This Is How Many Mouse Clicks It Takes to Burn a Calorie

About 10 years ago, you could walk into any given generic office building and simply see a sea of cubicles. If you walked into the same office building in 2015, you’d witness an uprising, a revolution, a series of workers who probably jumped head first into the standing desk craze. Although the overall benefits of the standing desk are a bit dubious, they do have a clear caloric benefit: standing for one hour will burn 50 calories.

But for those seeking to maximize their workplace workout while remaining within the confines of their cubic castle, what’s the best bet? Incorporating some sort of mouse-clicking CrossFit isn’t going to do the trick, according to Wired.

Rhett Allen took care of the back-of-envelope math to get a rough estimate of how many calories one burns while clicking away. And as it turns out, the task is Herculean. In order to burn just one calorie, someone would have to click their mouse 10 million times, or 10 times every second for 11 and a half days.

The rationale for the bit of research came from Rhett’s daughter’s suggestion that one click would burn one calorie. Much like the concept of negative calorie foods, we know that now to be patently false.

So how is one supposed to burn calories while remaining entirely sedentary, then? Maybe try one of these workouts do you can do while sitting at your desk. It’s not a simple as a flick of the wrist or a click of a mouse, but it’s a start.

Robots are going to replace everyone at work anyway, so don’t sweat too much extra effort on developing that desk regimen.

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How One Woman Quit Her Cardio Workout and Finally Started Losing Weight

Everyone must find his or her own best path to lasting weight loss—which is why scanning through at least 40 different ways to shed pounds can be helpful. For Alice Fields, age 25, from Melbourne, Australia, it took getting off the treadmill and getting into powerlifting, along with following a nutritional plan that didn’t focus on restricting foods and pushing salad. Now, Fields wants everyone to know that there’s more than one way to lose weight and get in shape.

“I’ve always struggled with my weight,” says the 25-year-old Melbourne, Australia resident. “By age 22, I weighed 92 kilos [203 pounds] despite running at least 5 kilometers every single morning, intense circuit training, and restricting what I was eating.” Sure, she saw results here and there, but those results never stuck. She’d lose a few kilos, and then put on more. “I was killing myself with 5 a.m. sprints,” she says, “but it’s just not sustainable, not physically or mentally. You don’t just run your body into the ground, you exhaust your mind.” All of that changed, however when a friend introduced Fields to power lifting, and she discovered an eating plan called If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM).

The “If It Fits Your Macros” plan

The IIFYM plan looks looks at all foods in the three main (i.e., macro) categories: protein, fats, and carbohydrates. Depending on an individual’s activity levels and goals, a numerical goal is set for the individual to consume each day. This is not only ensuring a consistent amount of calories are being consumed daily, but more specifically that you’re getting enough macronutrients to maintain energy and reach your desired physique.

Fields says, “The best part is, if you want to eat ice cream and watch chick flicks, you can! As long as you read the label and make it work with your macros.” Diets aren’t sustainable, she says. “They aren’t fun, and the foods are flavorless and boring,” she told Readers Digest. “IIFYM enables you to eat the foods you love, and have a happy mind, while ensuring you are still sticking to a consistent amount of calories.”

Cardio is great if it works for YOU

Fields isn’t dissing cardio. In fact, she knows it’s great for heart health. “A lot of articles written about me have made it seem like I’m saying STOP DOING CARDIO,” Fields told Reader’s Digest. What Fields has been trying to say is that there isn’t just one way to lose weight and get in shape. For her, running for hours on end and restricting herself with a clean diet wasn’t the answer. Look for the combination of exercise and proper eating to sustain you, she advises. “Just move, and be aware of what food you’re putting in your body. How much you move and how you move is entirely up to you.”

“I went from doing 90 percent cardio to mainly power lifting and cardio for fun—like taking my dog on 30-minute walks or just running around with her at the park.” And it worked for her. Within a month of changing things up, she noticed a difference in the way her clothes fit and how strong she felt. And although her 37-pound weight loss is great, it’s not the most important aspect, says Fields. The real gauge of her success is how she felt about herself and how her body was functioning. With more muscle, her body was more efficient at burning fat. She had more energy. She liked the way her clothes fit when her muscles filled out in places, and fat disappeared from other places.

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“Lifting weights actually burns a lot of calories, perhaps even more than cardio,” say Fields, “and it’s something I thoroughly enjoy so, for me, this is what works, because I can stick to it without it feeling like a chore.”

