We’re all screwed cause we sit too much
You’ve probably seen countless studies lately, telling you that the amount of sitting you do during the day almost negates any exercise you also did that day. YES. We get it. A lot of us lead a sedentary lifestyle. A lot of us have desk jobs.
But now you can determine exactly how much your sitting negates your workout! According to this study (pdf here), each hour of sitting during the day negates 8% of the gain from the same amount of vigorous activity, or 16% of the gain from the same amount of moderate-intensity activity. So, to use the example from the article:
…if you run for an hour in the morning, and then sit for 10 hours during the day, you lose roughly 80 percent of the health benefit from your morning workout.
Health benefit? What does that even mean?
I know this is awful to say, but I am getting tired of hearing about this. It’s discouraging. I get up early to run at 5:00 am so I can start my sit-at-my-desk all day job at 6:30. I work 6:30-4:00, usually taking a one hour lunch break. So yeah, according to the formula above, my 8.5 hours of sitting negates 68% of the benefits of my run (and that doesn’t even count any sitting (or exercise) at night). But let’s be honest… my running is probably more in the moderate-intensity activity level anyway. So that negates 136% of the run. Might as well just sleep in! Ha ha.
Despite all of the information coming out about the harm of sitting so much, it’s not really something I am worrying about. I try to be active every day, and even more so on the weekends (I suppose this isn’t something we can “bank” up on by being active on the weekends, similar to how you can’t do that with sleep). I am not going to start calculating how much I sit during the week.
Do you worry about how much you “sit”? And that it negates the efforts of your workout? Do you actively (har de har har) try to do something about it?
All of these articles recommend standing desks, treadmill desks, sitting on an exercise ball, walking meetings, taking the stairs… and so on. Those are all great ideas, and interest me, because office design is actually what I do. But I don’t see a lot of these ideas being used, at least in my field. Ha, at home though, I have been standing up to work at our kitchen bar – not because of the sitting thing – but because I’ve been getting too hot sitting at my desk with the west facing window! And standing does make me feel more refreshed.
Themocracy
THANK YOU!! Every time I see this crap I get irrationally angry. They might as well write articles that say “Don’t work out at all! It doesn’t matter anyway!”
Grrrr. Eff that.
That is how I interpret them too. It seems like such a trend now to worry about this. Whateva 😉
Yeah, that’s a ridiculous way to look at it. I mean, you could also say every step that you take while running is one step closer to death! and you wouldn’t be wrong.
HAHA! I love this.
LOL! Nope! You wouldn’t!
I do worry about it with my persistent lower-leg issues, but I’m highly skeptical of those numbers presented in that study.
If I’m losing 60% – 80% of my gains from exercise, how have I been consistently gaining strength and losing weight for the past year? I don’t work out enough to make up for that kind of loss, while maintaining those kinds of gains.
Anyway it is a concern for me, so I get up for a short walk at least twice a day at work and I always take the stairs down from the fourth floor. When my calves are sore, I wear compression sleeves at work. Until they re-design our cube farm or I get a non-sedentary job, that’s all I can do.
The amount of time I spend in the car per week (10+ hours on average) is also a concern for me, btw…
Hmm. Did you sit so much before you got the lower leg issues? I really wonder if it’s genetic or an imbalance. Unless you are sitting with your legs crossed under you all day or need your seat adjusted at work…
But yeah, I was thinking the same thing – how am I making improvements (and losing weight when I eat healthy) if sitting is so darn bad for me?
Well, I started having calf issues when I was playing softball about twenty years ago, which does coincide will me taking my first “desk job”, but I would not blame my calf problems on sitting.
I just think sitting for extended periods of time exacerbates the problem.
Truthfully, I don’t worry too much about it either. I also have a desk job and also have an hour commute to work via the Metra.
All you can do is try to be as active and healthy as you can. It’d be nice if offices started offering alternatives to desks, but it just doesn’t seem to be a priority for some. And, all those alternatives can be quite costly. I did see a Kickstarter campaign for Cubii, which is an under the desk elliptical: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1869110231/cubii-under-desk-elliptical-trainer. I definitely would think about getting it if it’s not too expensive.
But yeah, I won’t stop working out simply because I lose some of the benefits. I eat food after I work out and consume more calories than I burned. The benefit of my workout decreases. Will I stop running? No. Will I stop eating food? Definitely not. ;-p
Ahh, Cubii is cool! I have seen those for cycling, too. And there are so many ways to modify your desk at work too, just to raise your computer so it’s at standing height (well, if it’s a laptop).
