This is the type of thing Tremblay is advocating. He isn't trying to turn everyone into triathletes. Adding small bits of movement at multiple points in the day would be a welcome start.
Things like getting off the bus-subway-streetcar a stop or two before your destination and walking the rest of the way. Climbing more stairs. Standing more often. Chopping your own vegetables or preparing your own food. Raking leaves.
"Every little bit helps. And every little bit is a muscle contraction that facilitates the function of that particular part of the body, whatever it is," Tremblay says.
"We've been reducing steps. Reducing arm movements. Reducing lifting. Reducing climbing.... Just little bits here and there. But enough that add up to the positive caloric balance that we find ourselves in that just causes the whole population's weight to incrementally increase and increase and increase."
Parents of small children, manual labourers and fitness fanatics excepted, many of us barely move in the course of a regular day.
We drive or ride to work, where an elevator or an escalator carries us to our floor. We then sit for hours on end. The occasional walk to the washroom or a fevered burst of typing may be the big exercise hit of the work day.
Come quitting time we drive or ride home, where we may pop some prepared fare into the microwave, load the dirty dishes into the dishwasher and then plop ourselves in front of the TV, exhausted.
We have burned so few calories we are almost in a state of hibernation. When it comes to balancing calorie intake to energy output, we don't have a chance.
"I don't think we can possibly condition ourselves to eat as little as we need to to get into energy balance when we're . . . doing absolutely nothing most of the day" Tremblay says.
Those of us who make a little time for the gym or a run or a Pilates class may feel superior, but we could be fooling ourselves. A 30-minute run is a worthy accomplishment, but if it's followed by 23.5 hours of almost complete inactivity, we still have a problem.
Studies have actually shown we're losing valuable - and relatively easy - opportunities to burn calories and keep limber by embracing modern conveniences a little too enthusiastically.
Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., showed that "domestic mechanization" cut about 111 calories burned from daily energy output. And those researchers were only looking at manual versus mechanical dish and clothes washing, stair climbing and transport to work.
Others have studied Amish communities which eschew modern conveniences and technology. The Amish log many times more steps per day than non-Amish, and spend many more hours on heavy and moderate activity. Not surprisingly, obesity rates among the Amish are a fraction of those in the population at large.
David Bassett, an exercise physiologist at the University of Tennessee, has studied old order Amish communities in Southern Ontario. He thinks their activity levels reveal much about how inactive modern life has become.
"Modern technology has made our lives much too convenient. Things like automobiles, garage door openers, elevators, household appliances, power lawn equipment and remote controls have taken away precious opportunities for physical activity," he says.
