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Sitting: Still The Deadliest Sedentary Activity
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Apr 16, 2011
Modified Apr 16, 2011
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published Apr 16, 2011
Modified Apr 16, 2011
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You might want to stand up for this. In 2010 a study was circulating that sitting down is literally the worst thing ever, finding that, "the more time people spend in a completely sedentary state, independent of the exercise they get at other times, the higher their risk of becoming obese, and developing diabetes, heart disease and cancer." And according to more people, that's still true!
James Levine, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is a leader in "inactivity studies," and has found that sitting (or just being awake and not moving) sends your muscles' electrical activity plummeting. And hitting the gym after work does little to change those effects: “Excessive sitting is a lethal activity," he said.
But there is hope! In a 1999 study he found that people who fidget and make little movements tend to keep weight off better, even if they spend the same time sitting down as everyone else. He's nicknamed these little movements Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, or NEAT. In his movement study, obese people averaged 1,500 daily NEAT movements and 600 minutes sitting. Jamaican farmers, on the other hand, average 5,000 movements and 300 minutes sitting. Of course Jamaican farmers move around more—when else will they find time to legaize marijuana?
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Jaya Saxena
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