Kayleen, inspired by TikTok’s “Hot Girl Walk” (started by Mia Lind, @exactlyliketheothergirls), started amping up her steps. That, along with a study on being an “active couch potato,” is what we’re here to talk about.

An active couch potato (we say ACP) is someone who exercises for 30 min or an hour and then is sedentary for the rest of the day. A study from July of this year in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise received a lot of press. The study, conducted in Finland with 3700 men and women in a birth cohort study, tracked individuals’ steps and sedentary time and divided them into 4 groups: “Active couch potatoes,” “Sedentary light movers,” “Sedentary exercisers,” and “Movers.” ACP was the largest group, while Movers—those who exercised and stepped—was the smallest.

It turns out that those who did around 30 minutes of exercise a day, but were sedentary for the rest of the day, were not in good shape. Now before you stop exercising, you need to be aware that what the data shows is that sitting for long periods of time is a problem, regardless of exercise. Exercise for blood sugar, brain health, hormone health, and managing stress is still 100% necessary.

Listen to the full episode to hear us discuss the relationship between muscles and glucose, the Italian concept of “passeggiata,” and what studies say about how much exercise you should get in the day over what amount of time.

And another study from February seems to be a hot research topic this study concluded frequent short interruptions of standing significantly attenuated postprandial glucose compared to prolonged sitting; however, light-intensity walking was found to represent a superior physical activity break.

Resources:

• Joint Profiles of Sedentary Time and Physical Activity in Adults and their Associations with Cardiometabolic Health
• The Acute Effects of Interrupting Prolonged Sitting Time in Adults with Standing and Light-Intensity Walking on Biomarkers of Cardiometabolic Health in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
• Mia Lind on TikTok: @exactlyliketheothergirls
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