Says sitting, even if you run outside of work, is doom for you.
Is this true? It seems ridiculous but it does have the NYTimes stamp, so I might have to believe it regardless. We need a fact attack on this:
It doesn’t matter if you go running every morning, or you’re a regular at the gym. If you spend most of the rest of the day sitting — in your car, your office chair, on your sofa at home — you are putting yourself at increased risk of obesity,
As a general statement, it probably holds true for most folks, sadly.
Those who sit at work are more often the kinds of folks who don’t go running at home which might be a slight nit pick from the statement from the Times.
Hell, for that matter, that statement holds for a majority of America and it is getting worse.
Running will vary in intensity for most folks and 30 minutes, three times a day really isn’t sufficient fat burning to aptly keep the weight off if you do nothing else.
A co-worker told me a couple of weeks ago that I’d probably have fewer heart/vascular problems than most of our other co-workers simply because it’s bad to sit for more than four hours at a time, and unlike the other people, I take walks during breaks every day. I’ve been curious of the validity of that, and I’m now sure she heard about one of the “several recent studies” mentioned in the OP’s link.
I think the key is “if you consider only healthy people who exercise regularly, those who sit the most during the rest of the day have larger waists and worse profiles of blood pressure and blood sugar than those who sit less.” Basically they’re comparing two groups of people who both exercise, but one group is more sedentary when not exercising. It stands to reason that that group would expend fewer calories overall.
Yeah, I tend to think that the NY Times article falls under the category of “well, duh!”
Think of it this way: my squash partner and I exercise about the same amount. At my job, I sit at a desk all day. At his job, he walks around the shipping/receiving loading area organizing the paper work for the drivers’ deliveries. He rarely gets to sit at all. Who is going to be using up the most calories?
The cashiers at the grocery store burn more calories than me because they stand all day. They also probably shift their weight around more, engaged a wider variety of muscles etc.
The three biggest places people are are when they’re bored, when they’re watching TV ora movie and when they’re at the computer.
The reason people are getting fat is they are eating WHILE they do this.
If your kid is playing sports, he’s not burning off any more significant calories. For exmaple, an hour of high intensity aerobics, where you’re constantly jumping around without stop, burns about 300 calories. If a kid is playing baseball, the only exercise he gets is if he gets a hit and runs to a base.
But here’s the thing, kids who play sports AREN’T EATING. They aren’t sitting in front of a TV or computer. And as I’ve just said, people who sit in front of a computer all day or watch TV tend to eat while they’re doing this.
What most people reufuse to understand is you really don’t need much food to live. A person needs about 11 calories per pound to maintain his/her weight. So if you weigh 170 pounds your daily food intake of calories should be 1,870
This is why shorter people have it rough. If you’re tiny like 5 feet and should only weigh 100 pounds, you’re food intake should be 1,100 calories. That’s nothing by today’s food portions.
I’ve read in multiple non-scientific publications that sitting all day will give you a large rear end even if you are otherwise fit. I don’t see how this could be true but many people accept it as common sense.
“increased risk of obesity”? Using that wording will make virtually any statement true.
Eating puts you at increased risk of obesity. Should we all conclude that eating dooms us to an increased risk of obesity no matter how much we exercise?
Other things I can think of that increase risks of obesity: getting older, living in North America, and drinking diet soda.
It’s either lazy journalism or careful wording for scientific findings that can’t establish a cause and effect linkage.
I also read a study that said eating increases your risk of obesity.
Doesn’t matter if you run, walk, play sports, your risk of obesity increases with food consumption.
