Fidget Your Way to Fitness

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

14 Apr 2006 12:00 PM

If you're laughing at the idea of fidgeting your way to fitness, you are not alone. For years, I've bounced my right leg whenever I was sitting still for prolonged periods. My leg bounced in meetings. It bounced at the dinner table. It bounced while I sat in a seat at the movies. It bounced when I sat in a class. My bouncing leg drove the people around me crazy.

But as it turns out, my fidgeting leg may have been a fitness fidget and I didn't know I wasn't just restless - I was burning calories!

A recent report from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota detailed that fidgeting can burn up to 350 calories a day. 350! That's a 45 minute workout on the treadmill. That's a grande Starbuck's mocha! That's a heck of a lot!

Fidgeting daily at 350 calories a day can result in a weight loss of up to 40 lbs a year.

I bet your leg is bouncing now at the very idea!

Imagine, if you will, all the times you tell your kids to sit still and stop fidgeting! How many times have you heard that? But now you have the perfect excuse for fidgeting. It's healthy! It's calorie burning! It's a weight loss technique.

While fidgeting can't replace your workout by any means, fidgeting serves a purpose and it's a worthy one at that. So for those of you who fidget to the annoyance of others - stand proud and fidget away! My leg will be bouncing right along with you!

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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