The Wall Street Journal has some encouraging news for those of us who use public transportation to get to work (or to McDonald's).
"A 15-minute walk to a light-rail station might not seem like much of a workout. But such walks, twice every workday, could help millions of people meet exercise guidelines and get fitter without setting foot in a gym, researchers say.
"Commuters who switched from driving to walking, cycling or public transit lost more than 2 pounds in two years on average, according to a recent study of 4,000 adults in the U.K. The longer the commute, the greater the weight loss: People with one-way active commutes longer than 30 minutes lost more than 15 pounds on average over two years."
And Women's Health Magazine is even more emphatic:
"A study from the journal BMJ finds that people who walk, bike, and even take public transportation to work have a lower body mass index (BMI) and body-fat percentage than those who drive to work."
Considering the insanity surrounding weight loss diets in today's calorie-ridden world, you'd think this kind of information would lead to immediate and mass abandonment of cars on the side of the road as wage slaves across the nation began hoofing it to the office, boarding buses to the salt mine, or biking to work like a gray flannel Lance Armstrong.
But no, this story has barely caused a ripple in the vast sea of lipids that is the American psyche. Americans will eat all manner of strange viands, or starve themselves, to lose weight; but any attempt to wean them from their BMW or Toyota is as futile as carrying microchips to Silicon Valley.
As for me, I'm retired; I don't even GO to work anymore. I am just looking for a way to rhyme lipid with insipid.
Leave your KIA in the driveway, take a pogo stick off to work and you will slim down to a candlewick.
Dodging traffic on a bike or riding on the bus will shed more pounds than even Oprah might want to discuss.
Up and at em, slugabed no driver's seat for you. Trade in that old Lexus for a Nike tennis shoe!
"A 15-minute walk to a light-rail station might not seem like much of a workout. But such walks, twice every workday, could help millions of people meet exercise guidelines and get fitter without setting foot in a gym, researchers say.
"Commuters who switched from driving to walking, cycling or public transit lost more than 2 pounds in two years on average, according to a recent study of 4,000 adults in the U.K. The longer the commute, the greater the weight loss: People with one-way active commutes longer than 30 minutes lost more than 15 pounds on average over two years."
And Women's Health Magazine is even more emphatic:
"A study from the journal BMJ finds that people who walk, bike, and even take public transportation to work have a lower body mass index (BMI) and body-fat percentage than those who drive to work."
Considering the insanity surrounding weight loss diets in today's calorie-ridden world, you'd think this kind of information would lead to immediate and mass abandonment of cars on the side of the road as wage slaves across the nation began hoofing it to the office, boarding buses to the salt mine, or biking to work like a gray flannel Lance Armstrong.
But no, this story has barely caused a ripple in the vast sea of lipids that is the American psyche. Americans will eat all manner of strange viands, or starve themselves, to lose weight; but any attempt to wean them from their BMW or Toyota is as futile as carrying microchips to Silicon Valley.
As for me, I'm retired; I don't even GO to work anymore. I am just looking for a way to rhyme lipid with insipid.
Leave your KIA in the driveway, take a pogo stick off to work and you will slim down to a candlewick.
Dodging traffic on a bike or riding on the bus will shed more pounds than even Oprah might want to discuss.
Up and at em, slugabed no driver's seat for you. Trade in that old Lexus for a Nike tennis shoe!
