A quick update with regard to the weight loss with a treadmill desk improvement sprint. It has been almost an entire month since I posted on this subject and the pounds just keep disappearing, right about the rate I expected them too, but also a little slower due to me changing up how I approached the month of June, which I will get to in a moment.

During the month of May, due to the slow start, I did not quite break 100 miles for the entire month, and I am kind of disappointed in that. I realised with only two days left to go that I would fall short of that number and thought about pushing through an extra couple of hours each day to make up the mileage.

But why would I? Reviewing my stated goals for May with regard to the treadmill desk, 100 miles was never on the table of things being considered. The goal was at least 2 hours a day, at whatever speed I chose, with one day off per week. And I achieved that – apart from the early hiccough at the beginning – so why was I now trying to give myself a secondary goal that I never wanted?

*sigh*

Self-discipline and the subtly of hidden motivational goals; you can be a complete bitch sometimes.

So I did not hit 100 miles, big deal. There is always next month.

Ah, but June I want to try something different.

My total weight loss from the beginning of May, since I started walking on the treadmill desk again, has been 6.5lbs over the course of 44 days, or six weeks and change. That is 1lb per week, right on target for the first month of weight loss, and about what I expected.

I started off in May walking slowly to get back in to the swing of things, and then picked up my pace towards the end of the month. But then I had a thought. What happens if I slow down? Before I commit myself to the usual 2.5MPH at 2% incline I wanted to test out a quick theory with regards to Non-exercise Activity Thermo-Genesis (NEAT), which has been bandied around for a few years, but is right now being pushed heavily in the popular press as treadmill desks become a little more mainstream.

I fully expect to break 100 miles in June, simply because of the time I will be putting in. The target is to do as many hours a day as possible, but keeping the speed between 1MPH and 1.2MPH. The reasoning behind this is multi-fold: I want to see if the weight loss continues to occur, week after week, at the slower pace but extended daily time and also, does my typing or other work suffer at the slower speed.

A couple of people have commented that the flat-footed slap of their feet at the very low speeds introduces more vibration than walking at higher speeds. With regard to that, I am measuring my typing speed and accuracy and keeping a log of it over the course of June, and will then compare that with July or August, when I pick up the pace again.

The weight loss results of walking for an extended period at a slower pace I will not know until the effects are felt in the middle of July. The weight loss I am experiencing right now, today, is still the tail end of walking rapidly at the end of May.

I have read the published scientific papers by Dr James Levine and others on the subject in the various journals (it helps having a friendly research librarian on hand), but the subject is so new that there is not much in the way of solid, published literature or conducted studies with real concrete proof for or against NEAT. I believe in part of the concept, but what I believe and what is true are two very different things. So I am conducting my own small study on myself and a colleague at the office. One of the questions I want answered is “when does NEAT begin to exhibit itself within the collected data and is not just incidental evidence?”

I know, from almost a decade of working at a treadmill desk that this kind of exercise works, when applied daily. But I am not sure that the entire concept of NEAT yet holds true. Part of the concept of NEAT is promulgated on the observation that people who fidget are often skinny. And if that were true my hyperactive, endlessly fidgeting girlfriend would be one of those super-tall, super-skinny, super-models. But she is not, she has lots of curves in all the right places. So there are questions about the concept…

Does just fidgeting make you lose weight? I highly doubt it. It might burn a few extra calories, but I think that there are other factors involved with skinny people who fidget a lot. Perhaps fidgeting is a side effect of being skinny for these people, rather than being skinny a side effect of fidgeting. Perhaps they are skinny because of their metabolism, and it is the metabolism that makes them fidget. Both side effects of something else.

Whatever the reason, I call in to question the results of the early studies and I think the jury is still out. Also, there are many fundamental flaws in the scientific papers published to date on this subject and they leave more questions unanswered than they address.

After the first month of ramping up I normally go all out, walking between 2MPH and 2.5MPH at an incline of around 2% or more, but this time around I decided to take a month to see if weight loss, steady or otherwise, continued through the second month of slow and steady as she goes. 30 days should be enough to determine if the weight loss continues at the slower pace and extended number of hours, all other things being equal.

I intend, on the 1st of July to pick up the pace again, and return to my minimum of two hours per day, but also do as many more hours as I can, so I expect four or five hours a day will be the norm from that point forward, and that is when I expect to rapidly begin losing weight, just like every other time I have taken an extended hiatus away from the treadmill desk.

Below is the spreadsheet data for the first 17 days of June 2009, courtesy of Google Docs, and included in the spreadsheet, across the monthly tabs at the bottom, is the data for the month of May.

You can draw your own conclusions from this data but you should pay attention to the weight loss between the beginning of May and the current weight on the 17th of June. Over six pounds down, give or take an ounce or two. NEAT, in one form or another, when considered within the framework of a treadmill desk, really does work.

Expect another quick update sometime in July, when hopefully I will have some data with regard to my experiment in just walking slow and steady.

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I wrote about seven of the most important considerations for your treadmill desk, and here are another seven variables for you to take in to consideration.

1. It Is A Work Place

Forget every notion about a treadmill desk as a novelty or something you should just throw together without a second thought. You need to put as much thought and consideration in to your treadmill desk as you did your regular desk. Construction, positioning, lighting, computer setup, preferred keyboard, all of these human factors should be taken in to account and given due consideration.

