Regular, vigorous exercise\u00a0helps keep the pounds off\u00a0– we all know this.\u00a0 But, as it turns out, it may be your non-exercise activity\u00a0that determines\u00a0how much weight creeps on over the years.\u00a0 Activities as simple as pacing while you think, or puttering around the house add up to a significant number of calories, if you’re constantly doing them throughout the day.<\/p>\n
How\u00a0many extra calories could you possibly burn?\u00a0 According to researcher James A. Levine, it’s an average of 350 calories a day…which is rather a lot, when you add it up over time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Levine’s research is on NEAT: Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.\u00a0 As he describes it<\/a>,<\/p>\n “NEAT is distinct <\/sup>from purposeful exercise and includes the energy expenditure <\/sup>of daily activities such as sitting, standing, walking, and <\/sup>talking.”\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n As trivial as these low-intensity activities seem, Levine and his colleagues have documented clear differences in\u00a0motion\u00a0between lean and obese subjects.\u00a0 Even among self-proclaimed “couch potatoes,”\u00a0obese subjects in one experiment were seated 164 min (just shy of 3 hours) longer than lean subjects.\u00a0 Conversely, lean subjects were upright for 152 min longer than obese ones.\u00a0 As Levine summed up:<\/p>\n “Notably, if the obese subjects had <\/sup>the same posture allocation as the lean subjects, they would <\/sup>have expended an additional 352 \u00b1 65 (\u00b1SD) (range, <\/sup>269 to 477) calories (kcal) per day<\/em>”<\/p>\n