I.M.120 Helping you to BE YOUR BEST SELF

Is Movement Better Than Exercise?
The Value of Micro-exercise.

How important is exercise? How valuable is it to our health, to your goal of maintaining a healthy body weight? How much exercise should you aspire to include in your day? These questions have bedevil patients and doctors for decades. The answers are critical to planning our routine.

Those of you who have been engaged in the "I.M.120 Method" for weight reduction by now know that you cannot exercise away excess weight. There is an optimum dose of exercise when it comes to weight reduction, and there is an optimum way to go about that exercise. We continue to recommend no greater than 30 minutes of aerobic exercise in the course of the day. That exercise should be intermittent, alternating between intense and less intense over the course of those 30 minutes. If you choose to exercise beyond that range, it is not wrong to do so. It's just important to understand that doing so will not increase your probability of weight reduction. The reasons for this are complex but they boil down to the simple fact that at some point you stop burning fat and you start "working up an appetite." All that extra exercise will create a hormonal effect on your body that will compel you to eat more over the ensuing 12 hours.

Let's set aside the direct weight-loss consequence of exercise and focus on the difference between exercise and activity. Exercise is a defined period of time during which you are expressly pursuing physical exertion for the purpose of improving your health. Activity is the usual stuff of life. Getting up out of your chair, walking about, going up and down stairs, running chores and errands. Does this kind of "busywork" have any health value?

According to the work of Mark Tremblay Ph.D, a leading researcher in the field, the answer is an affirmative yes! It turns out that a lifestyle of frequent intermittent movement has greater health benefit than a lifestyle of persistent sedentary activity interrupted by a focused exercise routine. This is not to discourage those of you who are committed to going to the gym from continuing your good habit. It is merely to inform you that a period of intense exercise does not fully compensate for an extended period of sedentary behavior. In one study, individuals that had frequent breaks in their sedentary activity were shown to have a lower rate of heart attacks, smaller waist circumference, lower triglycerides, lower percent body fat, and lower plasma glucose levels, then individuals who were sedentary over the course of the day.

In the I.M.120 Method, we call this "micro-exercise." It turns out that those little, one or two minute bursts of activity really do matter even if you never break a sweat. So don't be discouraged if you can't get to the gym on any given day. Every little break in your sedentary routine has enormous value. Make it a conscious part of your day to get out of your chair and move around. "Micro-exercise" your way to a longer, healthier life.

Hoping you will always live your best life,

Dr. Stephen Petteruti