Active Livestyle and Weight Loss

The Wenatchee World Online - Fitness Corner: Taking a vacation? Lose a little something

The cliche is that women lose weight before their weddings. But I’m thinking I might slim down on my honeymoon instead.

Nope, I’m not dragging my new husband on a romantic gym getaway. We’ve settled on Argentina and an itinerary that calls for tangoing in San Telmo, wandering through Recoleta, whitewater rafting in Mendoza and tooling around wine country on bike. That plus a little smooching — which requires about 70 calories an hour — and I can probably get away with gelato every day.

Sounds like a NEAT plan to physician James Levine, author of the new book "Move a Little, Lose a Lot" and director of the NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) Center at the Mayo Clinic. The idea is that while one grueling treadmill session might burn 500 calories, you can easily burn twice that in a day by living actively: by, say, visiting your colleagues’ offices instead of sending instant messages, strolling to a place for lunch 15 minutes away rather than brown-bagging it at your desk or choosing to self-propel for part of your next vacation rather than taking in the scene from a bus tour.

"A big part of life we’ve lost is being an adventurer, getting out of our chairs," Levine says. "It doesn’t have to be climbing K2 on the south face."

Levine had been studying obesity when, on a business trip a decade ago, he was struck with his new weight-loss theory during a conversation in a Mexican bar with — who else? — the bartender. The gentleman was about Levine’s age but looked "much more splendid," Levine says, and the secret to his youthfulness was simple: He walked his kids back and forth to school, played soccer in the neighborhood and worked on his feet.

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