The Quarantine Social Media Weight Loss Challenge

Gaining weight during quarantine? Spending more time on social media? It’s time to combine the two for the social media weight loss challenge. The challenge: can you lose that weight you’ve gained during quarantine imposed inactivity by using your social media time to expend calories walking around your house or apartment?

It’s easy. Get up and get moving. Make sure you’ve got a clear path. Consider how steady you are on your feet. Keeping track of how long you’ve been moving or how many steps you’ve taken. Just over 15 minutes of walking is 2,000 steps or 100 calories expended.

Too hazardous to move and be occupied? Try the rocking chair solution. The rocking chair becomes your exercise equipment as you rock and text or scroll. It’s 150 calories expended per hour of rocking. 

Books by Kunz and Kunz

Research Books

Medical Applications of Reflexology: Findings in Research About Post-operative care, Maternity Care and Cancer Care
Evidenced Based Reflexology Research: For Health Professionals and Researchers
Medical applications of Reflexology:: Findings in Research about Cancer Care

Bestselling Books

 Reflexology: Hands-on Treatment for Vitality and Well-being
Complete Reflexology for Life: Your Definitive Photographic Reference to the Best Techniques and Treatments  
 

Intermittent Moving Books

Intermittent Moving: How I Lost My Pants and Mastered My Weight
Un-Sit Your Life: The Reflex "Diet" Solution

Intermittent Moving: The Stairs: Your New Found Quarantine Gym

By JFDBosMa - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64813422

Quarantine shut down makes it impossible, difficult and/or unappetizing to go to the gym, take a walk or jog. There may be an exercise resource readily available to you: the stairs.

Really? Stairs? Yes. Use them to lose weight, as a quickie fitness tool and, as a special bonus, you’ll live longer.

To get an idea of the potential, visit https://www.stepjockey.com/health-benefits-of-stair-climbing

The British non-profit aims to make stair climbing a wellness tool for use in office buildings but the information has something for all of us to use:

“By raising our heart rate, stair climbing helps protect against high blood pressure, weight gain and clogged arteries. This lowers the risk of developing chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, vascular dementia and even some cancers.

“Stair climbing also exercises our bones and muscles, improving strength, bone density and muscle tone. This is especially important for women in sedentary office jobs as they have a significantly higher osteoporosis risk than men.

“Incidental physical activities like stair climbing are also associated with improved mental health. They cause our bodies to release endorphins, the so-called feel-good hormones. They also provide time think and reflect - key factors in managing everyday stress and tensions.”

Stair climbing can be done in little bits throughout the day and you can track the calories you use. Seeking to lose weight, one enthusiast found she burned 481 calories in a week climbing up and down the 100 stairs to her fifth floor office three times a day. 

Keeping count of calories? 3.95 calories are expended per floor of stairs climbed. 

Books by Kunz and Kunz

Research Books

Medical Applications of Reflexology: Findings in Research About Post-operative care, Maternity Care and Cancer Care
Evidenced Based Reflexology Research: For Health Professionals and Researchers
Medical applications of Reflexology:: Findings in Research about Cancer Care

Bestselling Books

 Reflexology: Hands-on Treatment for Vitality and Well-being
Complete Reflexology for Life: Your Definitive Photographic Reference to the Best Techniques and Treatments  
 

Intermittent Moving Books

Intermittent Moving: How I Lost My Pants and Mastered My Weight
Un-Sit Your Life: The Reflex "Diet" Solution

 

Baby Boomers: Get off the Couch Now Or You May Not Be Able To Later

Move now or you might not be able to later. These are the results of a study that followed a group of people ages 50 to 71 for 8 to 10 years. Those who sat “the most and move the least had more than three times the risk of difficulty walking by the end of the study, when compared to their more active counterparts. … “Some ended up unable to walk at all. The study appears in the current issue of The Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.”

Our advice: get up and move. The study’s authors suggest being up and about every 30 minutes.

