Gym-Free Secret of Naturally Thin People?

As I write this I am entering my 7th week on crutches after recovering from a major surgery for a rotational osteotomy. The 5-hour surgery resulted in a broken femur with a rod in my leg and screws in my hip and above my knee. I had simultaneous hip arthroscopy and spent 5 days at the Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC. Anyway, as much as I love to stay fit and exercise I haven’t exactly been able to be very active for a while now. But that really is not the interesting part….

What I find interesting is how much I notice myself fidgeting lately. I shake my leg when I sit, I stretch, I rotate my torso and twist about in my chair, I tap my feet on the floor, etc. My husband has noticed too because every time I start to shake my leg a little too vigorously I get a “you are doing it again” kind of look. I’m not intentionally shaking, twitching and moving about but I remember this is how I was when I was young (way before I intentionally started exercising.) I was always told in school and at my grandmothers house to “sit still!” My mom never bothered to tell me this because she was a leg shaker too, so she understood me a bit better than everyone else. And it’s funny, because my own son is a ball of boundless energy who constantly is flipping and moving about. And I’m always telling him to “sit still!”

Gym-Free Secret: Why Sit Still?

Pretty much the last thing anybody should do these days is sit still. I really think most people today have a serious case of “sit-itus”—we are all practically addicted to sitting in our chairs. We shop, socialize, work, enjoy entertainment, drive and pretty much live our lives in a seated position. I’m guilty too. But I don’t actually just sit there motionless. And research shows this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

As I was flipping through this month’s issue of my American College of Sports Medicine Health & Fitness Journal (Vol. 16/ NO. 2), I couldn’t help but cut out the article titled “Sit Less and Stand and Move More.” The article explains how non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), or the energy one expends on all physical activities outside of purposeful exercise, plays a significant role in promoting good health. Really? My ears perked up as I started tapping my foot with a little more pep. And then I thought of my grandpa Earl who lived to be 98 years old who would sit in his chair as he shook his long lean leg and tell me he was doing his “exercise.” It drove my overweight grandmother nuts. Apparently grandpa Earl might have actually been onto something though because apparently NEAT activities as simple as shaking your foot or standing instead of sitting while talking on the phone, cause muscles to contract, positively impact fat metabolism, increase calorie expenditure and minimize long term weight gain.

Naturally Thin People Might Really Move More

Grandpa Earl was as thin as a beanpole and it might just be that naturally thin people really do fidget and move more. Although I normally intentionally exercise when I am not on crutches it might be that when I am not able to expend energy through exercise my body naturally makes up for it by causing me to move more. This is just my own theory but I do know that research shows a number of negative metabolic changes are associated with low levels of NEAT, including insulin resistance, obesity and metabolic syndrome. So it certainly can’t hurt to move a bit more!

If you are not a natural mover and shaker then you might want to consciously try to move for at least 10 minutes every hour. Here are just a few NEAT ways to get moving:

  • Shake your leg when you are sitting (I am very good at this!)
  • Walk around while you talk on the phone (I NEVER sit and talk)
  • Stand and stretch
  • Do calf raises
  • Do side bends in your chair
  • Do arm circles
  • Tap your feet (I know from experience this can irritate people if you have loud shoes though)
  • Do seated leg extensions

 

Oh yeah, and don’t forget to watch what you eat! Even if you are among the naturally thin people, what you eat matters. It matters a lot. And food matters more than fitness….

 

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14 Comments

  1. I know sitting for long periods of time is not good for you but what are you supposed to do when that is what is required of you? My job dictates how much time I have away from my desk and how far from it I can get at any given time. When you are an emergency response dispatcher you don’t have a lot of freedom to do what you want to do.

  2. I’d spent a lot of money on what I ate and the exercises I did and I lost quite a bit of weight then I went on the road with my husband for 6 months and gained some weight out on the road. I thought when I got home that it would come right off after I started exercising and eating right again and it hasn’t, what can I do to get it back off?

  3. My husband is a constant mover, he is always moving his feet or his leg or if it is really bad he rocks back and forth. Although he is not naturally thin at all he is overweight. So the movers aren’t always thin right, or do we need to look at another health reason that could be causing him to be overweight? This was a very interesting blog.

  4. I have seen people do office yoga just so that they are not sitting all day long. Is that something that you have heard of and do you happen to have any moves that I could try? I will do some more research on it but I thought I would come to my favorite information spot first.

  5. I feel a great deal of empathy for the woman who had to go through such physical discomfort and no doubt a good deal of anxiety. I am very active and I think I would feel Justas strange if I could not exercise regularly. I do Yoga, I run and lift weights. It must have been difficult for her to be unable to be as active as she is accustomed to being. My heart goes out to you.

  6. I don’t know how difficult it would be for me if I sustained an injury that immobilized me. I cannot go through life without a strenuous work out regimen. I actually feel strange when I don’t get my regular dose of exercise. I have also gotten twitches and felt fidgety when I go more than a day without working out. I watched one of the Doctors from that TV show advise people to burn extra calories by moving around during the day.

  7. I have found that a lot of things you described in the article where things that I do, like the stand and stretch or the calf raise etc. so I understand where you are coming from on this but I don’t understand why I’m not naturally thin then and why it is a constant battle with me either to lose weight or keep the weight off.

  8. I understand not wanting to stop your kids from doing this kind of movement because it can help them in the long run but what are you supposed to do when the child is getting in trouble at school because he is up moving around all the time when he isn’t supposed to be? Some people wanted to call that ADHD but I think he was just bored so what should I do?

  9. I work at home so I know when I need to I can stand up or go exercise and I that is something that you need to do. I can say that the people that are constantly moving around are not always thin however. My husband has a lot of energy like that but he’s not thin so is this something that is helping him, would it be worse if he didn’t have this energy?

  10. Where I used to work I was on the computer all day long or answer my phone and there were days that I would just get tired of setting there and I had to get up so I would stand at my computer and talk on the phone like you mentioned and I would be bent over typing on the computer and everybody would look at me like I was crazy but I hated sitting all day.

  11. If you have to sit at your job because you are tethered to a phone or computer does it really do any good to sit on a stability ball? I have seen and heard about people doing this and it is supposed to strengthen your core among other things. If that really does work than that may be what I do since I can’t really stand there the whole time.

    1. yes Norma! The stability ball is great for engaging your core muscles if you have to sit at a desk job!

  12. I am glad to see that you are at least feeling good enough to get back to blogging. I have missed your very helpful tips these past couple of months. My husband is a constant mover, he is always moving his feet or his leg or if it is really bad he rocks back and forth. Although he is not naturally thin at all he is overweight. So the movers aren’t always thin.

    1. yes Carol! I am starting to feel better bit by bit =) VERY good point that the natural movers aren’t always thin—even marathon runners who exert tremendous energy are not always super lean! While movement gives you a little “edge” when it comes to staying trim it definitely is not the key factor in weight loss or weight management. Food choices matter MUCH MUCH more!!