Chris Benfield
Scientists working on the obesity problem think the trick might be to take away our chairs.
They want offices and classrooms adapted for writing while standing up.
An American researcher is running a chairless classroom and the Leeds obesity specialists who run Britain's only "fat camp" for children are awaiting his results with interest.
They are already talking to IT specialists about introducing standing-only classrooms at the Leeds "fat camp".
This week, the Leeds team will publish results from a physical fitness survey in the city's schools which underline the need for some radical thinking. They say the figures are "terrifying".
The first standing-only classroom has been set up in Rochester, Minnesota, by a doctor at the local Mayo Clinic – the world-famous "group practice" for doctors interested in new solutions to old problems.
Obesity specialist James Levine has been working for years on the measurement of what he calls non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) – meaning energy used in everyday activities other than voluntary exercise.
He says the entire "obesity epidemic" can be explained by the spread of labour-saving devices like dishwashers and powered mowers, and sedentary leisure activities like Gameboys and iPods.
People who are inclined to sit down can spend more time doing so – and there is evidence that the obese spend two and a half more hours a day sitting than leaner people in similar circumstances.
In collaboration with his local athletics club, Dr Levine raised money to start building a chairless school.
The Apple computer company helped equip a classroom with work-stations and screens designed for standing use and a first batch of children, aged 10-12, have been using it for two weeks. If they get tired, they can take a break on a floor cushion.
They wear "movement detectors", strapped to arms and legs, and early indications are that, as predicted, they use about three times as much energy as they would do sitting down. Dr Levine said: "Initially, this concept of a chairless school was viewed as a crazy, unachievable idea.
"But then I started to ask for help and every organisation I approached said Yes."
He added that the children seemed to love the arrangement. "They are adaptable," he said. "We just have to let them move naturally."
One of his collaborators in the research, Lorraine Lanningham-Foster, added: "Kids will stand at a video arcade. Why not at a computerised learning centre?"
More than 15 per cent of American children are overweight and 50 per cent are likely to have health problems arising from weight during their lifetimes. And the rest of the world is catching up.
Leeds Council runs a rugby and athletic development scheme (RADS) which involves detailed assessment of the physical condition of 12-year-olds across the city.
Last year, they gave some of the results to Carnegie Weight Management, the organisation set up in the Carnegie Faculty of Sport & Education at Leeds Metropolitan University to run an annual weight-loss camp for children and to spread best practice.
The Carnegie team will publish an analysis of the Leeds results this week. Its director, Paul Gateley, said yesterday that the report was still being approved and he could not discuss it in detail but the gist of it was "terrifying".
Meanwhile, his lecturers already encourage people to stand and walk as they think and talk, when they run educational sessions for industry.
And they are talking to schools about ways of building more physical activity into normal running.
They also plan experiments similar to Dr Levine's, to measure the difference between standing and sitting in terms of calories burned.
Another member of the Carnegie team, Peter Mackreth, added: "We take Jim Levine's theories seriously but we don't yet have the detailed evidence for them. We will be very interested to see his findings from this latest experiment."
chris.benfield@ypn.co.uk