Learn more how much and how often to move as well as others health dangers of sitting too much: Un-Sit Your Life

Read more at http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/09/04/547580952/get-off-the-couch-baby-boomers-or-you-may-not-be-able-to-later

Recipe for Health: Sit Less, Sleep More

http://amzn.to/2hwwkfc

What do sitting less and sleeping more have in common? And why would this be a recipe for health?

Sitting and sleeping are related to increased risk for chronic health concerns such as obesity, diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular problems, certain types of cancer and a lessened longevity. 

Why would this be? It’s because of the way our metabolisms work. Both sitting the right amount of time and sleeping the right amount of time trigger our metabolisms to do the things necessary to see that our bodies work well and stay healthy.

The foot is a common link between sitting and sleeping. You see, the foot is a motion detector. Sensors in the feet add to other signals informing the rest of the body that we’re up and about. Pressure sensed by the feet provides a request that our metabolisms create the resources necessary to get us where we want to go. Sit too much and metabolism becomes inactive leading to disregulation of basic metabolic components (blood pressure, glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol and waistline size)

As we sleep, the pressure sensing capabilities of the feet are turned down. Moving about is not necessary. Sleep restores our bodies as decreased are basic components of metabolism such as glucose utilization, blood pressure as well as heart rate and sympathetic nervous activity. Hormones that regulate appetite and energy expenditure, important to weight control, are activated. 

Sleep too little and restorative time is shortened. As we lay awake, the pressure sensors of the feet remain on alert with metabolism on daytime settings as well. Research shows those who fail to sleep enough are 55% more likely to experience metabolic syndrome, abnormal measures for 3 of the 5 basic metabolic components. 

People with metabolic syndrome are two to three times as likely to develop cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes; twice as likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke and more than three times as likely to die early from those causes. Those with metabolic risk factors in middle age have poorer cognitive function, suggestive of dementia or Alzheimer’s later in life.

What’s a person to do to stay healthy? Actually think about your body and its schedule. Make sleep a priority. Seven hours of sleep a night is recommended. Move more during the day. Take breaks from sitting, preferably 2 minutes every 20 minutes. Your glucose and blood pressure levels as well as musculoskeletal system will thank you. Walk 15 minutes after each meal. Aim for two hours more up and about time than you now do. 

The 5-minute Break Resolution

Want to feel better at work? Take a 5-minute break from sitting, standing up and walking around, every hour. Research shows this formula compared to other routines helped volunteer subjects feel “greater happiness, less fatigue and considerably less craving for food …. Their feelings of vigor also tended to increase throughout the day, … .”

The volunteers were directed to simulate one working day sitting with no breaks except for bathroom use, one day with a 30 minute moderate walk at its start and one day with 5-minute breaks each hour. Positive results were seen with the 5-minute break routine. Volunteers felt more energetic with concentration and focus not impacted by the breaks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/well/move/work-walk-5-minutes-work.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fgretchen-reynolds&action=click&contentCollection=undefined&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

Actor John Goodman: Couch potato no more, Loses 100 pounds

Gage Skidmore [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

“We’re seeing a lot more — and a lot less — of John Goodman. The burly “Roseanne” star, who’s featured in the new films “Trumbo” and “Love the Coopers,” has been displaying a shockingly sleek physique lately on the red carpet. No wonder: He lost 100 pounds.

“He made a big step toward doing just that in 2007, when he stopped drinking. Shilstonetook Goodman even further when he introduced him to a “Mediterranean-style eating plan” — one that leans heavily toward fish, nuts, olive oil, vegetables and fruit.

He also exercised six days a week, making sure to take 10,000 to 12,000 steps a day. An elliptical bicycle and treadmill played a big part in whittling the pounds. All told, he says, Goodman’s success lay in the way he changed his life these past two years.”

Before and after photos of John Goodman http://nypost.com/2015/11/10/the-secrets-behind-john-goodmans-100-pound-weight-loss/

“John Goodman is no longer a couch potato (according to people.com).

