Think about this while you sit at your desk or sit in traffic: HOW MANY STEPS DO YOU THINK YOU TAKE IN A DAY?
In a 2004 study of 200 men and women, researchers determined that an average man walks about 7,192 steps per day, while the average woman takes about 5,210 steps per day.
Trust us when Web Watch tells you that those numbers are way above today’s average of around 3,000 steps per day (most likely due to Web Watch and other Internet distractions). If it helps, RECENT GOVERNMENT RECOMMENDATIONS call for a healthy person to be taking 10,000 steps per day – or about 5 miles.
What? You’re not walking 5 miles a day? Apparently, neither are a lot of other people.
However, everyone thinks they are.
Continue reading "How many steps do you think you take each day? (42% of you will be way, way off)"
Want to raise your metabolic rate? Try butchering animals.
The Resting Metabolic Rate Debate
Do you know what your METABOLIC RATE is when doing various activities around the house?
Better yet – do you know which day-to-day functions offer the best (or worst) exercise based on the amount of metabolic activity they provide?
A number of doctors and researchers have updated the COMPENDIUM OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES that lists and allows you to compare the MET of each activity you select, and it’s been published in the Official Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine. The MET is a standard “metabolic intensity level” metric that allows different studies that look at health-related data to all be based on the same overall measurement standard.
In other words, two different studies on running can use the same MET value associated with running when working out their math.
If it helps, 1 MET is the standard intensity level when a person is resting and just sitting down, relaxing. Sleeping offers the lowest MET of 0.9. The highest MET is 18, and can be obtained by running 10.9 MPH.
Now that we know what the range is, here is a list of MET intensity levels for doing various other activities:
Continue reading "Want to raise your metabolic rate? Try butchering animals." »