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Many of us have jobs or lifestyles that take a long time to sit down. We sit at our desks and in front of our screens for hours every day and we know this cannot be good for our health. Our bodies aren’t designed to sit in the office more than 40 hours a week – or on a sofa, in the car, etc.
Doctors know that sitting too much can leave you vulnerable to serious health problems if you’re not careful, and not just because of a potentially high waistline. With many of us having our hands tied when it comes to how much we sit in a day, researchers have sought solutions to balance society’s increasingly sedentary lifestyle.
Fortunately, a recent study states that we can reverse these risks through exercise. And they found out how much we have to move every day to do it.
The health risks of sitting too much
When you sit for hours every day, you obviously use less energy than when you stand or move around. This will result in fewer calories burned and possibly more pounds on the scale. But these are just the beginning of the health problems that can result from sitting too much.
According to Mayo Clinic expertsResearch has shown that prolonged sitting is linked to “a number of conditions” that make up what is known as metabolic syndrome. This cluster includes excess body fat around the waist, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and unhealthy cholesterol levels.
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Sitting for a long time also increases the risk of death from cardiovascular disease –the number one killer of women– and cancer.
Analyzing 13 studies on sedentary lifestyle and activity levels, Mayo Clinic researchers found that people who sit more than eight hours a day without physical activity have a similar risk of death as smokers and those who are obese.
This attitude was recently co-signed by researchers from the Norwegian School of Sport Science, which have been published a study in British Journal of Sports Medicine who found that longer periods of sedentary life corresponded to a higher mortality rate in “less active individuals”.
A look at the studio
The aim of the NSSS study was to “explore the joint associations of accelerometer-measured physical activity and sedentary time with all-cause mortality.” If you are like us and you don’t know what an accelerometer is, it is an instrument that measures the change in the speed of a person or an object over time. They are used in fitness trackers to calculate how much you move.
This was a huge “harmonized meta-analysis” study that included nine cohort studies from four countries that followed 44,370 adult males and females aged 4 to 14.5 years. During this period, 3,451 participants died, with a death rate of 7.8%.
Researchers analyzed sedentary time and various combinations of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) exercise routines. They found that the mean sedentary time ranged from 8.5 to 10.5 hours per day, while the mean MVPA ranged from 8 to 35 minutes per day.
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The results showed an increased risk of death in people with longer sedentary times and lower MVPA scores. Participants in the lower third of MVPA had the greatest risk of death in all combinations of sedentary and physical activity.
How much exercise do you need to balance a sedentary lifestyle
The NSSS study states that “around 30-40 [minutes] of MVPA per day dampens the association between sedentary time and risk of death, which is lower than previous self-reported data estimates.
Put simply, this means that 30 to 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous daily physical activity counteracts the health risks of sitting all day. Previous studies have recommended up to 60-75 minutes, so this study is great news for those of us who just don’t have that much time in a day.
Laut der Harvard School of Public Health“Medium intensity activities are those where you move fast enough or vigorously enough to burn three to six times more energy per minute than when sitting still, or exercises that fire at 3-6 METs. at high intensity it burns more than 6 METs.
Some examples of moderate-intensity activities include brisk walking, cycling, or more strenuous cleaning activities (such as gardening or cleaning). High-intensity activities include jogging, hiking, paddling, or many standard exercises.
While it can be difficult to take a break in our busy days, it’s important to prioritize your physical and mental health. Plus, many home maintenance projects fall into the moderate-intensity activity bracket, so you don’t have to take a bike lesson every day.
Finding ways to get more activity and movement into your daily life has numerous health benefits, so get moving!