“‘I know it sounds sappy, but it was a waste,” the 58-year-old actor tells PEOPLE. “It takes a lot of creative energy to sit on your ass and figure out what you’re going to eat next … I wanted to live life better.”…

“Mission accomplished: The Treme actor has lost more than 100 lbs. thanks to his healthy new lifestyle.” (http://people.com/bodies/john-goodman-how-i-lost-100-lbs-and-counting/)

“"I just stopped eating all the time," Goodman, 63, told Peter Travers. "I’d have a handful of food and it’d go to my mouth. I was just eating all the time. I was just eating alcoholically. In the old days, I would take three months out, lose 60 or 70 pounds, and then reward myself with a 6-pack of bud or whatever and just go back to my old habits. Then this time I wanted to do it slowly, move, exercise. I’m getting to the age where I can’t afford to sit still anymore. And it gives me the energy to work, ‘cause work is very draining.”’ (http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/john-goodman-reveals-inspiration-massive-weight-loss/story?id=37577068)

Un-Sit Your Life. http://amzn.to/2hwwkfc

Under the desk classroom cycling machines in class? An idea whose time has come

Fidgeting is down and focus is up with the installation of under the desk cycles in classrooms of an 8th grade math teacher in North Carolina. 

‘Before, they were drumming on their desks, they were touching other people, they don’t do that anymore. Their feet are getting the movement out,’ (teacher) Bethany (Lambeth) told WRAL.com. ‘There has been a huge increase in the quality of our student’s work and a decrease in the amount of missing work.’

“The students like them too. ‘I’m a really energetic person, so this takes all my energy out,’ said Quinn Spear, who worked out he’d already pedalled 5.5 miles before morning break at 10am.

‘The kids are not picking on each other, they are not needing to walk around, they are not needing to go explore, they are able to get their activity out and get their work done,’ added Bethany.

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2016/09/05/teacher-installs-desk-cycles-to-help-students-focus-in-class-6109728/#ixzz4SHNTvKTR

Is sitting too much the cause of increase in cardiovascular deaths

Death rates due to heart disease are up for the first time in almost 50 years—and sitting too much could be the culprit.

Or at least that’s one conclusion to be drawn from the reasons cited for a 2015 increase following a decline of 70% since 1969. “Researchers say the obesity epidemic is probably mostly to blame for the higher death rate from heart disease, because it has driven increases in rates of hypertension, diabetes and other heart-related problems.”

Studies show sitting too much increases risks for weight gain, diabetes, and abnormal measurements of the cardiac-related metabolic indicators of blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides. The amount of time spent sitting by Americans both at work and at home has been increasing for years. 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/nations-death-rate-rises-as-progress-against-heart-disease-stalls-1481173260

Walk and Talk: Walking Meetings Gain Popularity

Two to three people talking as they do laps of office hallways may get to be a more common sight. Such walking meetings in the workplace are shown to have “physical and mental benefits of being more mobile at work.”

Benefits include:

• Accruing steps to reach a goal on wearable technology such as FitBit.

• Expending more calories (15 minutes of walking burns 56 calories while sitting at a laptop expends 20 and standing 22)
• Walking meeting participants are less likely to miss work for health reasons.
• “… walking for as little as 15 minutes a day can add up to 3 years to life expectancy.”
• Spurring more ideas: “Creative output increases by an average of 60% when people are walking …”
• People are more relaxed and generate more ideas.

Tips for walking meetings include:

• Meet with 2 or 3 people
• Set a time, 30 minutes or less
• Go at comfortable speed
• Inform the boss
• Walk in a park, outdoors or around the office.

Are there other times you could walk during the workday? “Meetings, phone calls and email have come to consume more than 90% of the working time of managers and some other workers, such as consultants. Many of these meetings and calls could be conducted while walking, experts say.”

New businesses are springing up to combat sedentary behavior in the workplace such as StepJockey of London which promotes use of stairs for businesses in large office buildings.