It is one thing to just slap a project together, as a prototype, to see if you like the idea, but once you have done that, it is time to step back and do the job properly. Get a proper desk for yourself, constructed by you, a professional carpenter, or purchased off-the-shelf and ready to go.

Get a decent computer, keyboard and mouse. Purchase a second monitor that you can work with, which will be positioned at a slightly greater distance than your current desktop monitor is.

Do not skimp on the important parts, the desk, monitor, keyboard and mouse, when putting your treadmill desk together. The treadmill, believe it or not, is the least important part in all of this project, but the one that most people concentrate on, because hey, it is the biggest part of the investment, right? No, no it is not; do not ignore the far more important human factor components.

2. Stand Up Straight

Standing up at your desk makes you interact in a slightly different fashion than if you were slouched in an Aeron in your cubicle.

You hold your body more erect when you walk and consequently, because of this, the angle of your arms changes and this causes your hands to fall at a slightly different position that is comfortable for typing, consequently the keyboard is lower than if you were sat at a desk.

The monitors also need to be elevated so you are not suffering constant neck strain, looking down at the monitor.

If you lower your keyboard elevation, and the display monitor is on the same plane as the keyboard, e.g. if you are using a laptop, the monitor drops down too, making it difficult to interact with, over an extended period of time.

3. The Two Tiers

A large flat desk at a uniform height just does not work for when you are standing up and walking. I have tried several different experiments and the best option I have come up with so far is the two-tier desk. One-half of the desk is for keyboard and mouse, the other half is for monitors, laptop and other electronics.

Everything you do immediately in front of you, e.g. interact with mouse and keyboard, needs to be lowered two to five inches, below their normal desk height. Everything else, such as video monitors, should to be elevated four to eight inches above normal desk height.

By adjusting the height of these two components your interaction with your treadmill desk will be a lot less tiring and stressful.

4. Accuracy Is Not An Option

You need to forget about accurate, high-speed touch typing when walking faster than 1.7MPH. Artwork too, forget about that. It might be possible, but I have yet to produce any artistic results I am happy with when walking on my treadmill.

It is an unfortunate fact that your body motion when walking will affect your fine motor skills. From personal experience, I have noticed that my typing speed drops from a creative thinking 60WPM to about 25WPM if I am trying to keeping my typing errors down.

You might be scoffing at 60WPM as a top speed, but people rarely hit 100WPM if they have to think and write at the same time, if you are getting better than 40WPM with accuracy whilst thinking and walking at the same time, I applaud your efforts but also question the quality of your thoughts. And let me know how you did it so I can learn the trick too.

5. Get Lippy

Due to the vibration of you typing and walking, small objects have a habit of walking off the edge of the desk. Your iPhone, your PSP, your memory cards, stacks of CDs, everything walks and it is not due to sticky fingers at the office.

One day all of these objects are perfectly placed on your desk, the next they are hanging over the edge of the desk, ready to fall when you are not paying attention.

If you are constructing your own desk, installing a small lip around the edge of the desk helps immensely as does the super-grippy neoprene surface they include on some mouse mats.

Fry’s Electronics in California sell large sized mouse mats that are ideal to cover your desk surface with, if putting an edge lip on your desk is not an option.

6. Double Up!

Because I have to keep a regular sit-down desk, in addition to my treadmill desk, I generally need two of everything, one for each desk. Two laptop docking stations, two keyboards, two sets of headphones, two mice, two wrist rests, two mouse pads, and so on.

The addition of an extra desk can be initially expensive but once everything is setup just how you want it, the actual cost of a treadmill desk, compared to the overall health benefits are negligible.

You can also compare the cost of a treadmill desk against a gym membership, after you have factored in travel time to the gym, changing clothes, extra laundry, running shoes, etc, along with all the gym membership dues, gym membership quickly adds up.

Generally, if you are paying $80/month for your gym membership, you will pay for almost any treadmill desk you could conceive, including all of the additional electronics such as a computer and new monitors, within 3 to 5 years of usage.

7. Do Not Disturb The Water

I should not need to say this, but I advise you to keep electronics on a lower shelf or an upper shelf, but not on your keyboard area for one simple reason: I have lost count of the number of drinks that have been spilt over the desk because of the ungainliness introduced by people walking on a treadmill.

Perhaps I am just clumsy, but I keep my laptop on the upper tier of the desk and my keyboard, mouse and drinks on the lower tier. Knock the glass, can or mug over, no big deal, the treadmill and floor and perhaps the keyboard and mouse just get wet (which is why it is important to have a splash proof keyboard), and your valuable laptop, PSP, iPhone, and other paraphernalia that abhors water, remains safe and sound.

8. Bonus! External Monitors

I mentioned this briefly in an earlier point, but working on external monitors is practically a must. If you use a laptop, the lower height of the laptop screen induces neck strain and reduces oxygen intake when your head is inclined downwards.

Get an external monitor set up on your treadmill desk and give both your neck and your eyes a break.

Do you own a treadmill desk and have tips or tricks to share? Send them my way and I will write them up in a new article.

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