Gadgetory

better part of an hour each day commuting is one of the lesser studied sedentary health risks out there certainly compared to the much more touted ones like being a couch potato in front of the television or having office jobs where you just sit in front of a computer all day yet from 1960 to 2000 we nearly traveled the number of people commuting by car and grew the percentage by nearly 75% and the time duration of that commute has lengthened nearly 30 percent a Washington University st. Louis study with the National Institutes of Health did take a look over 4300 people were surveyed and the pattern was simple more minutes at baseline metabolism and lower cardio fitness a higher body mass index waist size and blood pressure more time in the car on your butt means less time doing something above baseline metabolism but even worse it's also stressful time doing too little the study also noted that commuting typically correlates with living in the suburbs a place where almost everything is environmentally engineered for lower exertion and activity unless of course you think about going to the gym which you probably drive to and then drive to Cinnabon after no wonder new york city folks weigh on average six or seven pounds less than the rest of us add the fact that there's an entire fast-food industry aimed at people in cars and you can see the correlation if not causation with the idea that commuting is not merely health neutral so a few tips for the smarter and ostensively healthier driver first of all skip the drive-thru even though it's built for cars second of all try to get some walking in during your commute even if it's just part of a multi-modal commute and realize that your commute directly subtracts time from activity time so count up the minutes that you commit each day and try and find that exact number three times a week to be active