Bachman, Rachel, “The Genius of a Walk-and-Talk,” Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2016, p. D1

Un-Sit Your Life http://tinyurl.com/un-sit-your-life

This Job is Killing You — Literally

Now there’s proof. Your sitting job is actually killing you. Or, at least you’re at risk of dying younger.

An increase of up to 60% in risk of dying prematurely is seen in those who sit 8 hours a day on the job and don’t exercise. Those who engaged in moderate exercise (i. e. brisk walking, cycling) for an hour a day overcame the problems of sitting on the job. 

A million people can’t be wrong—or at least that’s how many individuals participated in the 16  studies examined by British researchers to determine the stark information about sitting and early death. 

“Scientists said sedentary lifestyles were now posing as great a threat to public health as smoking, and were causing more deaths than obesity. (Researchers said that globally, more than 5 million deaths a year are linked to physical inactivity – a similar number to lives lost to smoking, and a higher figure than that caused by obesity.)

“They urged anyone spending hours at their desk to change their daily routine to take a five minute break every hour, as well as exercise at lunchtimes and evenings.

“An hour of brisk walking or cycling spread over a day was enough to combat the dangers of eight hours sitting in the office, they said.

“Currently, public health advice in the UK recommends just half this level of activity.

But almost half of women and one third of men fail to achieve even this.”

Another study estimates “physical inactivity costs the global economy $67.5bn (billion) (£51.5bn) per year – the UK equivalent is £1.7bn – comprising $58.8bn in healthcare and $13.7bn in lost productivity.”

“Steven Ward, executive editor of UK Active, urged employers to do more to encourage workers to be more active during the working day.

“He also urged workers to do all they could to find time to get moving. 

“‘This report is showing that inactivity kills,’” he said. “‘When we realised (sic) this about smoking we tackled it – we need to do the same about our office culture.’”

“He called for changes in tax breaks, to encourage office workers to be more active, by providing free gym membership, or activity trackers, in the same way that (UK’s) Cycle to Work schemes let employers loan out bicycles as a tax-free benefit.”

A previous study addressed the impact on longevity of sitting during time off, time spent watching television. An hour of television viewing shortens one’s life by 22 minutes—the same amount as if one had smoked two cigarettes. Each hour reduces ones life by 1.8 years for women and 1.5 years for men. These are average numbers from a study about television viewing habits and longevity collected from 8,800 Australian adults over 6 years. The model was created by researchers Lennert Veerman et al. of the University of Queensland. “Compared with persons who watch no TV, those who spend a lifetime average of 6 h/day (hours per day) watching TV can expect to live 4.8 years less.” At the most extreme, those who watch the most television reduce their lives by 44 minutes for each hour of viewing for a total of up to 10.4 years in comparison to those who watch no television.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/27/office-workers-must-exercise-for-an-hour-a-day-to-counter-death/

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jul/27/health-risk-one-hour-activity-offset-eight-hours-sitting-desk

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)30370-1/fulltext

TV Watching = Unhealthy Brain

Sitting too much interferes with “mental skills that help people plan, organize and pay attention.” That’s what California researchers found when they followed 3,200 study participants’ television watching and exercise habits over twenty-five years. 

Those who watched more than 3 hours of television a day performed worse on three tests of cognitive function “that assessed the speed at which they processed information, their verbal memory and executive function.”  Those “who both exercised the least and watched more than 3 hours of TV per day were twice as likely to perform poorly on the cognitive tests, compared with those who spent little time watching TV but exercised more.

“It is not clear exactly why spending more time watching TV may be linked to worse cognitive performance later in life. One hypothesis is that television viewing is not a cognitively engaging way of spending time, Hoang said.

“Or it could be that people who watch a lot of TV and don't exercise much may have other unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as a poor diet, which might also contribute to their worse cognitive function, she said.”

