i've been asking myself this question since i moved just before christmas. i live in a bigger house, but the real difference to me, is there's stairs. i used to live all on one floor, now it's a 3 floor house. now it seems like it's so easy to maintain or lose weight.

so it just doesn't seem real sometimes. how can it be that simple. for the last 10 years all i really needed was stairs. nuts.

and, i haven't 'worked out' since i got here. aside from the lost muscle, still happy with my progress.

I was super-fat living in a tri-level. I must have been subconsciously eating more to make up for the stairs. Every house with stairs I've fallen down the staircase, too. Right now we are renting a single story, but I might consider a house with stairs again...

I've lived in a house with stairs all my life. At some point I did use it as a sort-of weight loss tool. I got bored with doing it everyday, though, but I might give it another try on days when I can't go out for a run.

mostly, i've just been going up alot just cleaning the house. putting things away. i'll take extra trips, or run sometimes. but it seems like i'm just doing what i would be doing at the old house, just on a larger scale. there's more to clean of course. or i'll take extra trips to hang some clothes to air dry on the shower, or put things away upstairs instead of taking it all at once. only run up and down just for exercise a few times. i did that stuff at the old 'house' too. but it was 1,000 sqft. total. so it took maybe one min. to walk from one side to the other. and i couldn't run in the hallway, it was too cluttered.

of course the downside, is when i'm sick like last week. i can hardly stand to walk up the stairs. god help me if i sprain an ankle or something.

on a side note, the stairs are a real focal point of the room. this beautiful white banister and at the top, there's this little cute room because the roof is slanted. it's a little 'club house'. then down below is the living room with really high ceiling. the stairs have been a great place to take pictures too. could be the start of a tradition.

well i guess my point is, sometimes since i see the stairs all the time, i might be going up more often than at other places i lived with stairs, that weren't obvious.

Yes, it is that easy. I use to walk to work and at another job that was further away, I rode my bike. That alone helped me maintain a 120 pound loss for 7 years. When I started to drive to work......boom. Of course there is more to it, but the body really does need the daily effort to be happy and balanced. I never felt that same sort of fitness from a gym.

I like my stairs too. If I'm spending the morning or evening at home I try to drink a lot of water and green tea and every time I go to the toilet I use the one upstairs.
Another thing is when I need to study and I feel very sleepy I run upstairs and down a few times. For me, it works better than coffee.

Maybe you're on to something! I used to live in a 1000 sq ft house, and then moved to one that's around 2000 sq ft....and although we had stairs at the old one, we have more here. I spend all day Saturday running from one end to the other and up and down. And, I have a zillion organization projects on the go at any given time, I'm actually worried that one day I'll run out of projects. So far, not an issue!! Although I didn't start losing until I combined it with better eating - but the weight is definitely coming off - and other than that and taking care of a 3 year old and 1 year old and a german shepherd puppy, I don't do any intentional exercise.