Walkin' and workin'...

This is so cool! A physician at the Mayo Clinic just finished a small study (n=15) in which obese folks worked on a special computer-treadmill station:

Levine didn't measure actual weight loss. This is a theoretical study, but he calculates that burning an extra 100 or more calories an hour for two or three hours each working day would cause many obese people to lose between 20 and 30 kilograms a year.

The "walk and work" device is no ordinary treadmill.

It's built on a steel frame with four wheels, so that workers can steer it around the office.

There's room for a computer, books, pens, a phone, a flower vase, coffee cup and paper tray. The whole thing slides over a standard treadmill, or slides away when the user wants to stand on a solid floor.

It can also slide over to a chair so that the user doesn't have to stand for the entire day. Mr. Levine says it costs about $1,600 US, not including the treadmill - a bargain, he suggests, since obesity costs the U.S. $100-billion to $200-billion a year in health costs and lost productivity.

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