Previous studies linked television watching to further cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s. One study found those who were physically inactive and whose primary recreational activity from ages 40 to 59 was television watching increased their risk for Alzheimer’s by 250%.  Another found each one hour of television viewing from the ages 40 to 59 increases the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease by 1.3 times. Since 46% of the risk for Alzheimer’s is associated with heredity and 21% with physical inactivity, it could explain why television watching is especially detrimental to the cognitive function of some individuals.

http://www.livescience.com/52959-television-cognitive-function.html

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Sitting too Much Taking a Toll on Mental Health

First it was our physical health. Now it’s our mental health.

“It” is how much we sit and the toll it takes on us. Prolonged sitting is linked by research to a long list of chronic illnesses and even premature death. Now the link has not only been made to our mental health but the list of concerns is getting longer.

First it was depression. Then it was self esteem. Now it’s anxiety. And, if you’re sitting on the job, it includes anxiety and depression.

• The more children or adults sat while watching TV, working on a computer or playing electronic games, the more they were at risk for anxiety. This finding by Australian researchers included concern for those whose excessive worry interferes with daily life. “Anxiety is a debilitating illness affecting 14 per cent of Australian adults, but it’s not just the everyday symptoms such as a racing heart and headaches that we get from our busy lives and financial pressures that we need to worry about. … “Anxiety has been linked to chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer, so we need to identify ways to reduce the risk of this serious illness.”
https://www.deakin.edu.au/news/latest-media-releases/2015-media-releases-archives/aussie-research-finds-we-need-to-get-up-for-the-sake-of-our-mental-health

• “… women who sat for more than seven hours a day were at a 47% higher risk for depressive symptoms than women who sat for four hours or less per day. Women who didn’t exercise had a 99 percent higher risk for depression compared with women who exercised for 30 minutes a day on most days.” Researchers reached these results after had tracking for 10 years some 9,000 Australian women whose age at the start of the study ranged from 50 to 55.

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/sitting-feel-depressed-study-article-1.1449990

• “(Children) Watching TV for more than 2 hours per day was associated with unfavourable (sic) body composition, decreased fitness, lowered scores for self-esteem and pro-social behaviour (sic) and decreased academic achievement.” Canadian researchers reviewed 232 studies about children and sitting times including 983,840 participants to reach their conclusions.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3186735/

• “New research demonstrates that sitting for longer than 6 hours a day at work not only carries a physical toll, but may also increase risks of mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression.… “(Researchers) Kilpatrick and colleagues found that there was a significant relationship between rates of psychological distress and sitting. Employees who reported sitting for longer than 6 hours per day had increased prevalence of moderate symptoms of anxiety and depression relative to those who reported sitting for less than 3 hours a day.”
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/minds-business/more-bad-news-about-sitting-it-may-harm-workers-mental-health.html

Sitting or Standing at Work: The Benefits and Risks

Sitting or Standing at Work: The Benefits and Risks

Pretty good advice. One of the only articles I have seen that both mentions the dangers of prolonged standing and gives advice on how to mitigate it.

"For Standers (eg doctors, family nurse practitioners, teachers, wait staff, hairdressers)
Like with sitting, experts recommend frequent breaks—every 30 minutes or so—to help temper the negative impact of prolonged standing.

1. Alternate seated and standing work activities, if possible

1. Change your position frequently

1. Ensure that your workstation is set to the proper height and distance

1. Invest in supportive, high-quality footwear

1. Consider using a saddle chair (combines sitting and standing)"

How Boost Your Metabolism

Stand up. Now walk. You have just had a positive effect on your metabolism. Standing and walking take more energy than sitting. 

The next question is: how much standing and walking are needed to create change in your metabolism? We’ve written an entire book to answer that question but here are some brief ideas.

Take breaks from sitting

Taking breaks from sitting re-sets the five measures of metabolism of the body improving cholesterol, triglycerides, waistline, blood sugar and blood pressure.

How often? In general those who take the most breaks during the day had better biomarkers for metabolism and a lessened risk for heart disease and diabetes. Even standing up for one minute might help lower the risk for metabolic syndrome notes researcher Dr. Geraldine Healy.

Preferable is taking a break in sitting every 20 minutes of two minutes with movement or walking in place. Not only is metabolism elected but so too are muscles, tendons and joints stretched out of place by sitting too much. 

