Who or what's to blame for Americans' sedentary lifestyles? Many argue it's technology. Instead of scrubbing clothes in a wash tub and hanging them out dry we throw them into the washer and dryer. Instead of walking or biking to get to the store or our jobs we drive. Instead of getting up to change the channel we use the remote. Instead of playing active games outside we sit inside and watch TV or play computer or video games. The list goes on and on. Below, you will find the number of calories we miss out on burning by choosing technology (four labor-saving devices) instead of activity.  Calories Burned Per Day*   

On numerous occasions, the Stand Up & Eat blog has shared data, videos, and other information that demonstrate our nation’s poor calorie literacy rate.  While the problems are legion, they lie mostly in three major areas: The vast majority of people don’t know how many calories they should be eating. Most people don’t have a clue about the calories that are in different foods and beverages.  Very few people can state with precision the number of calories they burn each day in metabolism and in particular, via physical activity.  (Sorry, the “calories burned” feature on most exercise machines is not

From time to time we will expose the calorie content of certain foods to enable you to make educated decisions when eating out. As mentioned in a previous blog, while some restaurants choose to (or are required to) provide this information, many don't.  And without knowing how many calories you are consuming, how will you know if you've run over your daily calorie recommendation? This week we're revealing the high, the low, and the holy cow of calories found in various Chinese foods.  But before we get there let's take a quick look at what a recent research article reported

There’s been a lot of press coverage on the study we highlighted in last week's blog about children doing less physical activity as they get older.  We now know that students’ physical fitness declines with age as well.  The Texas Education Association recently released a report of the results from fitness testing done in Texas schools this spring.  Over 2.5 million children from grades 3 through 12 completed tests to assess physical fitness in six areas – cardiovascular endurance, body fat, abdominal strength, upper body strength, shoulder flexibility, and back strength and flexibility.  The Cooper Institute’s FITNESSGRAM fitness assessment program was used

It's five o'clock on a Friday afternoon and after a long week of work you and a few friends head out for happy hour. Having meticulously balanced your calories over the week you figure you deserve the treat; and after all, what will one high-calorie meal do to a week's worth of watching calories? A lot! Despite what you may have heard about the harmlessness (or even the benefits) of splurging one or two days each week, "cheat day" might not be okay for people trying balance calories in with calories out. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in

A long time ago, The American Heart Association had a great educational poster that showed a child lounging on a couch watching television.  The caption read, “Prevent couch potatoes while they are still small fries.” The poster was prophetic.  A new study published in yesterday’s Journal of the American Medical Association definitively showed that children exercise less – a lot less – as they get older.  As 9 year olds, boys and girls in the study did moderate to vigorous physical activity about three hours a day during the week about the same amount of time on weekends.  By the

After going for a walk or bike ride, have you ever wondered how many calories you burned?  Or how far you went?  MapMyFitness, LLC offers a suite of web sites that help you measure the distance and calories burned of your walks, runs, hikes and bike rides.  You simply use your mouse to trace your walking, running or biking route on a map view (looks like a MapQuest-type map).  You can then type the time it took you to do the route into the “Workout Calculator” feature.  Click on “Calculate My Stats” and it will show you the distance and

When we created the Stand Up & Eat web site, the product described in this video clip is NOT what we had in mind. The Onion News Network, a spoof news web site, recently ran this hilarious story about a feedbag that people could strap on their heads so they could eat their favorite fast food meal while standing up (or driving or napping).  One interviewee said he liked the feedbag because he sometimes didn’t like to move his arms.  Talk about a way to eat more and move less.  Yikes! The feedbag “news” story is very, very funny.  But