are sitting down or lying down vs standing or

actually moving from one place to another.

I then advise them to try to walk more in their daily

activities. A pedometer is a good motivator to see

how many steps you take each day. Most indiviudals

overestimate the amount of activity they actually

accomplish every day.

A good workout in a gym might burn between 500-800

calories in an hour- done 3 x weekly that is 1500-2400

calories. If you walked 2-3 miles daily you would be

burning roughly the same amount of calories.

The workout in the gym should be a supplement to every

day activities and not a replacement.

If you could just burn an extra 100 calories a day

through increased activity that 100 calories

multiplied by 365 is 36,500 calories or roughly 10 lbs

of fat.

Ralph Giarnella MD

Southington, CT

<<WASHINGTON - Thin folks who tap their toes while

they work and fiddle during routine activities could

be burning hundreds more calories a day than plumper

couch potatoes.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota designed

a study to test if some people are born to stay seated

while others are restless enough to make themselves

thinner.

Everyday activity adds up.

They found obese people sat for about 150 minutes more

per day on average compared to lean subjects, who

burned 350 more calories daily.

The naturally leaner subjects didn't necessarily sweat

more at the gym. They simply were active, whether

cleaning the house, walking to work or twiddling their

thumbs at " non-exercise activity thermogenesis, " or

NEAT.

The study's lead author, endocrinologist Dr.

Levine, explored links between inactivity, low

metabolism and obesity in the hopes of devising new

treatments for obesity.

" Our study shows that the calories that people burn

in their everyday activities – their NEAT – are far,

far more important in obesity than we previously

imagined, " said Levine.

For Levine, the results suggest if people can return

to the activity levels of the 1950s then the U.S. has

the potential to trim expanding waistlines.

Standers versus sitters

In the experiment, 10 lean subjects and 10 healthy,

mildly obese adults (BMI of 33 or higher) wore

customized undergarments embedded with sensors that

monitored their posture and movements every half

second, 24 hours a day for 10 days.

The participants had to eat all of their specially

prepared meals at the hospital, with no home-cooked

treats or restaurant food allowed. Investigators

performed special metabolic tests on them.

They found obese participants sat or lay down an

average 2.5 hours more per day than their lean

counterparts. On the other hand, burning more NEAT

calories could translate into 33 fewer pounds over a

year, the researchers said.

The lean volunteers were then fed an extra 1,000

calories to see if they'd become more sedentary, but

they didn't.

And obese volunteers who shed pounds continued to

prefer the couch instead of being active, such as

using a treadmill while watching TV.

The study appears in Friday's issue of the journal

Science.

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