Can you really fidget your way to a better body? Ki uncovers the truth behind the latest Daily Mail report
Just doing simple daily activities can increase your calorie burn
Last week the Daily Mail reported that you can “Fidget your way to fitness”, misinterpreting the results of recent research which linked cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), a measure of heart and lung fitness, to the amount of incidental physical activity that obese inactive men and women completed everyday.
The researchers concluded that individuals who did more incidental physical activity had higher levels of CRF, but even the highest CRF scores in this group were at the low end of the low-to-good range. What’s more, it doesn’t tell us if greater incidental physical activity results in greater CRF or that people with greater CRF do more incidental physical activity.
Although the findings of this study were generally overstated in the media, and fidgeting may not be the key to getting fit, increasing the amount of incidental physical activity that you do throughout the day can increase your daily calories burned total.
Remember getting fit and losing weight are not necessarily the same thing.
Incidental physical activity is the activity that occurs during everyday tasks and actions (which could include fidgeting). It can be done in little bite-sized chunks so is quite easy to incorporate into your everyday life. You could be:
- Doing the housework – doing the washing-up, vacuuming, dusting, and/or do the laundry.
- Doing the gardening – mowing the lawn, weed the flower beds, and do the digging.
- Washing the car by hand.
The Ki Armband and display shows exactly how much activity you are doing as well as the number of calories you are burning as a result.
Ki Advice:
The key to increasing incidental physical activity is simply changing some of your daily lifestyle habits. If you can replace a few convenient activities each day with something that will cause you to move more, then you will increase your calorie burn. For example
- Walk up and down the stairs instead of the lift or escalator.
- Get off the bus or tube one stop early and walk a little further.
- Park your car a little further away from the entrance at the supermarket or shopping centre.
- Stand-up or walk around when you are on the phone.
- Walk to talk to your colleague instead of emailing them.
