Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Shiver Me......Lipids

Had to venture out into the cold windy rain one too many times today and as I shivered on The Tide after waiting outside for about 10 freezing minutes, a potential tweet occurred to me.

Because I think in potential tweets now.

I'm not proud.

Said tweet was along the lines of, "Wasn't able to run today, but my shivering has burned X calories per minute!  I shiver faster than I run, so..."

I was kinda kidding, but decided to look it up.  The first site returned on my internet search belongs to an organization whose founder has amazing athletic abilities -- some would say unnatural -- and so I'm sure the integrity of the information is sound.

According to Livestrong.com, shivering is "NEAT," or "Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis."

What's this, you say??  Non-exercise?  Tell me more...

"NEAT refers to ways to burn calories without exercising. When you get cold, your muscles involuntarily tense and then relax to warm your body. When shivering, you can burn up to 400 calories per hour, according to the website That's Fit."

Oh good, they got the information elsewhere.  ;)  

400 calories per hour?!  Thanks to the 40-degree air being pumped into my cubicle on a daily basis and the drop in outdoor temps, I should be a skeleton by spring.  Sexy!  

According to my calculations, I actively burned approximately 60 calories earlier today, totally wiping out the 5 chocolate chip, peanut butter chip, oatmeal cookies I ate yesterday.  

And guess what?  There are a bunch of other non-exercise activity thermogenesis activities that are non-exercise.  Hell, just typing that nonsense must have burned a quarter-cal, dontcha think?

According to "A Few Unique Ways to Burn Extra Calories -- NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis)" b





If you search online, you can find some mini-steppers that can power your computer as well.  Throw in some cymbals, a horn, chalk, and a British accent and you too can be Bert from Mary Poppins!

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