Stand Up for Weight Loss: Author Loses Half a Stone
In a letter he sent on the 9th of July 1950, Ernest Hemingway wrote, ‘Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up.’ The author even had a standing desk. However, Hemingway isn’t the only one who has ever considered standing up for weight loss or better wellness; WeightWatchers’ new pound-shedding plan is based upon this exact premise.
According to the company’s latest research, 67% of us are sitting or lying down for 20 hours a day, so you can see why they’re advocating a little more standing. Dr Stuart Biddle, Professor of Physical Activity & Health at Loughborough University, who is backing WeightWatchers’ campaign, comments, ‘Of course, more physical activity and healthy eating will also help a great deal, but small changes, like standing and moving every half hour, can be an important part of weight control. The change will be slow and gradual. If we move more while standing, the benefits will be greater.’
With this in mind, Liz Hoggard, an interviewer and co-author of Dangerous Women: The Guide to Modern Life, decided to spend a month mostly standing up. She explains, ‘Seats on the train or bus are banned. I’ve conducted meetings and phone calls standing up. I’ve taken to typing vertically and learned to book “standing room only” tickets at the theatre. I’ve even watched TV balancing on one leg…I resolved to see what would happen if I stood up for three hours every day for a month.’
Liz details, ‘I did try typing an article while standing up. My desk proved too far away from my arms, so I repositioned the laptop on the ironing board, balanced on a pile of books. But I’m so damn shortsighted that I still I couldn’t see the keyboard properly and felt like Les Dawson mangling the piano. Any concentration evaporated. Disaster. While typing was difficult, making phone calls was a winner. I focused more on the conversation and it made me feel authoritative. Standing up can be socially awkward, too, as it does rather unnerve other people. Female friends would say: “For heaven’s sake sit down, Liz, it’s not comfortable to have you towering over me.” But after a month of staying on my feet for three hours a day, I’ve lost half a stone. And, yes, I was still eating cheese and drinking wine.’
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