My coworkers and I have been talking about getting body balls to sit on at our desks, but I’m not sure management would go for it. 🙂 Sure, I’d love to have a standing desk, but I know my company won’t buy one for me (Especially since I have a big expensive mega-desk made from salvaged Great Lakes lumber…)
If only I could get a job being a professional runner! 🙂
I didn’t even answer your questions! No, I’m not worried about how much I sit. It is what it is and I am content with my daily activity otherwise.
I try to get up as much as I can at work – go fill my water bottle, walk over to a coworker’s desk to talk instead of email, take the stairs instead of the elevator…blah blah blah, we’ve heard all this before.
I just giggle when I think about an office full of people on exercise balls. 😉 But! I have seen it!
And exactly – we all do what we can. Sometimes I try to take a lap around the floor when I get up to go to the bathroom. We do what we can.
I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one with ruffled feathers over this article. Seems like you had the same take – why even exercise if my life will just cancel out the workout anyway? What a anti-motivating affect this would have on those who have recently made the decision to exercise. I know it took some wind out of my sails. I think the use of the word “negate” was a poor choice. The fact that I sit for hours really shouldn’t take away from the workout – it just doesn’t add to it. Or does it? As Pete said – if it is such a negative why am I stronger and with more endurance than a year ago?
That is a good way of looking at it – it doesn’t add to it. We really shouldn’t be thinking about the things we do during the day that take away from our workout – sit, eat, drink, what else?!
I just ignore these “studies” because for each one of these there are 10 others contradicting everything in it. I can see how sitting doesn’t engage your core, encourages bad posture leading to other issues etx but I doubt it’s really undermining the aerobic heart pumping benefits of your workouts. I find that hard to believe- but I’m no doctor so what do I know. Just read the PDF and I think it’s lacking in information. They studied 2000+ people but the facts about what they measured are pretty vague, but were very adamant about the 8-16% loss while sitting. Smh.
Oh yeah. Most of these studies are REALLY small like this. I am not sure what the numbers would have to be for me to be sold, but must of these I read and giggle… then share here to see what everyone else thinks, ha ha!
I try not to think about it. I’m on my feet most of the day at my job, but I do sit in between patients. Lots of up and down. We’re all active, and I think that has to count for something, right?
It’s so stupid. So what is the point of exercising then if I lose 80% of the benefits? It makes it seem exercising is pointless. I do what I can to not sit all day long but having a desk job leads to that. Luckily my office has trays available for those who choose to stand and you often see people standing or sitting on the available stability balls. I am going to aim for standing at least half the day but as I used to have standing only jobs I can tell you that standing all day long HURTS.
That is awesome your work caters to that. And yep! Standing all DAY does hurt. You need different shoes, and maybe even a pad to stand on!
Well at least we have workouts to negate! Think about all the desk workers who do zero workouts.
I’m not too worried.
YES. I try to get up and move around at work but I’m not going to move to a standing desk. I’ve tried the ball, too, but end up looking crazy. I would like to start walking at lunch. I wonder if that would help. Maybe I’ll BQ that way.
I hate when people talk about that stuff! I get it, sitting is bad, but why try to negate people who are trying to move and be better? It’s demoralizing to just hear about how you undid all of your hard work because you have to make money. Ugh!
Meh. It is what it is. It’s not like we have any choice! And people have been doing this for YEARS. At least we’re out there moving at all!
I’m screwed. LOL I need to run about 3 hours a day I guess.
I’m intrigued by the various alternatives (body balls, standing desks, treadmill desks) but I just can’t imagine them being super-effective for me to actually WORK! I spend a lot of time peering at excel docs – if I’m bobbing up and down (on a ball or a treadmill) that would be super annoying. Standing would work, but I don’t know how people manage that for a full day – I start getting a sore back after just 2 hours of standing when I volunteer on the weekends.
I guess it’s one of those things that is good to know, so you maybe make an effort to get up and take a lap around the office every once in a while, but even hearing study results like that is not going to change my daily work (or workout!) routines.
I have been wondering about the people who walk and type at the same time. Maybe you get used to it after awhile? But I bet you would just get a headache, especially trying to look at excel!
Where are you volunteering?
Yeah, I think they are just trying to scare us in to making small changes? And this is trendy to talk about now. I wonder if we’ll see a study in a few years saying how silly those office options were to keep us moving. Maybe not!
I volunteer at a women’s clinic to escort patients through the crazies who protest / yell horrible things / try and block their entry :-/
That’s great that you help them out in that way 🙂
Ugh. I get fed up with these articles, too! Or the ones that say XYZ food gives you a higher risk of cancer. Look, life only has one outcome. So, do what you need to do while you’re living it, enjoy it, and move on!
Yeah. It’s interesting when they start to talk about certain things will take x amount of years off your life (or people who do or are x live this much longer). Does anyone have a goal life # in mind they are adding to/subtracting from when they see that?
Agreed!! I want to know what number people have in their head, too.
One thing I’ve noticed about my new job is all the standing desks! I want to ask… but I haven’t yet because I’m too new. Actually, my doctor said that my neck injury is common in former athletes that suddenly sit at a desk all day… so I think my former skating life has screwed me. 😉
I hope you get to try one!
I don’t let studies like that bother me. I just keep on keeping on. Think of the negative affects caused by sitting all day and NOT working out.
Also, what if while you are sitting, you can’t sit still and are constantly moving your legs around? Is that the same as just passively sitting? Because I really struggle to sit still at work.
Yeah, they say fidgeting is good for burning calories, but I am not sure if it takes away from the fact that you are sitting, at least how these “studies” are concerned.
I think the obvious answer here is to just quit working- I mean, if it’s negating the working out that you are doing then it should have no place in your life, cut out the negative aspects, lol! 🙂 Oh, if only it was that easy. I have thought about trying the stability ball but that would probably be a bad idea- I would hurt myself (think, falling off and cracking my head open)!
=^..^=
Buah ha ha. I like your solution the best. I would be a lot more active if I didn’t work (the furlough proved that!).
You stay off that ball!!!! 😛
I do worry about how much I sit during the day. I try to get up as much as I can, but I know I need to be better about it! I don’t worry that it’s negatively affecting my exercising, just that I know sitting too much isn’t a good thing! I really wish we could get stand-up desks at my job! I think that would make things a bit better. I should work more on not sitting as much when I’m not at work, too!
While all these “sitting will kill you” articles do probably have a good point, I think they miss a huge problem for most of us: the fact that, even if we don’t WANT to sit all day at work, we don’t have much of a choice. I’d love to have a job that allowed me to be on my feet and move around all day, but I can’t exactly lug my iMac with me everywhere I go…so a desk it is. If we really want to eliminate sitting (or at least excessive sitting), I think there needs to be an enormous shift in office culture, and, not to be a pessimist, but that’s not something I think is going to happen particularly soon.
On the other hand, I’ve found PFPS is GREAT for keeping me from sitting all day! Haha. The longer I sit, the more my knee hurts when I get up. MY PT recommended getting up once every half hour, and my activity tracker has never been so proud of me 😛 So much moving! My coworkers, on the other hand, probably think I’ve lost it, since I appear to be “going to the bathroom” like 16 times a day hahahaha.
Since I follow workplace trends for my job, I see it a lot in up and coming articles, but I don’t see it so much in the jobs I work on. However, where I work, we all have laptops so we can stand up if we want. That would be a somewhat easy switch for companies when it comes time to update people’s equipment!
Ha ha ha. They probably understand! And all that sitting does make muscles tense up! Good to keep it moving. 🙂
Yes, I also hate these articles. I read one last summer too that was like “Is there anything more horribly corporate that a standing desk?” So like, WTF? You’re damned if you do or damned if you don’t??
How can they actually measure the decrease of exercise benefits? That sounds like some faux-science to me. I couldn’t log in to read the Mayo Clinic article, but the abstract says that they used cardiovascular fitness as the dependent variable. And, sure, that’s an interesting thing to measure, but that isn’t really what these scary articles are saying. They make it sound like sitting is akin to smoking or drugs in terms of the detrimental effects, which is a different effect from losing cardiovascular fitness (which can be gained again, yah?).
I imagine this is kind of a fad with some grains of truth in it, so I tend to ignore all these sensational articles.
I find standing/treadmill desks etc to be a little bit laughable since sometimes I hardly ever sit down at work! I can’t imagine actually working a desk job where you have to sit still or think about getting some exercise by taking a lap around the office – such a different work style than being in the hospital!
But as for the article, I think it’s being a little dramatic. I understand that sitting all day maybe can’t be good for you, but I can’t imagine that it totally takes away the benefits of exercise! As other commenters have mentioned, I don’t think the science behind those articles is the greatest.
Yeah, but I wonder what percentage of workers have a job where they are on their feet most of the day. That would be really interesting to find out, then maybe we’d see less of these studies, ha ha. I always think about my dad and brothers, who are mechanics, and don’t have this issue (I mean, not that my bros work out, but they are very physical at work).