HOW DO MOST PEOPLE KEEP FIT?
If you are a rickshaw puller in Calcutta or
a Bici driver (bicycle taxi) driver in Baracoa, you wouldn't be concerned too
much about going to the Gym and getting fit. What you normally do would keep
you fit and the rickshaw driver has far more existential needs to think about
physical fitness.
In the western world, where the most
precious commodity is time, how many people do what the health “Gurus” and
actual experts say about keeping healthy and fit:
150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity
or 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week. Woody Allen might say that sex is a
good way to get those 75 minutes, but vigorous
sex, despite being pleasurable, does not make the mark.
Only 20 per cent or less, one in five or
less, are keen to don on Gym Shorts or play sport. What about the rest of us,
four out of five?
Is there a way, to live your life and have
exercise become a part of your life? It has become obvious that there is a way,
as recent studies demonstrate.
If you have grown up in Australia or
England, it was a common sight, watching older people gardening. It may have
seen as being slow in motion but studies have shown otherwise
Gardening and DIY 'can cut the risk of
dying by 30%': Active hobbies reduce chance of a heart attack or stroke, a
study from Scandinavia shows.
When people ask me about loosing weight, I give
them my three rules one of which is:
Sit down to eat, do not stand up and eat, and
preferably eat with friends or family.
Where as when it comes to fitness, the advice
would be:
Do not sit in one position for too long! As our
lifestyle and internet and international and social connections have so
dramatically changed in the last few years, thanks to Sergei, Mark, Larry,
Marissa and Susan! We spend an awful lot of time, sitting and staring at the
screen.
It is recommended that sitting less than an hour
at a time is safer than sitting for hours without a break.
It is recommended that you stand up for five
minutes every hour or stand up a few seconds every few minutes, to be of
benefit to your health.
What are the other beneficial things you can do
around the house that can rev up your metabolism?
Watching TV takes up an enormous chunk of ones
leisure time, and it is the least energy spending activity you can think of.
Considering sitting down to watch TV as equal to
One MET, a measure of energy expenditure:
Ironing and Dusting, has MET scores of 1.3 and
1.5, nothing to brag about, except the cleanliness of your house, house-proud
as we used to say in Australia.
Have you ever wondered why women who live in
poorer countries are leaner and fitter? Their homes are not filled with energy
saving devices. In fact we want energy spending devices, and the humble vacuum
for one hour scores a MET of 3, which brings them to the moderate intensity activity.
So does mopping!
A person doing mopping and vacuuming spends
three times as much energy as the person who is just sitting!
Sexists among you may wish to know about more
manly activities? Washing a car? Washing windows? Mowing lawn? Planting
flowers?
Planting flowers racks up an impressive 3.4 MET,
nearly 3 ½ times more energy than watching TV!
Why planting flowers? It involves upper body and
that counts for more energy expenditure. At medical school we were taught that
people with heart disease, get very tired when they try to comb their hair,
because lifting the arms created a greater demand on the heart!
Mowing the lawn racks up an impressive 4.4 MET 9
I am sure it is the variety that one has to push and not just sit in a motorized
vehicle!
(His descendants mostly sit whether in KL or Singapore!)
The Compendium of Physical
Activities - first developed by Dr. Bill Haskell of Stanford University - gives
MET values to a wide range of activities. Among them:
Pulling a
rickshaw - 6.3
Playing the
accordion - 1.8
Serving food at
Church - 2.5
Tanning hides -
4.0
Now you see why the Rickshaw puller of Calcutta is healthy enough to
avoid Gyms!
I wondered about serving Food at Church,
perhaps it is because one is standing up as well as using the upper body.
So the average man or woman, can rack up
nearly half of the minutes of rigorous activity, just doing what they are doing
now!
How to get another 40 minutes of
moderate activity to satisfy the CDC and your doctor!
If you prefer activities that are more
intense, there is a range of things that, according to the Compendium of
Physical Activities, you can do around the garden.
Vigorous activity means anything that
rates over six METs, and to achieve that you would need to be "chopping
wood and splitting logs" (6.3), "digging, spading, composting"
(7.8), or "shovelling snow, by hand" (6.0).
According to the same source, the only
domestic activity that falls into the vigorous range is "scrubbing floors
and bathtub" (6.5); though "moving heavy furniture" (5.8) comes
close.
If you prefer to fill your activity quotient
by doing something more enjoyable than cleaning the loo, then dancing -
"disco, folk, Irish, line dancing or country" - clocks up an
impressive 7.8 METs.
But the easiest way to get the rest of the METs
would be to walk SIX minutes per day, which clocks in at 3-4 MET depending upon
how briskly you walk!
Just Six Minutes per day!
This regimen may not make you loose weight but
certainly might keep you FIT!
The thought to write this came to me, after
watching my sister on a quotidian basis. She is very busy fitting in her duties
as a housewife, a mother, helping other people, cooking delicious Middle
Eastern dishes. Despite her past medical history of cancer and its successful
treatment, I would consider her fit!
I don't have a minute to sit down and enjoy a
cup of tea, she would complain… and in fact, that is good, she does not have
time to sit down, she is not in front of the TV or computer more than just few
minutes while attending to emails or business!
(You can learn the above and much more if you
listen to BBC, Trust Me, I am a Doctor with Michael Mosley!)
(Believe it or not, these San people of Kalahari are RESTING!)
Wanted to learn more about the benefits and how
much benefit one derives from standing up most of the day rather than sitting,
once again BBC News reported on the first such study ever conducted in UK:
With assistance from University of Chester. And
I quote:
The Chester researchers took measurements on
days when the volunteers stood, and when they sat around. When they looked at
the data there were some striking differences. As we had hoped, blood glucose
levels fell back to normal levels after a meal far more quickly on the days
when the volunteers stood than when they sat.
There was also evidence, from the heart rate
monitors that they were wearing, that by standing they were burning more
calories.
"If we look at the heart rates,"
John Buckley explains, "we can see they are quite a lot higher actually -
on average around 10 beats per minute higher and that makes a difference of
about 0.7 of a calorie per minute."
Now that doesn't sound like much, but it adds up to about 50 calories an
hour. If you stand for three hours a day for five days that's around 750
calories burnt. Over the course of a year it would add up to about 30,000 extra
calories, or around 8lb of fat.
"If you want to put that into activity levels," Dr. Buckley
says, "then that would be the equivalent of running about 10 marathons a
year. Just by standing up three or four hours in your day at work."
Dr. Buckley thinks that although going out and doing exercise offers
many proven benefits, our bodies also need the constant, almost imperceptible
increase in muscle activity that standing provides. Simple movement helps us to
keep our all-important blood sugar under control.
We can't all stand up at work but the researchers believe that even
small adjustments, like standing while talking on the phone, going over to talk
to a colleague rather than sending an email, or simply taking the stairs, will
help.
So, don't sit down, except to eat, and if you
have to sit down for long, get up often. Remember what they advise you on long
distance flights. Get up and walk around.
I will keep that in mind when I fly DFW-HKG next
month on my way to SIN and BLR.
Or like the Cubans in the island, keep fit while
smiling, DANCE!
Remember, we used to refer to thin people who
were thin as, people with high metabolic rate!
