Gaining Weight by "Looking at Cookies"

According to this article and others (here and here) James Levine of the Mayo Clinic knows why you gain weight just by "looking at cookies".

It turns out that obesity as it relates to physical activity is not really related what you do but much more to what you don't do.

Let me explain.

Levin has discovered that, all things being equal, people who tend to gain weight tend to sit inactively for much longer each day than those who do not (about two hours more).

He performed a fairly simple study: he created a closed environment where people were given a fixed amount of food based on their metabolism and not allowed to exercise.  The thought being that all the people would either gain weight at the same rate or there would be some metabolic or physiological difference in their bodies that could be measured.

Sort of like the old saying that "Joe just has a high metabolism and never gains weight."

But that's not quite what he discovered.

Levine discovered that those who do not gain weight subconsciously move around significantly more than those who do gain weight - moving around (or perhaps "fidgeting") up to two hours or more each and every day.

So while in other obesity studies these two groups of people might both claim to have been "watching TV" for three hours those that moved around more would have in fact been doing all sorts of other activity without realizing it.

He discovered "unreported movement" by creating some special underwear with accelerometers and computers stitched into the fabric that objectively recorded the wearer's movements.  (Apparently most or all studies of obesity involve "self reporting" of what people are doing - and since people fidget unconsciously this was missed.)

The bad effects of "sitting" or remaining inactive for several hours are dramatic and go so far as to create physiological effects within 24 hours.

Interestingly exercising for one period per each day was not as good as moving around continuously - thus that morning jog, while offering some benefits, does not overcome the negative effects of too much sitting.

So things like movies, video games, working at your desk - basically anything that involves long periods of inactivity - are in fact very bad for your metabolism.

Interesting stuff...