Making the most of movement – beyond exercise! | Walk n talk with Dr. Tom Rifai

Good morning My friends. Dr. Tom where reality Meets Science and what a beautiful day here. December day in metro Detroit, Michigan. I preached this before. I just left the gym and yep, I'm walking to my car rather a distance away. Well, why would that make sense? Many of you have heard it before. It bears worth repeating. Nevertheless, some of you have not heard it yet at all. And that is non exercise activity time. Technically non activity. Excuse me, non exercise activity thermogenesis. But that's just a big blob of a word that I prefer to make more practical. Because that's what reality meets science is all about. Practical translating lifestyle science into everyday, workable, actionable solutions. I like non exercise activity time. It matters how much you do out of the gym. It's not just movement in the gym. And make no mistake, I truly believe in aerobic fitness and resistance training to a reasonable degree. Marathon running, we now know is not so great for the heart. It's maybe great for the ego. Very impressive. But when it comes to health, you don't have to kill yourself. Now, that being said, I do really want to make a point about resistance exercise. I'm going to be seeing someone concerned about prediabetes who has normal bmi. But we see it all the time a what I suspect is a very suboptimal amount of active muscle mass that can be improved through resistance training. Now all of that said, I'm walking to my car from the gym at a distance. Why so? Because non exercise activity time really does matter. And I'll give you an example of one study that led the American Diabetes association to update their physical activity guidelines. Not to just to this typical 150 minutes a week of aerobic activity or 75 minutes, blah blah blah, more intense activity, etc. With resistance training twice a week. All about the gym, which less than 25% of people are even doing because it's taxing and time wise and so forth. It's not the necessarily best first step, no pun intended. It's a great bonus. I hate to say icing on the cake, but the non exercise activity time is really, really key. So let me give you an example of a study of uncontrolled type 2 diabetics who had a significant amount of sitting time throughout the day, divided into three groups. One group stayed sitting, the other group was going to exercise 45 minutes briskly every morning and the other group was simply going to walk modestly 15 minutes within 30 minutes of dinner. And the measure was which would improve post dinner blood sugar better the intense exercise in the morning or a modest walk, 15 minutes for 15 minutes within 30 minutes of completing dinner. Since I wouldn't have made a very good attorney, I've already led the witness. You could probably get the idea that it was the group that walked within 15 minutes of completing dinner modestly. That is because muscle is a what have you done for me lately? Tissue. When it comes to insulin resistance and diabetes, movement throughout the day, breaking up pieces of movement 5 minutes here, 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there is more practical and may have specific benefits for reducing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes risk. That doesn't mean that brisk exercise doesn't improve blood pressure, improve vascular elasticity, improve mood, improve bone health. I'm not discounting exercise. I'm just saying exercise for a segmented period of time does not take care of sitting for eight to 10 hours a day, which would be defined as a exercising couch potato. You have to blend the two. And if I were to pick which one, if I had to between the two, I would go with what we see in longevity hot spots called Blue zones, which is non exercise activity time. That's high volumes of low to moderate intensity movement spread throughout the day. The best is to complement both. But what we're learning is you probably need to prioritize first and it's actually easier. And that's what the magic of Reality Meets Science is all about. To start with non exercise activity time and believe me that every little bit counts. Get up out of that chair every few minutes. Walk around the office. Take business calls. Walking. Park a little further. Skip the conveyor belt at the mall or the or the airport. Take the stairs. If you can't take eight flights, fine. Go to the seventh floor. Take one flight. Everything counts, believe me. This is Dr. Tom where reality Meets Science. Please comment, share and of course let people know about this page. I look forward to seeing you again here soon. Next time when we are going to help you find more places to make a lifestyle actually more effective and easier. Here Where Reality Meets Science and the Reality Meets Science page. Take care. Have a great Sunday. Bye bye.