Fidgeting

It turns out that the positives and negatives of sitting are not as simple as counting time spent doing it. What one does while sitting is important too. Research suggests fidgeting while sitting may be beneficial to metabolism.

According to one study, “Fidgeting is typically defined as involving small movements, especially of the hands and feet, often through nervousness, restlessness, or impatience. … The current results suggest that more complex movements of the hands and feet may be important to measure, in addition to level of physical activity (sitting time).”

Fidgeting expends more calories than sitting still—118 calories an hour versus 80. Calorie consumption is linked to metabolism with more calories indicating more demand on metabolism. Research results showing sitting while reading or using a computer is less impactful on metabolism. It could be the benefit of intellectual stimulation while sitting.

Previous research about fidgeting while sitting showed those who sit motionless consume 80 calories an hour while those who fidget while sitting consume 118

Take steps to be impact metabolism

For every 1,000 steps taken during or 30 minutes of lifestyle activities of daily living (cooking, washing dishes, ironing, and other routine tasks at home or work done while standing or walking), there is a reduced risk for elevated measures of metabolism. 

• Reduces the risk of elevated triglycerides by15%

• Reduces the risk of low HDL (good cholesterol) by 12%

• Reduces the risk of elevated waist circumference (more than 40” for men and 35” for women) by 16%

• Reduces the risk of metabolic syndrome by 13%

(People with metabolic syndrome (abnormal measurements for three of the five metabolic biomarkers) are two to three times as likely to develop cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes; twice as likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke and more than three times as likely to die early from those causes. Those with metabolic risk factors in middle age have poorer cognitive function, suggestive of dementia or Alzheimer’s later in life.)

• No association was found between lifestyle minutes or steps and levels of blood pressure or glucose.

Lessen uninterrupted sitting time especially television watching time
Consider how much time you spend sitting while watching television, talking or texting on the cell phone, playing video games or surfing the Internet. 

One study found that each hour of television viewing increases the risk of metabolic syndrome by: 21% for women and 26% for men.

Another study found that men with more than four hours per day screen time (television, computer, playing video games) outside of work have:

• 94% higher odds (virtually double) of having metabolic syndrome
• 88% higher odds of elevated waist circumference
• 84% higher odds of low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C)
• 55% higher odds of high blood pressure
• 32% higher odds of elevated glucose

Compared to women who sit less than 1 hour per day watching television and using the computer outside of work, those who sit more than 4 hours per day and do not exercise have a 54% higher odds of metabolic syndrome.

Un-Sit Your Life http://tinyurl.com/un-sit-your-life

Move and Use More Calories

Move — and you use more calories. Not exactly surprising news. But, did you know little things done throughout the day can add up to help with your weight?

If you’re counting the calories of the food you eat, consider counting the calories you use.

• At work take a 5 minute break from sitting every 1/2 hour and you’ll use up 132 calories over an 8 hour day.
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator and you’ll use 5 more calories per flight. You consume half that number walking down a flight. 
• Rocking in a rocking chair as you watch television, for example, doubles the calories you use just sitting there: 150 calories in an hour versus 80 just sitting still.
• Fidget while sitting (reading, computer work, moving hands and foot tapping) you’ll use 118 per hour versus 80 sitting still.
• Fidget while standing (walking around, answering telephones, folding sheets, interacting with a pet) and you’ll use 148 calories per hour versus 87 standing still.
• When the commercial comes on during your television viewing, stand up and walk in place or walk around the house. You’ll use 70 more calories in an hour.
• Get a wearable fitness tracker or use your SmartPhone to track your steps every day. Add 2,00 steps to your normal day to maintain your weight. Take 10,000 steps/day and you’ll lose 10 pounds in 8 months by taking.

Most of all, as you move be aware you’re doing something that is beneficial. Such mindfulness helped motel maids lost an average of two pounds at the end of a month. In addition, their blood pressure dropped an average of 10 points.

Are You a Desk Chair Potato?

