Is Sitting the New Smoking?
I was in constant motion as a child—a kinetic ball of energy bouncing through life—driving onlookers a bit crazy. As a preteen, I can clearly recall my aunt Catherine remarking under her breathe to my mother, “Look, Eleanor, Lisa is finally sitting still!” Well, I am sure that tranquil moment didn’t last long before I was up and at it again.
Back then, sitting still for long periods of time was the “holy grail” of behavior. Today, however, scientists believe that we, as a nation, might be sitting ourselves to death. Boy, I wish I had that fact to rebut all the criticism and disciplinary action I received as a child because I couldn’t sit still.
Since a sedentary lifestyle is linked to obesity, diabetes, and certain cancers, sitting for too much time during the day actually results in far more deaths in our country than cigarette smoking does! One specific study found that sitting greater than eight hours a day increased the rate of certain cancers by 21-32%, regardless of how much those persons exercised throughout their week. Yes, you heard right—even if you exercise regularly, sitting for greater than eight hours a day has been found to negatively impact your physical health.
These researchers have furthermore defined the difference between exercising too little and sitting too much in terms of calorie burning. Exercising burns calories via sweat producing activity. The other way we burn up food calories is by NEAT, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis. This accounts for the calories we burn while active in “non-sweaty” movement—anything from walking, to making a bed, to fidgeting with a pen.
It has been demonstrated that prolonged daily sit times significantly diminish NEAT calorie burn opportunities as well as decreasing the capacity to burn NEAT calories when you do finally get up and start moving. So, stop “smoking” your chair by taking your phone calls standing up, having a meeting while taking a walk, making frequent trips to the water cooler, and walking to a colleague’s office rather than messaging them.