- Apr 14, 2001
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Now I know why I was always so skinny. I could never sit still. I was always shifting around or wiggling.
Alas, my metabolism caught up with it in my 30s. Now I can gain weight if I don't work out.
Fidgeting Separates Fat From Fit Couch Potato
Obese Couch Potatoes Sit Longer Than Thinner Counterparts
By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD
on Thursday, January 27, 2005
Jan. 27, 2005 -- All couch potatoes may not be created equal, according to a new study that shows the need to sit or fidget may be biological.
Researchers tracked the posture and body position of 10 obese and 10 lean self-proclaimed "couch potatoes" for 10 days. They found that, on average, lean couch potatoes stood up and moved around about two hours longer than the obese ones.
That extra fidgeting time amounts to an additional 350 calories burned per day among the lean couch potatoes.
Researchers call those extra calories burned without exercise "nonexercise activity thermogenesis," or NEAT. The results indicate NEAT may be more important than formal exercise in determining who is lean and who is obese.
"Our patients have told us for years that they have low metabolism, and as caregivers, we have never quite understood what that means -- until today," says researcher James Levine, MD, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in a news release.
"The answer is they have low NEAT, which means they have a biological need to sit more, says Levine. "A person can expend calories either by going to the gym, or through everyday activities. 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."
Fidgeting May Fight Fat
In the first part of the study, which appears in the Jan. 28 issue of Science, researchers used specially designed underwear designed to track even the smallest movement to measure activity and fidgeting levels among a group of 20 couch potatoes for 10 days.
Half of the participants were lean and half were considered mildly obese.
The results showed that obese participants were seated for 164 minutes longer per day than the lean participants, which meant they burned about 350 fewer calories per day. Sleeping times were almost identical between the two groups.
In the second phase of the study, researchers put the obese couch potatoes on a diet and reduced their calorie intake by 1,000 calories per day and overfed the lean couch potatoes by the same amount.
The obese group lost weight, but researchers found that after their weight loss they still spent the same amount of time sitting. The same principle held true for the lean group after they gained weight; they still stood, walked around, and fidgeted more than the obese group.
Researchers say those findings suggest that obese people may be NEAT-deficient.
"It most likely reflects a brain chemical difference because our study shows that even when obese people lose weight they remain seated the same number of minutes per day," says Levine. "They don't stand or walk more. And conversely, when lean people artificially gain weight, they don't sit more. So the NEAT appears to be fixed."
In a related perspective published in the same issue, Eric Ravussin of the Pennington Biomedical Researcher Center in Baton Rouge, La., says this study shows that a small, but sustained change in the activities of daily living can profoundly affect energy balance.
"Unfortunately, if genes do determine the true 'couch potato,' then encouraging an exchange of time spent standing, as suggested, is unlikely to help control body weight," writes Ravussin. "Instead, one could progressively change the environment to discourage sitting behaviors."
http://my.webmd.com/content/article/99/105421.htm
Alas, my metabolism caught up with it in my 30s. Now I can gain weight if I don't work out.
Fidgeting Separates Fat From Fit Couch Potato
Obese Couch Potatoes Sit Longer Than Thinner Counterparts
By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD
on Thursday, January 27, 2005
Jan. 27, 2005 -- All couch potatoes may not be created equal, according to a new study that shows the need to sit or fidget may be biological.
Researchers tracked the posture and body position of 10 obese and 10 lean self-proclaimed "couch potatoes" for 10 days. They found that, on average, lean couch potatoes stood up and moved around about two hours longer than the obese ones.
That extra fidgeting time amounts to an additional 350 calories burned per day among the lean couch potatoes.
Researchers call those extra calories burned without exercise "nonexercise activity thermogenesis," or NEAT. The results indicate NEAT may be more important than formal exercise in determining who is lean and who is obese.
"Our patients have told us for years that they have low metabolism, and as caregivers, we have never quite understood what that means -- until today," says researcher James Levine, MD, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in a news release.
"The answer is they have low NEAT, which means they have a biological need to sit more, says Levine. "A person can expend calories either by going to the gym, or through everyday activities. 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."
Fidgeting May Fight Fat
In the first part of the study, which appears in the Jan. 28 issue of Science, researchers used specially designed underwear designed to track even the smallest movement to measure activity and fidgeting levels among a group of 20 couch potatoes for 10 days.
Half of the participants were lean and half were considered mildly obese.
The results showed that obese participants were seated for 164 minutes longer per day than the lean participants, which meant they burned about 350 fewer calories per day. Sleeping times were almost identical between the two groups.
In the second phase of the study, researchers put the obese couch potatoes on a diet and reduced their calorie intake by 1,000 calories per day and overfed the lean couch potatoes by the same amount.
The obese group lost weight, but researchers found that after their weight loss they still spent the same amount of time sitting. The same principle held true for the lean group after they gained weight; they still stood, walked around, and fidgeted more than the obese group.
Researchers say those findings suggest that obese people may be NEAT-deficient.
"It most likely reflects a brain chemical difference because our study shows that even when obese people lose weight they remain seated the same number of minutes per day," says Levine. "They don't stand or walk more. And conversely, when lean people artificially gain weight, they don't sit more. So the NEAT appears to be fixed."
In a related perspective published in the same issue, Eric Ravussin of the Pennington Biomedical Researcher Center in Baton Rouge, La., says this study shows that a small, but sustained change in the activities of daily living can profoundly affect energy balance.
"Unfortunately, if genes do determine the true 'couch potato,' then encouraging an exchange of time spent standing, as suggested, is unlikely to help control body weight," writes Ravussin. "Instead, one could progressively change the environment to discourage sitting behaviors."
http://my.webmd.com/content/article/99/105421.htm
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