Did you know that you can burn 60 calories an hour just by standing? That’s one more reason to get up more often when you’re sitting at your desk all day long.
Sitting is quickly becoming recognized as one of the biggest culprits in the obesity epidemic. More than 47 million American adults have developed metabolic syndrome – the precursor to obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
“Chair time is an insidious hazard because people haven’t been told it’s a hazard,” says Prof. Marc Hamilton, University of Missouri in Columbia.
The reason being is that regardless of how much exercise you do in a day, when you spend long periods of time sitting down, the fat-absorbing enzyme called lipase shuts down and fat is stored instead of burned off and waistlines get bigger as a result and cholesterol levels rise.
“The existing data, by numerous studies, are starting to show that the rates of heart disease and diabetes and obesity are doubled or sometimes even tripled in people who sit a lot,” Dr. Hamilton explains.
Can you believe that? Sitting triples your risk of heart disease, diabetes and obesity!
When you consider that most of us spend the majority of our days sitting down, especially after eating, you have to wonder what happens to the fat. If it’s not being absorbed by the lipase, which shuts down when we sit down, then where does the fat go?
“Instead, the fat will recirculate in the blood stream and go and be stored as body fat or it can clog arteries and cause diseases,” Dr. Hamilton says.
So what’s the answer?
Stand up any chance you can get. At work, this means getting up when you’re on the phone, or walking down the office to ask your colleague a question instead of emailing – taking frequent breaks every hour or so. When you’re on the bus, stand up instead of sitting. And for those parents out there, stand up next time you’re watching junior play soccer. You’ll get all the parents doing it soon enough.
Source:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2008/0610-stand_up_for_your_health.htm
Originally published @ FITLODE.COM
