Shocker: Sitting Down All Day Is Bad For You
OK, are you sitting down?
Well, you shouldn't be. A new study indicates that sitting for more than three hours a day can shorten your life by two years — two years you could have spent sitting.
Oh, and even exercising regularly doesn't combat the dangers of sitting, so take that, people who go to the gym after work.
This isn't really news. Doctors have long warned about the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle. But this study was actually the combination of five different large-scale studies with two million subjects, which make the results that much more damning.
Lead author of the paper Peter Katzmarzyk likened sitting to smoking. Yes, smoking.
It's right in the same ballpark as smoking and obesity — sedentary behavior is in the same category. Smoking is still the Number One risk factor [for early death], but sitting is catching up.
I'd bet good money that hypocrite was sitting down when he gave that quote.
TV makes it even worse, naturally. The same study suggests that people who watch fewer than two hours of live television a day live an average of 1.4 years longer. Yes, but they also miss out on the simple joys of Bunheads, so their loss, really.
Surprising or not, these findings are pretty depressing — especially when so many of us spend most of our days on our asses for work. And yes, there are alternatives, like standing or treadmill desks, but who wants to engage in physical activity and write at the same time? That's way too much energy use all at once.
In other breaking news, you should try harder to eat fruits and vegetables.
