Study: Fidgeting may keep you thin

A new study shows that people who have a hard time sitting still are often able to keep from gaining weight, even if they eat a little too much...

From Reuters News:

Tests on slim and overweight people who all described themselves as 'couch potatoes' showed the main difference between the two groups was how long they spent sitting still.

"Our study shows that the calories that people burn in their everyday activities are far, far more important in obesity than we previously imagined," said Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who helped lead the study.

His team recruited 10 normal-weight and 10 obese men and women for their study, persuading them to wear special underwear with sensors that logged every move, however small.

They found the obese people spent, on average, more than two extra hours a day sitting still compared with the lean volunteers. That did not include sleeping time, which was the same between the two groups.

The difference in activity accounted for about 350 calories a day -- enough to add 10 pounds (4.5 kg) a year.

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