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7/2/13 The New Yorker:May 20,2013
<br /> kid that his nickname was Pufler,,,md the molecules in the blood,Your metabolic be significant—that to be healthy and
<br /> day before lie put his desk together his rate drops to about one caloric a rnin- lease son-ic weight you didn't need to
<br /> wife had told him that tie was getting ute—just slightly higher than ifyou were grind out an hour at the gyre but could
<br /> kind of fat.1 was on my bottom a lot: (lead. Sitting for more than two hours, simply start spending more of your day
<br /> watching Monday-night footbATUes- cause,,,,the presence of good cholesterol on your feet.(Levine suggests in his in-
<br /> day-night basketball,'Simpsons'every to drop,and,in time,insulin efkctivcncss troduction that you read the book either
<br /> night,"Lcvinesaid.fie now sits,so rarely plummets,This can lead to(-,irdiovascu- standing up or pacing.)At the time,I
<br /> that colleagues have taken pimires of1iini by problems,ccrtoin kinds of cancer,de- was a runner,and Levine's gospel of tak-
<br /> seated during meals just to prove that lie pression,deep-vcin thrombosis, and Ing little walks throughout the(lay didn't
<br /> does sometimes make use of a chair. "c-2 diabetes,There is even specula- appeal to me; like many runners, J
<br /> Levine first began thinking about tion that being moderately activc—that thought that walking was boring.Also,
<br /> walking in 1999,after lie conducted a is,not sitting can delay the progression it took too much time,
<br /> study at the Mayo Clinic about why of pre-dementia to demenfia. On the other hand,I was-always a bit
<br /> some people seemed prone to gain The worst news is that hard exercise of a seeker when it came to desk chairs.
<br /> weight while others,seemed immune, for air hour day may not cancel out the I iised one of my first big paychecks to
<br /> even when they ate exactly the same damage done by sitting for six IIOLus,Ac- buy the classic I lerman Miller Acron
<br /> a The mount. s
<br /> ixteen Study Su1jects,were cording to a 2006 study by am cpiderni- chair,Then I switched it out fora Balans
<br /> fed a strictly monito.red diet and were ologist at the American Cancer Society, kneeling chair,because I had heard that
<br /> observed With What lie c"ill's"an atrocious men who sit for six hours or more daily kneeling at my desk would open my di-
<br /> degree of attention to detail"to sce what have an over-all death rate twenty per aphragni and restore my natural spine
<br /> they did differently. 'rhe study con- cent higher than irien who sit for three alignment,which sounded pretty good.
<br /> cluded,that the people.who stayed thin hours or less—in other won Is,they are But the kneeling chair hurt my knees
<br /> managed to increase what Levine calls twenty per cent more likely to die of any and made me feel as if I were sitting in-
<br /> I mn-exercise activity thermogvnesis"; Cause than melt who are active.A Uni- side giant Birkcristokk sandal,I went
<br /> that is,they moved throughout the day, vmsity College London rcview of studies back to my Acron,I heard ofpcople who
<br /> fidgeting,pacing,standing,bouncing on done between 1970 acrd 2007 of dose to used rubber balance balls as desk chairs,
<br /> the balls of their feet,and.jiggling their half million people showed that walk- but I knew that if the kneeling chair
<br /> legs.That activity,Which had mostly ing reduced the risk of cardiovascular made me feel,stupid.a big rubber ball
<br /> gone unnoticed,ended up accounting events by thirty-one per cent,and it cut would be more than I could handle,
<br /> for a slow burn of as niuchas eight hun- the risk of dying during the period of the Plus, Id read that people sometimes
<br /> dred extra calories. studies by thirty-two per cent. For rolled off them. Also,the balls were
<br /> Subsequent research,by Levine and women,sitting is especially unhealthy: known to occasionally and spectacularly
<br /> others,Was even more surprising.Sitting women who sit more than six hours,a day deflate--collapsing,as E'rgononzks Today
<br /> a lot,even if you're in good shape,is bad. die at rate tbafs forty I-Tr cent higher put it,"like the I lindenburg,"
<br /> Ifyou go,to the gyrn three times a week, than that for women who move more. I was still a devoted runner,but,by
<br /> you may feel fit,but you won't be meta- this point,I had a young kid,and I was
<br /> helically healthy. Sitting puts muscles orneone gave me a copy of Levine',, starting to find it harder to fit in my run-
<br /> into a Sort of hibernation,Cutting Off S book"Move a Little,Lose a Lot'in ning.Who had time not just to run but
<br /> their electrical activity and shutting 20 9, it was published.17he book also to warm up and then to cool down,
<br /> down the production of lipoprotein li- got lot of attention,especially because and then to shower?Also, the resolve
<br /> p,,eic,the enzyme that brcal,-s down fat Levine argued that small changes could that used to power me up sheer hills and
<br /> through ugly weather was abandoning
<br /> Me. So I ran a little less. Sometimes I
<br /> 0 didn't run at all.I won(leredif I could get
<br /> back to it if I ran somewhere flat and
<br /> temprrawre-controllcd,but I lived out in
<br /> the counvy,and the closest gym was a
<br /> twenty-minute driveaway.Then,unex-
<br /> pectedly,I had to have spine surgery,and
<br /> I was tinder strict orders not to rlinor
<br /> bungee- —for
<br /> jump or skydive at least
<br /> year.Bicycling was out,too,Suddenly,I
<br /> was a walker.
<br /> Around that time,I got mysdf a Fit-
<br /> bit.,a digital pedometer that counts stepts,
<br /> and calories and tracks it all via software.
<br /> The Pat*is small and unobtrusive,so it
<br /> W111s easy to put on in the morning and
<br /> "DePolice station is that way. wear all,clay,Rather than just measuring
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