Desk-chair potato is the newly coined term for those who spend most of the day sitting at work. As noted in Men’s Health, sedentary jobs have increased 83% since 1950. In the workplace of the 1980s, office workers spent 70% of their time sitting. Today it’s 93%.

Results of such changes are reflected in barometers of health. A “significant portion” of the increase in body weight by men and women in the US since 1970, for example, is attributed to the increase in sedentary jobs. Researchers found that both men and women expend 100 calories less a day on the job. This “change ... closely matched the actual change in weight for 40-50 year old men and women.”

Other changes reported in the mid-1900s, according to Men’s Health, “… found that men who sat for long periods of time at work were twice as likely to develop heart disease as were men who moved around throughout the day. English bus drivers were more likely to suffer from heart attacks than bus conductors; mail sorters were more likely to suffer from heart attacks than mailmen.”

Sitting on the job for 10 or more years doubled the risk of colon cancer and increased the risk of rectal cancer by 44% according to an Australian study.

Aside from the metabolic dis-regulation potential of on-the-job sitting, pain and musculoskeletal distress results from chair time at work. Researcher Eric Jensen notes that “The typical office worker has more musculoskeletal problems than any other industry-sector worker, including construction, metal industry and transport workers. ... One researcher’s conclusion: Sitting is as much an occupational risk as lifting heavy weights on the job. (Hettinger, 1985).”

From Un-Sit Your Life, The Reflex “Diet” Solution, Change your sitting habits, empower your life  by Barbara and Kevin Kunz

My Job is Making Me Fat

                                                   My Job is Making Me Fat

Fighting weight gain? Sitting all day at work isn’t helping.

You probably know that already but consider what one study found. A “significant portion” of the increase in body weight by men and women in the US since 1970 is attributed to the increase in sedentary jobs. Researchers found that both men and women expend 100 calories less a day on the job. This “change ... closely matched the actual change in weight for 40-50 year old men and women” over the years.

There are opportunities to expend more calories during your work day by moving more and taking breaks from sitting. An added benefit: it’s not just your weight that will benefit as you make plans to un-sit at work. You can improve how your metabolism works and lessen your risk for heart disease and diabetes.

Consider the calorie count for a typical day at the office:

Park by building, take elevator to your floor: 15 calories

Make phone calls for an hour at desk: 15 calories

Seated 45-minute lunch: 25 calories

Seated one hour meeting: 15 calories

Take elevator to ground floor. Walk to car. Drive home: 15 calories

Total: 85 calories

Consider the calorie count for a typical day at the office with some planning:

Park 5 blocks from office. Take stairs to your floor: 80-120 calories

Take calls standing up and pacing with notepad on bookcase or filing cabinet to take notes without bending down: 100-130 calories

Walk 30 minutes at lunch; sit and eat 15 minutes: 100-130 calories

One hour walking meeting: 150-200 calories

Take stairs out of the building, walk back to car: 80-100
Total: 510-680 calories

(Adapted from Move a Little, Lose a Lot by Dr. James Levine and Selene Yeager.)

Taking breaks

Taking breaks in sitting at the office expends from 24 to 132 calories during an eight-hour day depending on how much of a break you take each hour: 

• a 1-minute break every half hour results in the expenditure of an additional 24 calories over an 8-hour time period 
• a 2-minute break every half hour results in 59 extra calories expended 
• a 5-minute break every half hour results in an 132 additional calories expended.

Consider using a standing desk
“Standing burns 40 percent more calories than sitting, which translates to weight loss for a 175 pound person in the following way:
• Standing for 2.5 hours each day would result in an extra energy expenditure of 350 calories per day.
• It takes 3,500 calories to equal 1 pound of weight loss
• Ten days of 350 calories per day equal 1 pound of weight loss
• There are 250 working days in a year or the potential for 20-25 pounds of weight loss by adopting this method of working.”

(From Dr. Mark Benden, advocate of the use of a standing desk at he office, researcher and author of Could You Stand to Lose?)