People think I’m fit. They think I’m fit, because I’m lean. I know I am. But I am consistent as well.

It may sound very cliché to tell you that implementing small habitual changes every single day may lead to great results in the long run, but it is true.

That’s why I thought myself to walk. Although I have to admit that sometimes I do needless walking as well — for instance when going for a coffee at Mayfair’s or Harry’s — most of the time, walking is a well thought-out means of activating my muscles, hence metabolism.

You might think that I don’t need that because you probably see me as the active type of guy which’s life is one happy workout routine. Nothing could be further from the truth: at my practice I sit at least 8 hours per day, 6-7 days per week. So actually I’m quite a sedentary kind of person.

And I know that sitting kills (not only mentally). But I also know that my legs comprise about 50% of my body, which makes them responsible for about 50% of the muscle-related metabolism. You don’t need to be a scientist to figure that out.

If you use those muscles, you can increase your metabolism, which can help you to stay healthy and perhaps in shape as well. Unfortunately, there are basically only 2 muscles that I use during the day: 1. my brains and 2. my right index finger’s muscles.

But I also walk.

Because frequently interrupting sitting may improve your metabolism and reduce cardiovascular risk (Dunstanet al. Diab Care, 2012), which confirms that frequent physical activity is beneficial for health, even if the intensity is only modest.

Knowing this, I love to get up and walk 20 meters to get myself (or even others) another cup of black coffee. And also nowadays, I love taking the stairs as frequently as I can. Did you know that the taking a 180 steps stairs requires an 19.7 kcal energy utilization (Teh & Aziz, Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2002)? This may sound ridiculously low, but at work alone I take the stairs (20 steps) between 6-10 times per day. That’s between 13.1 kcal and 21.9 kcal of energy expenditure on stair walking per day. At work only. On average that would be about 100 kcal per week. If I had refused to take the stairs since I’ve settled here with my office in December, it’d have cost me the amount of energy, equal to about half-a-kilo of fat. Bye bye leanness, bye bye abs.

People often tell me that they don’t have time to workout. I think they’d better start taking the stairs, it helps.

For me as well. Oh yeah, and I love to dance. All day ☺

#healthbyscience