Latest Clue to Thin: Movement, Any Movement

The new news on thin attributes it not to diet, not to exercise, but to movement, any movement, from strumming a guitar to chewing gum. As the New York Times reports, scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota wired up the specially-made underwear of 10 lean mean and 10 slightly obese men, all of whom claimed to be couch potatoes, and all of whom ate the same diets. The researchers found that incidental movements of the thin group burned 350 more calories a day than were burned by the heavier group. The paper reports that the heavier men tended to sit, while the lean ones were more restless and spent two more hours a day on their feet – standing, pacing around and fidgeting. The difference in calorie-burn, the doctors found, was enough to take off 30 to 40 pounds a year. Read more in the New York Times.