About ten years ago, we were told that “sitting is the new smoking,” highlighting the health dangers of a sedentary lifestyle, especially for those who spend a lot of their day in front of screens. This warning suggests that, similar to smoking, being active can’t fully counteract the health downsides of sitting too much.
It’s not just those who rarely exercise who sit too much; even fitness enthusiasts can be mostly inactive throughout the day, glued to their desks or screens. Like those less active, people who sit a lot face a higher risk of diseases like cancer, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes, which can all lead to an early death, even if they exercise.
The awareness that sitting too much is bad for our health led to more workplace initiatives encouraging employees to move around more. Treadmill desks, sit-and-stand desks, and apps reminding you to stand up every hour became popular. Despite these efforts, there’s little evidence that workplaces have become more movement-friendly over the past decade.
The advice on how much exercise is needed to counteract the health risks of sitting too much is unclear. Some research suggests we need 60-75 minutes of extra activity a day, while other studies recommend 30-40 minutes of moderate to intense exercise as enough to combat the downsides of a sedentary job.
There’s also a lack of information on how effective it is to alternate between sitting and standing to reduce health risks from too much sitting, and whether people who sit less at work but are more sedentary at home have the same health risks as those who sit a lot at work but exercise in their free time.
To address these gaps, a research team from Taiwan investigated how much and what kind of physical activity is necessary to offset the health risks of a sedentary job and compared the health of those who sit a lot with those who don’t.
The team analyzed health and lifestyle data from 481,688 healthy adults over about 13 years. Participants were categorized based on their work sitting habits and their self-reported physical activity levels, ranging from less than 15 minutes a day (inactive) to over 90 minutes (very active).
Interestingly, 60.2% of participants spent most of their workday sitting, but the most active at work were the least active in their free time. Despite being younger, more educated, and less likely to smoke or be overweight, those who sat the most at work had more deaths over the 12 years, with a 16% higher risk of dying from any cause and a 34% higher risk of dying from heart disease than those who were more active at work.
The researchers found that at all levels of physical activity during free time, those who sat the most at work had a higher risk of death than those who moved more. However, being active outside of work did have some benefits. Only those who were moderately to very active after work could narrow the health risk gap with their more active-at-work counterparts.
To offset the increased health risks from sitting too much at work, people need to add an extra 15-30 minutes of physical activity to their daily routine, the researchers suggested.
The takeaway for anyone with a sedentary job is clear: move more both at work and outside. Reactivate those movement reminders on your devices and make use of your treadmill or sit-and-stand desk. While sitting might not be exactly like smoking, increasing your activity levels throughout the day is key to mitigating its impact on your health.
[…] Sitting is the new Smoking […]