There's a cool Washinton Post article at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41897-2005Jan27.html

on the subject of some people being naturally fidgety while others are
more stolid. They found that the fidgeters could burn up approximately
10-20 lbs more a year simply by their jiggling around and that the
sitters-still tended to have higher inertia even when they had lost weight
- in other words they weren't limiting their movement because they were
fat, they were fat (in part) because they didn't move around much.

I find this particularly resonant because I've always been a very still
person. I don't fidget, jump up to get things, drum my fingers. I have an
innate capacity for stillness. In fact, I find really fidgety people
somewhat disconcerting to be around. And, I've always tended towards being
overweight. (honesty compels me to add that my weight problems have, in no
small part, been due to poor and excessive food choices.)

So, while it seems not to be the case that some people actually have
significantly slower metabolisms, functionally, some of us may really not
be burning up the same number of calories in our daily activities even if
we eat the same foods and spend the same amount of time in the gym as our
fidgety opposite numbers.

I don't see this as a call to throw up our hands and cry "we are doomed to
fatness" (unless doing so would burn up a few calories in itself), but
rather as a way to understand that some of us may in fact need to work a
little harder.

Because this theory seems plausible to me, I'm going to try a two pronged
experiment.

First, I'm going to see whether I can train myself into being a fidgeter.
It doesn't come naturally for me, but that doesn't mean it isn't a
learnable trait.

Second, I'm going to recognize that I probably really do burn fewer
calories during the day by my activities, and so if it turns out that I
can't teach myself to fidget, then I'm going to need to add another half
hour or so of concentrated exercise to my schedule.

Does anyone else find this study as resonant for them as I do? Anyone who
doesn't find it convincing?

Martha