There’s no magic bullet

“I get so many messages asking if I took prescription pills,” Fields says sadly. “At the end of the day, there are no magic tricks, pills, or potions. Find something you love and enjoy your journey!” People write to Fields and ask them to tell prescribe some exact combination of what to eat and how to move, but her answer is always to just keep moving and eat to support it. “Moving is good for your mind, body, and soul,” she says, “so move. Sweat. Play. Push yourself. But at the end of the day, look at what you’re eating.”

She wants to make absolutely clear that she does not advocate the idea that being “slim or skinny” equals being “beautiful” What she advocates is “taking your life into your own hands and doing what makes you feel good. Keep trying, and you’ll figure out what works. Find a way to burn calories that you enjoy and you can continue to do as part of your life and eat the damn chocolate… as long as it fits.”

Haven’t quite figured out what works yet? Here are the signs it’s time to change up your fitness routine.

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Long Strange Trip

It has been more of an amazing trip than a strange one. I could go all the way back to my childhood and relive all the old pains. Why would I do that? For today, I'm just going to go back three years to 2014. It all started when I woke up one morning and my hands were in severe pain and looked like I had been hitting a wall all night. I lived with the pain and the swelling for nearly two weeks, until it got to the point that I couldn't open a jug of milk without using channel lock pliers to help me.

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Active Play for Kids With Casts

After they vanquish the underlying torment of damage, kids with throws on their appendages for the most part skip back rapidly. The test for guardians turns out to be twofold.

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If You Have These 2 Traits, the Mediterranean Diet Might Work Better For You

For years, the Mediterranean diet has ruled as the undisputed top dog for weight loss. (Here’s how eating like a Greek god can help you lose weight.) And honestly, what’s not to love? A diet rich in plant-based foods like vegetables, nuts, fruits, and whole grains—plus less red meat and butter—can do wonders for your waistline and your heart. Plentiful doses of omega-3s, soluble and insoluble fibers, and micronutrients keeps your body burning fat all day long.

But like most diets, there’s more to this heart-healthy trend than meets the eye. Researchers just discovered that the Mediterranean diet only works for some people and not for others.

Their study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, analyzed 18,000 randomly selected residents of southern Italy between 2005 and 2010. After controlling for health and socioeconomic variables such as BMI, education, and household income, the research team scored participants’ meals using the Mediterranean Diet Score. Not only did this metric account for the variety of fruits, veggies, meat, and fish consumed, but it also evaluated the participants’ cooking methods. Healthy methods such as boiling and stewing received higher scores, while unhealthy methods such as frying, roasting, or grilling earned less points.

Naturally, the data showed that the Mediterranean diet effectively reduced cardiovascular disease risk. Yet that result only applied to a select group of participants: those with higher income or more education.

“We found heart advantages were limited to high socioeconomic status groups, even if groups showed the same adherence to the Mediterranean diet,” Marialaura Bonaccio, lead author of the new study and a researcher at IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo Neuromed, an Italian Clinical Research Institute, said. Meanwhile, the participants in the low income and low education bracket did not experience any benefits.

The research team noted that participants in the most advantaged category tended to have a higher quality diet, consuming more fish, organic products, and whole grain foods than their lower income counterparts. Bonaccio also speculated that those with higher incomes are more inclined to pay for more expensive food, preferring a $10 bottle of olive oil over a $3 bottle. That, too, could account for the health discrepancy. (Here’s how to make your own diet more Mediterranean.)

While this is great news for those with better education and incomes, more work still needs to be done to ensure a quality diet for all. Making healthy foods affordable and accessible can improve health around the world—no matter the education or income level.

“A good diet is undoubtedly more than just a shopping list,” Dr. Barbara Berkeley, who  practices medicine with a specialization in weight management in Beachwood, Ohio, told CNN. “Quality, freshness, variety and purity of production may truly differentiate diets even when they appear to be the same.”

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These Are the 8 Unhealthiest Meals You Can Order in Restaurants (One Has 2,820 Calories!)

10 Positive Things That Happen to Your Body After Just One Workout

General goodness for your body

People who work out everyday get crazy benefits—good for them. But what about that very first workout, or just one session? “Overall there are several physical and mental benefits related to any type of exercise,” says Murphy Grant, MS, ATC, PES, executive chair of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, Intercollegiate Council for Sports Medicine (ICSM), and associate athletic director for sports medicine at the University of Kansas. “Depending on the type of workout you’re doing, there can be lots of beneficial changes, including improved cardiovascular efficiency, increased bone density, higher metabolic efficiency, increased lean muscle mass and of course decreased body fat.” And most people would be surprised to know how much of that good stuff can start in just one exercise session, Grant adds.

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