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Spontaneous Physical Activity Defends Against Obesity

  • Metabolism (CJ Billington, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

Spontaneous physical activity (SPA) is a physical activity not motivated by a rewarding goal, such as that associated with food-seeking or wheel-running behavior. SPA is often thought of as only “fidgeting,” but that is a mischaracterization, since fidgety behavior can be linked to stereotypies in neurodegenerative disease and other movement disorders. Instead, SPA should be thought of as all physical activity behavior that emanates from an unconscious drive for movement.

Recent Findings

An example of this may be restless behavior, which can include fidgeting and gesticulating, frequent sit-to-stand movement, and more time spent standing and moving. All physical activity burns calories, and as such, SPA could be manipulated as a means to burn calories, and defend against weight gain and reduce excess adiposity.

Summary

In this review, we discuss human and animal literature on the use of SPA in reducing weight gain, the neuromodulators that could be targeted to this end, and future directions in this field.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of Minnesota, 2231 6th St. SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Catherine M. Kotz

  2. GRECC, Minneapolis VA Health Care System, GRECC, One Veterans Drive, Minneapolis, MN, 55417, USA

    Catherine M. Kotz

  3. Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile

    Claudio E. Perez-Leighton

  4. Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Arizona, 1177 E 4th street, Shantz 332, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Jennifer A. Teske

  5. Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota, 420 Delaware St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 5545, USA

    Charles J. Billington

  6. Minneapolis VA Health Care System, One Veterans Drive, Minneapolis, MN, 55417, USA

    Charles J. Billington

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  1. Catherine M. Kotz
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  2. Claudio E. Perez-Leighton
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  3. Jennifer A. Teske
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  4. Charles J. Billington
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Correspondence to Catherine M. Kotz.

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Conflict of Interest

Catherine M. Kotz declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Claudio E. Perez-Leighton declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Jennifer A. Teske declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Charles J. Billington has received compensation from Novo Nordisk, EnteroMedics, and Optum Health for service as a consultant.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors. All studies (Fig. 1) and those cited by the authors in this review had local Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approval.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Metabolism

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Kotz, C.M., Perez-Leighton, C.E., Teske, J.A. et al. Spontaneous Physical Activity Defends Against Obesity. Curr Obes Rep 6, 362–370 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13679-017-0288-1

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