Study Suggests Standing Is Better Four Your Health Than Sitting

The findings of the research indicate that time spent standing was associated with a decreased level of blood fats and blood sugar. The monitors closely tracked how much time each volunteer was sleeping, sitting, lying down, standing and stepping.

“An extra two hours per day spent standing rather than sitting was associated with approximately two percent lower average fasting blood sugar levels”, as reported by a press statement issued with the publication.

There was, however, no significant effect on BMI or waistline of replacing sitting time with standing.

Replacing two hours a day of sitting time with stepping was associated with an approximately 11 percent lower average BMI and a 7.5cm smaller average waist circumference.

The study cannot definitely prove that these tweaks to the amount of time spent sitting directly causes improvements in health markers, but the researchers note that the findings do fall in line with what’s known about the impact on the body of being active (or at least not being sedentary).

“This has important public health implications, given that standing is a common behaviour that usually replaces sitting, and that can be encouraged in the workplace with interventions such as sit-stand desks”, said Dr. Genevieve Healy, a senior research fellow at the university’s School of Public Health.

‘Our message is to “Stand Up, Sit Less, Move More”.’.

These men and women wore the monitors 24 hours a day for seven days.

Regular walking and running not only improve your heart but also enable you shed extra kilos around your waistline resulting in a healthy body mass index (BMI), researchers say.

If people will find a way to choose alternatives to sitting whenever they get the chance it will be good for their metabolic health and for their heart.

The team showed the potential benefits of standing more over sitting at workplace.

However, the study did not prove a cause-and-effect link between standing and walking more and better health.

If this isn’t enough to convince you that standing is really good for your health, then here is what scientists who conducted this new study added.

“People need to recognize the importance of not sitting too long during the day”, Lopez-Jimenez said.

Offices should have a number of higher desks where people can stand, staff should regularly walk around the office, and people should break up long-periods of sitting with “stand-up” meetings. “We are also looking to increase the amount of time spent stepping as well”, she added. “A person walking while at work for two hours, standing for another four hours, and performing some daily chores at home for another hour will burn more calories than jogging or running for 60 minutes”, he says. But when you are, break up sitting down for long periods of time.

“The unintended consequences of modern life promoting sedentary behaviors can be reversed”, Dr. Lopez-Jimenez wrote.