…[James Levine, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic]’s initial question \u201d\u201d which he first posed in a 1999 study \u201d\u201d was simple: Why do some people who consume the same amount of food as others gain more weight? After assessing how much food each of his subjects needed to maintain their current weight, Dr. Levine then began to ply them with an extra 1,000 calories per day. Sure enough, some of his subjects packed on the pounds, while others gained little to no weight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe measured everything, thinking we were going to find some magic metabolic factor that would explain why some people didn\u2019t gain weight,\u201d\u009d explains Dr. Michael Jensen, a Mayo Clinic researcher who collaborated with Dr. Levine on the studies. But that wasn\u2019t the case. Then six years later, with the help of the motion-tracking underwear, they discovered the answer. \u201cThe people who didn\u2019t gain weight were unconsciously moving around more,\u201d\u009d Dr. Jensen says. They hadn\u2019t started exercising more \u201d\u201d that was prohibited by the study. Their bodies simply responded naturally by making more little movements than they had before the overfeeding began, like taking the stairs, trotting down the hall to the office water cooler, bustling about with chores at home or simply fidgeting. On average, the subjects who gained weight sat two hours more per day than those who hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n