כושר בעבודה-לא הלעלות

לשבת מול שולחן העבודה שלהם זה הדבר האחרון שהעובדים יעשו במשרדו של ד"ר ג'יימס לוין בעתיד.

במקום לשבת ללא תנועה מול מסכי המחשבים, הם יעמדו. אך במקום לעמוד ולא לזוז, הם ילכו על הליכונים. ואת הפגישות הם בהחלט לא ינהלו סביב שולחן הישיבות, אלא ישוחחו עם עמיתיהם תוך כדי הליכה.

כל בדיוק לוין, חוקר בנושא ההשמנה ממרפאת מאיו, וכמה מעמיתיו עבדו במהלך חמשת השבועות האחרונים.

"I hate going to the gym, which may be partly why I'm so interested in this," he said, keeping up a 1 m.p.h. pace on his treadmill while checking e-mail and fielding questions from a reporter.

That speed is slow enough to avoid breaking a sweat but fast enough to burn an extra 100 calories per hour, or 1,000 a day, given his average 10-hour workdays, Levine said. And it helps the 41-year-old endocrinologist keep his 5-foot-8 1/2-inch frame at 158 pounds.

"We're talking more than 50 pounds of weight loss a year, if I were to keep my diet the same," he said.

Levine is a leading researcher of NEAT--short for "non-exercise activity thermogenesis"--the calories people burn during everyday activities such as standing, walking or even fidgeting.

A recently published study he led showed that thin people are on their feet an average of 152 more minutes a day than couch potatoes. Levine was brainstorming ways to address that 2 1/2-hour NEAT deficit a few months ago when he had the idea for the "ultimate office makeover."

"The response has to be appropriate for the magnitude of the problem," he said. "And so we really thought, `Is there a completely different way of working?"'

Within four weeks, his team developed an alternative to the traditional cubicle--workstations that combine a computer, desk and treadmill into one unit. It was a refinement of a desk Levine created for himself about six months ago.

He and his team also put a carpeted track around the perimeter of their new 5,000-square-foot space. They made walls out of magnetic marker boards so they can stand up while developing project ideas.

And while they were at it, they used black tape to mark a hockey net on the wall behind Levine's treadmill so they can fire lightweight plastic pucks at the goal while talking to him.

The makeover was relatively cheap. Levine said the 10 workstations cost about $1,000 each, about half the cost of a cubicle, and remodeling the space cost about $5.50 per square foot.

Those who don't feel like standing can always pull up a tall stool to work on their computers, he said, but the environment "sends you this message of `Walking is the norm. Being upright is the norm."'

Staying fit doesn't appear to be a major concern yet for Chinmay Manohar, a 24-year-old research assistant in Levine's office. A runner and a hiker, he's a trim 5-feet-8 and 130 pounds.

But he has found that Levine's setup keeps him more alert and focused. When he's soldering electronic gizmos, he stands at a raised workbench. When he's programming, he walks on a treadmill. Somehow, typing isn't a problem.

"It took me only a day or two to actually get acquainted with the system," Manohar said. "Also, it keeps me fit."

Levine has heard from people like Lois Yurow in Westfield, N.J., who wanted to know where she could get a treadmill computer workstation like his after she saw a newspaper photo of him walking on it.

Yurow, 42, edits legal papers in her home office, working at her desk about six hours straight each day.

"I looked at it and said, `I want one of those things!"' she recalled.

Though the treadmill-workstations aren't commercially available yet, Mayo Clinic's technology licensing people are working on that.

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