Projo Fitness Blog

We just came off a weekend that was anything but relaxing for me. In between the usual weekend chores and walking around my son's soccer field while he played his Saturday-morning game, we also planted grass seed, doing a lot of raking with hand tools.

As I've reported earlier, everyday activities can be a good source when you're trying to burn calories. Just raking for 20 to 25 minutes can burn 100 calories, for example.

But with all that raking, both my husband and I reported our backs hurt, so by Sunday night we took it easy, flipping the TV channels so we could watch both the Steelers and the Red Sox play at the same time.

In terms of not overeating, it turns out, we were better off pushing ourselves physically than just watching sports in the family room.

There's a new study out suggesting that couch potatoes get hungrier than active types.

Here's the report:

"Barry Braun of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his colleagues studied six young, lean and fit men and women in three one-day experiments. On one day the volunteers spent 12 hours being physically active: walking, sorting papers, picking up books and folding laundry. They were not allowed to sit for more than 10 minutes each hour. "

"On the other two days the volunteers watched videos, worked on computers and were only allowed to move around by being pushed in a wheelchair. Surprisingly, the volunteers reported feeling hungrier, having a greater desire to eat and feeling like they could eat more after a meal in the couch potato scenarios than after the highly active session."

We all know this true. When do you think the most of food -- when you're jogging or when you're sitting at your desk at work? Around 3 p.m. every work day, my chocolate alarm goes off. But on the weekends, I have no such craving.

So, I'm going to try to take a walk today at 3 p.m., rather than just down to the vending machine. Let's see if that helps my chocolate alarm stay at bay.

Providence Journal photos / Gretchen Ertl (top) and Kathleen DeVault (bottom)

 Tags  calorie chart chocolate coach potato exercise ball Pam Cotter raking

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