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Prolonged Sitting: Bad for Your Health and Waistline
Posted on Jun 21st 2010 11:00AM by Jonny BowdenFiled Under: Jonny's Take, Diet & Weight Loss
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Some explanations: Every hour spent in front of the tube is an hour you're not active and burning calories. And long hours spent watching TV exposes you to countless minutes of advertising for junk food -- exposure which has been shown to increase the amount of food you eat (even if it's not specifically the foods being advertised).
Now, recent research suggests that it's not just watching television per se -- it's sitting in general that may be the enemy of your health. The reason? Lack of "whole body muscular movement," according to Elin E. Bak from the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences and lead author of the new study. "Lack of whole-body muscular movement [is] strongly associated with obesity, abnormal glucose metabolism, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease risk and cancer," he said.
Sitting is nothing if not lack of movement. "It's one of the most passive things you can do," wrote Olivia Judson in The New York Times blog Opinionator. Its effects appear to be independent of exercise, and may even counter some of the benefits of working out. "Among people who sit in front of the television for more than three hours each day, those who exercise are as fat as those who don't," she added.
The new research, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, suggests that our definition of "sedentary" needs an update. Until now, Elik said, "sedentary behavior" has been misleadingly used as a synonym for not exercising. Elik believes the term "sedentary" should be reserved for muscular inactivity (such as sitting passively) as opposed to the absence of exercise.
This is actually good news. It means that everyday activities -- like taking the stairs rather than the elevator, parking further away from the mall, walking to the store rather than driving, standing rather than sitting whenever possible -- can make a difference to your health in a positive way as long as they involve muscular movement. Studies have shown that even fidgeting helps burn calories.
The negatives involved in prolonged sitting go beyond the fact that you burn so few calories doing it. Elik suggests that there may be a "physiology of inactivity," meaning vegging out actually causes your body to do some things that aren't good for you. Previous research in The Journal of Physiology has shown, for example, that prolonged sitting suppresses lipase, an enzyme involved in fat metabolism.
According to Elik, muscular activity of any kind actually promotes the healthy metabolism of fats, which is one reason why lack of muscular activity has such negative metabolic effects.
Bottom line: Make small changes and reduce the amount of time you spend sitting. Replacing your desk chair with an exercise ball is one great example -- the very act of balancing on the ball engages small muscles involved in balance and insures that you're not in a state of "muscular inactivity." (Some really committed folks have even taken to standing at their desk for a part of the day.)
And you don't have to give up television! Try watching while sitting on an exercise ball, or even while walking on a treadmill. Take breaks from sitting all day by standing every so often, or even doing a quick set of jumping jacks (or jumping jack) during the day. Even flexing and contracting your muscles from time to time can make a difference, as can fidgeting, stretching, shifting your weight from side to side while seated -- even bouncing in your chair. Or try standing up and sitting down ten times in a row every hour or so during TV watching.
All these small adjustments can make a big difference in your health. As Judson put it, "The data is clear: beware your chair." At least when you're doing "nothing" in it!
Jonny Bowden, author, nutritionist and weight loss coach cuts through all the misconceptions about diet and fitness to help you transform your body, your health and your life. His legendary "Diet Boot Camp" summer challenge starts July 5. Find out more about it here.
