As New Year approaches many people have set their resolution as losing weight and are finding new ways to do so.
One surprising way to burn calories quickly is inspired by Monty Python's 'Mr Teabag', played by John Cleese. Experts have found that the silly walking style made famous by the comedy troupe is actually vigorous exercise.
For anyone unfamiliar with the Python team's Ministry of Silly Walks sketch, it’s described by The Times as “a satire on bureaucratic inefficiency” and features Cleese as civil servant Mr Teabag. We see Teabag walking to work in an extremely absurd fashion before conducting a meeting with Mr Pewtey (Michael Palin), who is requesting a government grant to develop his own silly walk.
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This walking style involves high kicks, backwards hops and other erratic leg jerks, and scientists have found it uses up two and a half times more energy than walking normally - meaning it will quickly help to burn excess fat.
Researchers from Arizona State University published their findings from a study on the walk in the British Medical Journal. They estimated that adults could achieve the recommended 75 minutes of vigorous intensity physical activity per week by walking in Teabag style — rather than their usual style — for about 11 minutes per day.
Substituting normal steps with Teabag-style steps for about 12 to 19 minutes per day would increase daily energy expenditure by approximately 100 calories. They added that this amount of walking in Teabag style would likely increase cardiorespiratory fitness, reduce mortality risk, and would require no extra time commitment because it replaces movement adults already do with higher energy physical activity.
However, "minutes spent laughing or number of smiles" were not included in the study despite it noting: "Bursts of laughter from the participants were frequently noted by the supervising investigator, almost always when participants were engaging in the Teabag walk."
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