The Health Blog by Ryan Healy

Fidget to Lose Weight

Fidget to lose weight? Yes...

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have found that people who fidget can burn an extra 350 calories per day... enough to produce a weight loss of 30 to 40 pounds in a year.

When I read this, I began to wonder if my ability to maintain my weight comes from my natural tendency to fidget. Right now, I'm tapping my right foot. In meetings at work, I find myself rocking continuously (the chairs lean back)... sometimes for up to three or four hours straight. If I'm at a table, I'll often drum my fingers to the rhythms in my head. (There are many!)

If you haven't figured it out already, I'm the guy who tends to be oblivious that he's annoying others when he's drumming his fingers, tapping his foot, etc. Although I've gotten better at being sensitive to the "annoyance levels" of the people around me.  :-)

The Week magazine reports:

In their study, the researchers outfitted lean and obese people with sensors that monitored their tiniest movements. all were given the same diets, and engaged in no formal exercise. The obese people, the researchers found, spent at least two hours more each day sitting still than the lean people, who tended to pace, fidget, and stand up more often. Even when the obese people became thinner through dieting, they still shunned activity, and spent most of their time as motionless as possible.

So if you want to lose weight, try fidgeting. It's simple. And it's cheaper than Weight Watchers.

Which Diet Is Best?

I came across an interesting study that examined the effectiveness of four different diet programs: Atkins, Weight Watchers, Zone, and Ornish.

After a year, the researchers concluded: "All four diets resulted in modest statistically significant weight loss at one year, with no statistically significant differences between diets."

It's also interesting to note that, after a year,  none of the diets resulted in average weight loss exceeding eight pounds. Put another way, the annual average weight loss among all four diets was a mere seven pounds or less.

The team of researchers concluded that "weight loss depended more on sticking with a diet than the type of diet."

Consistency is the always the key, isn't it?

The National Body Challenge

If you're the type who needs outside motivation to start losing weight, then you may be interested in the Discovery Health Channel's National Body Challenge. It's an eight-week weight loss program. And, from what I can tell, you get a free eight-week trial membership to Bally Total Fitness if you decide to participate. You can register online until January 20th.

Lose Weight While You Sleep

A new study by researchers at Columbia University has found a clear link between the amount of sleep you get and your risk for obesity.

Translation: you can lose weight if you get more sleep. Put a marketing spin on it and—voila! Lose weight while you sleep.

The North American Association for the Study of Obesity reports:

"The study found that subjects between the ages of 32 and 59 who slept four hours or less per night were 73 percent more likely to be obese than those who slept between seven and nine hours each night. People who got only five hours of sleep had a 50 percent higher risk than those who were getting a full night's rest. Those who got six hours of sleep were just 23 percent more likely to be substantially overweight."

So if you're having trouble losing weight, a little more sleep may be just the thing for you.

And a question for you, dear Health Blog reader... Does your personal experience corroborate the results of this study?

Weight Loss Warning

I just finished reading William Dufty's Sugar Blues. On page 181 he writes something very similar to what I wrote in my Unhealthy Weight Loss post a few days ago.

"Any diet or regime undertaken for the single purpose of losing weight is dangerous, by definition."

Unhealthy Weight Loss

Most weight loss programs have it backwards: they focus solely on weight loss and neglect proper health and nutrition. The way I see it, weight loss programs should focus primarily on proper health and nutrition and let weight loss be a byproduct of them.