A research study from Kansas State University shows that people who spend less time sitting and more time physically active have a lower risk for chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, stroke, breast cancer, colon cancer and others.
“I can certainly attest to the side effects of sitting all day. Many moons ago I used to make hearing aids. I sat at a microscope 10 hours a day soldering little tiny parts, barely moving my body. I gained 40 pounds in the two years I worked there! I couldn’t believe how easily the weight crept on. True, I wasn’t making any time for exercise. I finally turned it around and adopted a daily walking routine and shaped up my diet a bit. A few months later, I moved to New York City and suddenly I am walking all over the place. It took massive action to get all of that weight off.”
Sara and Richard Rosenkranz, both assistant professors of human nutrition, who led the study, say that even just standing more and sitting less appears to make a difference to health and quality of life.
Professor Rosenkranz says lots of people might exercise for say, 30 to 60 minutes a day but then spend the rest of the time sitting. She says people should move more – stand up and move around now and again to break up long periods of sitting.
Sitting for a long time means there is little muscular contraction going on. This shuts down a molecule called lipoprotein lipase, or LPL, that helps take in fat and use it for energy, she explains: “We’re basically telling our bodies to shut down the processes that help to stimulate metabolism throughout the day and that is not good. Just by breaking up your sedentary time, we can actually up-regulate that process in the body.”
If you do sit all day at work, try setting an alarm on your phone to go off every hour; get up, take a walk around the block or a lap around the office, drink some water or maybe do some stretches. Your muscles will be grateful.
