Special Unit 1 Approach to a Healthy Life
London Transport Workers Study
In ____ busy London streets of 1953, a special study was conducted.
Scientists observed more than ____ people who had various jobs on buses and trains.
Some jobs demanded lots of moving around, ____ ticket collectors, while others, like drivers, didn’t require much movement.
What was interesting was that the workers with more active jobs had fewer heart problems than ____ who sat a lot.
This implied that jobs requiring more ____ around were healthier for workers than those jobs that didn’t.
What could account for ____ difference in their health outcomes?
Three Ways Energy Is Used
The answer to this requires a simple ____ and a little bit of math.
The ____ is an easy equation: the total energy expenditure of the body equals 「BMR + TEF + PA」.
In the human body, the energy from ____ foods people eat is used to keep everything running smoothly.
The basal metabolic rate ____ is a measurement of how much energy is needed to stay alive;
the thermic effect of food (TEF) is a ____ of the energy used to consume and absorb energy from food;
and physical activity (PA) is a measurement of the ____ used beyond just lying in bed.
Learning about the composition of these three elements can help people make better ____ for their health and well-being.
Most of the energy the body uses each ____ is set or fixed.
Assuming an energy input of 2,000 calories, about 1,400 calories, or 70%, ____ to essential functions such as keeping the heart and the brain working; this is called the basal metabolic rate (BMR).
Around ____ calories, or 10%, is used to consume and absorb energy from food and is called the thermic effect of food (TEF).
In short, ____ and TEF are the minimum energy required for the body to stay alive.
The remaining 400 calories, or ____ is used for things people choose to do, including various physical activities (PA) like working, playing, and moving around.
Maybe some of the London public transportation workers spent ____ remaining 20% differently, resulting in their different health outcomes.
Physical Activities and NEAT
____ what do people do with the remaining 400 calories?
They may be burned by intense physical ____ like jogging, working out at the gym, playing badminton or tennis, or venturing out for a hike.
However, those calories may also be burned by small, seemingly unimportant activities we do throughout the day, like standing up and sitting down, walking around the house, washing dishes, doing the laundry, taking out the garbage, ____ many others.
These actions are collectively ____ Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) as they use up energy too!
For example, a 40-minute run ____ burn around 400 calories.
____ this could use up the excess energy budget completely, but not everyone has 40 minutes a day to go for a run.
Taking 10,000 steps, which is like walking about ____ kilometers, burns 400 calories as well.
What this means is that while a 40-minute run will burn 400 calories, doing small things like more walking, taking stairs, or even ____ cleaning your room can add up at the end of the day, too.
What Happens When You Increase ____
Each gram of body fat contains about 9 calories, so if ____ spend your day eating and not moving, your body may convert the 400 calories into 44 grams of fat.
This is not healthy over ____ long term.
While NEAT doesn’t provide the heart and muscles with the same benefits that exercise does, excess energy still gets ____ up instead of being stored.
You may not necessarily get fit, but you’ll stay in energy balance, which is important for long ____ health.
Further Health Benefits
Paying attention to NEAT ____ other health benefits as well.
Sitting too much can cause problems like heart disease and muscle loss, so standing not only ____ NEAT but also decreases sitting time, which is a win-win.
As people get older, it may become more difficult to stay healthy, so adopting a lifestyle that maximizes NEAT is a good habit for younger people to ____
Walking ____ taking stairs, or even using smaller water cups so they have to be refilled more often uses energy.
Whether it’s for weight management or ____ to stay more active during exam week, understanding NEAT is a great way to maintain energy balance in the body.
In the big ____ your body is like an an energy account book that needs to be balanced.
All the food you eat is ____ in the account, and you need to spend energy to keep it all in balance.
Thus if you eat ____ much food without using the excess energy, your body will store the extra as fat, which is not healthy.
Remember, standing uses more energy than sitting, walking uses more energy than standing, and running uses more energy than walking, so let’s all keep moving, stay active, and use our energy wisely for a ____ life!