This is one of those “duh” stories.  

In a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers reviewed the results of 26 studies in which pedometers or step counters were used. They found that using step counters was strongly associated with increases in physical activity. That is, people who used step counters increased their activity by over 2,000 steps compared to their own baseline level or compared to people who did not wear a step counter. In addition, using step counters was associated with reductions in body mass index (BMI), an indicator of body fatness, and blood pressure.

It is a “duh” story because if you move more, you burn more calories. You burn more calories, you reduce your BMI. What is interesting is that this study showed that a relatively simple, inexpensive tool can help people move more — and weigh less.

We at The Cooper Institute have known about the value of step counters for years. Over 15 years ago, we conducted one of the first studies in which step counters were used to help people set goals and track their physical activity. We have since used step counters in many other studies and educational programs. Still, it is good to have a definitive paper in a prestigious journal that goes to thousands of physicians and other health professionals. We hope that more clinicians will recommend step counters to their patients.

If you don’t have a step counter, get one. If you do have one, here are ways to have fun with your step counter.

Fun with Step Counters
1) Guess how many steps it is from your home to the end of your block. Check your step counter before and after you walk the distance. How close was your guess? Try it again. How many steps does it take to go around your whole block?

2) Use your step counter as a physical activity cue. Here’s how:
1. Decide how many steps you want to have on your step counter by lunch time.  
2. Check your counter at noon. If you haven’t reached your goal, take time during your lunch break to add some steps.  
3. Set another goal for five o’clock. If you haven’t reached your five o’clock goal, the step counter will cue you to get moving!!

3) One Step Counter, Two Friends
1. Ask a friend to join you. Walk for five minutes. Guess the number of steps you walked.  Have your buddy guess, also. Check the step counter. Whoever comes closest to the actual number without going over gets to wear the step counter for the next 10 minutes.
2. Guess the number of steps on the counter after 10 minutes. Continue on the rest of your walk. Make up different time intervals (three minutes, 11 minutes, etc.) for counting steps.  Each time, the person who comes closest wins the right to wear the step counter.
3. At the end of your walk, who wore the step counter the most times?

 

When you go shopping, you start out with a certain amount of cash in your wallet (or ATM account!). Your goal? Get as much as you can for as little cash as possible. You’re hunting for bargains.

When it comes to making food choices, you should be a “bargain” shopper, too. No, we are not talking about a grocery cart full of 99-cent ramen noodles. The bargains we mean are “caloric bargains.”

Think of your daily calorie allotment as the same as the money in your wallet. Each day, you only have a certain amount of calories you can “spend” on your food allotment. So you want to spend your calories wisely on low-calorie, nutritious foods. What are “caloric bargain” foods?  Generally, foods that are minimally processed and rich in fiber or have a lot of water. For example:

•    Fruits - fresh, frozen, and canned without added sugar or syrup
•    Vegetables – especially high water content vegetables such as tomatoes, greens, squash
•    Whole grain pastas, rice, cereals (ready-to-eat and cooked) and breads
•    Very lean meat, poultry and fish
•    Nonfat dairy products
•    Broth-based soups

Remember, not all low-calorie foods are nutritious. Take jelly beans for example. Ten jelly beans have only 103 calories. But other than a simple carbohydrate, sugar, the jelly beans don’t provide any nutrients. Not all high-nutrition foods are low in calories either. The avocado, for example, is a wonderfully nutritious fruit packed with healthy oils, vitamins, and minerals but a medium avocado has 306 calories.  

We’re not saying you should never eat these foods, just in moderation. Spend most of your daily calories on the “caloric bargains” described previously.  

What are “caloric bargain” foods that you like?

 

 

When somebody tells you to, “take 10,” it usually means take a break from the task at hand for 10 minutes. There is a different, healthy take on this common command.

For over 10 years advocates for increasing physical activity have emphasized the importance of accumulating multiple, small bouts of physical activity over the day. This can be in addition to or a replacement for a single, longer exercise session.  New, updated physical activity guidelines suggest the length of the short bouts should be about 10 minutes per session to get health benefits. Instead of one 40-minute workout you could walk briskly for 10 minutes four times throughout the day. No sweat. No leotards. How convenient.

