Sitting is Killing You… And Making You Fat!

“Sitting increases risk of death up to 40%!”

As many of you do, I sit a lot.

A greater and greater percentage of American jobs (and most all of the high income jobs) are “knowledge” jobs.

Knowledge jobs generally have us sitting for most of the day.

In fact, the average person sits for 9.3 hours per day. That is more time that we spend sleeping (7.7 hours).

All this sitting is killing us.

A recent study found that if you sit 6+ hours per day you are 40% more likely to die within the next 15 years than someone who sits less than 3.

And going to the gym doesn’t counteract the ill that sitting does to your body.

In a previous article on the health habits of the Amish, we noted that their active lifestyles were a key factor in their health. This new information shines a much brighter spotlight on the damage that sitting causes.

A few more scary stats before we get to the solution:

  • Each extra hour of TV watching increases your death risk by 11%.
  • Those who sit watching TV 3 hours or more per day are 64% more likely to die from heart disease.
  • Obese people sit for 2.5 more hours per day than thin people.

What happens when you sit?

  • Electrical activity in the leg muscles shuts off.
  • Calorie burning drops to 1 calorie per minute.
  • Enzymes that break down fat drop 90%.
  • After 2 hours of sitting, good cholesterol drops 20%.

What Can We Do?

1. Keep up or increase your daily exercise regimen. Exercise cannot counteract all of the ill effects of 8 hours of sitting, but every minute helps.

2. Stand more. According to Dr. James Levine, author of “Get Up!: Why Your Chair is Killing You and What You Can Do About It,” you should take breaks from sitting every 50 minutes. Take a walk, do some squats at your desk or just stretch a little.

This can also be a great productivity trick. Practice focusing on one task for 50 minutes with no interruptions and then give yourself an exercise break.

3. Try Standing Meetings. They are a ton shorter than sit down meetings and Susie from accounting will shorten her stories a bit if she is not so comfortable!

4. Use a Standing Desk. There are a ton of benefits to a standing desk. Less back pain, better posture, increased calorie burn and more energy to name a few.

Your boss won’t spring for a standing desk? No problem at all. Check out the photo below of my $0 standing desk. It consists of 4 copier boxes. Yes, your cubicle dwelling neighbors will mock you, but you’ll outlive them all! (Who knew my desk was this cluttered? Everything looks just great standing up and looking out the window!)

solution

Don’t think standing is healthy either? You are right that standing can begin to hurt, so be ready to break down your box desk and go back to sitting a few times in the early days. But, you’ll soon notice that you don’t actually stand still while you are working at your standing desk.

You’ll shift your weight from leg to leg. You stand on one leg. You do squats to work through the uncomfortableness. You move!

And moving is what will make you healthier, prolong your life and make your days more enjoyable.

Thank you for being a part of our values driven community!

Image courtesy of www.nextdesks.com & Fowler & Co.

By: