Did you know that sitting in a chair or on a couch for more than six hours a day can cause a number of annoying problems? Look at these worrying facts: the chance of heart disease will increase by nearly 64%, detracting from seven years of quality life and increasing the risk of developing certain types of cancer. In other words, being sedentary will kill you. This is indeed bad news. But the good news is, no matter how lazy you are, this problem is not difficult to solve.
Let’s start with the basic analysis. Since childhood, we know that sitting on the couch all day is harmful to our bodies. But why is that? Simply put, our body is not suitable for sedentary. Long periods of sedentary, even if interspersed with some exercise, still have a negative impact on health. What’s worse, many people sit for up to 15 hours a day, which means that they even spend time walking on the couch, in the chair and in the car.
Sedentary is not a bad habit that is difficult to overcome, the key is in two details: daily activities, attention to sedentary time. Let’s take a look at how sedentary affects the body.
Assessment of the damage to the body caused by sedentary activities
It is difficult to accurately assess how much damage is done to your body by sitting, because it is also related to your eating habits and other factors. Therefore, it is assumed that you are in relatively good health (no alcohol, no smoking, and not overweight). We will assess the effect of sitting for more than six hours a day on your body, starting from the moment you sit down. To give you an overall idea of this assessment, please refer to this breakdown from the medical accounts, corresponding to different times, to see the different effects of sitting (even if you are sitting at a desk, or using a standing desk will bring corresponding problems).
The moment you just sit down
When you sit down, the electrical activity in the muscles is reduced, and the calorie burning rate drops to one calorie per minute, which is one third of the calories you burn when you walk. If you sit for a full 24 hours, the supply of glucose to insulin is reduced by 40 percent, which may eventually lead you to develop type 2 diabetes.
Sitting for six hours a day, after two weeks
During the first five days when sedentary becomes a lifestyle, your body’s triglycerides (fat molecules), LDL cholesterol (aka bad cholesterol) and insulin tolerance will rise. This means that muscles do not absorb fat and blood sugar levels increase, which increases the risk of obesity. After two weeks, muscles will begin to atrophy and maximum oxygen consumption will decrease. That means climbing stairs and running becomes harder for you. Even if you have a daily fitness, the degradation of body function will still appear after you end fitness.
Sitting for six hours a day, after one year
After a year, the long-term effects of sedentary began to slowly become apparent. According to a Nature study, sedentary behavior can lead to weight gain and high cholesterol. Studies on women have shown that if you sit sedentary for more than six hours a day, bone mass can decrease by up to 1 percent a year.
Sitting for six hours a day, ten to twenty years later
A sedentary lifestyle after 10-20 years equals 7 years of quality life (the kind of life you want to live) lost. The chance of dying from heart disease rises by 64% and the chance of getting prostate cancer or breast cancer increases by 30%.
Does that sound scary? But don’t worry, we’ll teach you how to deal with the negative effects of sedentary lifestyle without changing it completely
How to prevent sedentary injuries without changing your lifestyle
Fortunately, there are only two things you need to do to counteract these negative effects.
Remember to stand up once every hour.
Do about 30 minutes of exercise every day.
Whether you are a geek glued to the soap opera all day or sitting in front of the computer white-collar workers, an Australian study shows that sitting for an hour after a short break can reduce the above-mentioned harm. Short breaks do not mean going to the gym, although fitness has its benefits, but for offsetting the harm of sedentary but not much help. You just need to do some simple moderate activities, so that your body from the sedentary free.
So, what is moderate activity? I spoke with Dr. Brian Parr (Associate Professor, School of Training and Health Sciences, University of South Carolina Aiken, USA). He pointed out the difference between moderate activity and exercise.
We often tell people that proper activity is the equivalent of a brisk walk. That includes tidying the yard and cleaning the house, anything that gets you moving a little bit. You don’t need to do all that exercise that people are always talking about.
Sure, soap opera fans and white-collar workers rarely have 30 minutes of free time, but you can spread those 30 minutes throughout the day, says Dr. Brian Parr.
We often tell people to break up their active time into 10-minute chunks because it’s the most practical. If I told you that you could spread those 30 minutes out throughout the day, you’d say, “I can get up and walk across the room to the pantry,” for 10 seconds? In my opinion, you shouldn’t do that (divide your time), but you can try it this way (walk around and move your muscles).
The main reason you want to divide your time into ten minutes is that this creates a small amount of stress in your body and helps improve your endurance. In real life, this means you won’t get halfway up the stairs and feel tired. Try to think of it this way: you wouldn’t run fast for ten minutes every day to work out for a marathon. Instead, you would improve your endurance by jogging long distances. The same is true for daily activities, you need to maintain a certain amount of time to make the effect work.