阅读理解：Sweat it out – in a bath! 泡热水澡等于做运动_大学英语阅读

阅读理解：Sweat it out – in a bath! 泡热水澡等于做运动

你想要一个轻松的减肥方法吗?既不用去健身房锻炼，也不需要在游泳池里游无数个来回?一项研究在比较了运动锻炼和泡热水澡的相对益处后发现，通过泡热水澡消耗的卡路里和快步走消耗的热量是一样，而且，饭后泡澡比运动能更多地降低血糖含量。接下来查字典英语网与大家一起探讨为什么泡个热气腾腾的澡对你的健康有益。

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词汇: Exercise 锻炼

You might think that to lose weight you need to do strenuous exercise – pedalling furiously on an exercise bike, for example, or doing lengths in your local pool. Well, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn that lying in a steaming bath can bring the same benefits as exercise, without the need to sweat profusely in the gym!

These were the findings of an experiment comparing the relative benefits of exercise and hot baths that was carried out by Dr Steve Faulkner of Loughborough University. The volunteers first lay in a hot bath and then ate a light meal, while their blood sugar level was monitored and the number of calories they burnt was measured. The experiment was then repeated, but instead of having a bath, the participants did an hour’s vigorous exercise on a bike. The results from both activities were compared with unexpected results.

“What we found”, said Dr Faulkner, “was an 80% increase in energy expenditure, just as a result of sitting in the bath for the course of an hour”. You burn 140 calories – not as many perhaps as if you had worked out on an exercise bike, but the same number as if you had been on a brisk walk. The real surprise, however, came in the blood sugar level results. The peak glucose output, the amount of blood sugar in the blood after a meal, was on average10% lower after the bath compared to that after exercise.