The “take 10” physical activity recommendation is sound advice. But don’t forget, any movement (even standing!) is better than no movement for burning calories. So even if you don’t have 10 minute to “take 10” to move, just stand up!

So the next time someone tells you to “take 10,” take it as your prompt to stand up and move around for 10 minutes.

What are creative ways you recommend for people to Take 10?

If every person living in New York City chose a McDonald’s cheeseburger instead of a Big Mac for lunch today, they would save over 1.9 billion calories — IN ONE DAY! That’s equal to about 274 tons of body fat. Can you see why the NYC public health department has just legislated the listing of calorie counts on restaurant menus? Read the full article.
 
While this is a great step, we argue that this is only part of the solution. The other part is that people need to know what their daily calorie limit is so that they can know how a 1,420 calorie lunch fits – or not – into their total calorie allotment for the day. Let’s look at this more closely:

A man walks into a Burger King in Chicago. He orders the combo meal with the Whopper, large fries and a large soft drink. Grand total: 1,550 calories. He doesn’t even have a clue that he just ate 74% of his total daily calories in one meal.

A second man walks into a Burger King New York City. This restaurant lists the calories of each food item on the menu board. He sees that the Junior Whopper, medium fries, and a medium soft drink all have fewer calories than the big combo meal. Grand total: 970 calories. Better than the guy in Chicago but he still ate nearly 50% of his daily calorie total at lunch.

A third man walks into the same Burger King in NYC. He has learned from the Stand Up & Eat web site, that he needs about 2,000 calories per day to stay in calorie balance. He decides that he wants to keep his calories about 1/3 of his daily calorie total (about 660 calories) so he orders the grilled chicken salad and uses ½ of the ranch dressing. That adds up to only 335 calories so he orders a diet coke and a small fries for a grand total of 565 calories. He has about 100 calories leftover to add to another meal or snack.

Here’s our argument. Providing calorie information on menus is a good idea. At least people can see and compare the low to high calorie options. But a recent report from the International Food Information Council stated that only 11% of American adults know how many calories they need in a day. So we need to make people aware of just how many (or for most of us, how few) calories we need each day.  

Let’s hope NYC – and other places – are successful in getting calorie labeling in restaurants. In the meantime, calculate how many daily calories you need. Send the calculator to people whom you think need to know their calorie limits.  

Would it make a difference to YOU if restaurants listed calorie information on the menus?

 

Just standing may be an important component of total daily calories burned. Standing can burn up to 33% more calories than sitting. A recent study showed that compared to lean women, obese women sat more and stood less.1  They also spent half as much time in physical activity as the lean women. Still, the researchers calculated that if the obese women, sat less, stood more, and doubled their weekly activity time, they could burn about 300 more calories a day.

How can this be? One answer is obvious. Your body burns more calories standing than sitting.  One-third more to be exact. That’s because the large muscles in your legs and back are fighting gravity to keep you standing erect. Less obvious but implied by this study, is that people who stood more also moved more. Perhaps the saying, “You have to walk before you run” should be adapted to, “You have to stand before you walk.”

A third intriguing explanation has to do with fat-burning enzymes that naturally occur in your body. According to new research from the University of Missouri-Columbia, when you sit, these enzymes seem to shut off.2 This prevents the fat from being put into the blood stream to be used as an energy source.  The research also seems to indicate that when you are seated, fat that is already in the blood stream prefers to be stored in the fat tissue instead of being burned by muscle.

While this latter explanation is exciting, more research is needed. Also, you shouldn’t trade in your long walks for standing all day. If you are already physically active, stay active and when you are not exercising, sit less. If you are not active, stand up more. Here are ideas for making a stand for good health:

•    When the phone, rings stand up for the duration of the call.  

•    You know those “standing” meetings that occur regularly on your calendar? Make them truly standing by not sitting! Send this blog post to your friends or work colleagues – perhaps they will stand with you!

•    Stand in the stands. Who says you have to sit to watch your child’s soccer game?

What ideas do you have for standing more?