3 Harmful Side Effects of Sitting Down for Too Long and How to Fix It
We, as humans, are not supposed to be sitting down at our desks.
Think about it, for millennia, we have been on our feet hunting for meats, gathering for vegetables, or working hard on the field.
It is not until recently that we started doing our work by sitting down with the boom of office jobs. The harmful side effects of sitting down for too long are beginning to show.
According to the CDC, the US went from only having 30% of the population overweight in the 1950s to 74% in 2018. That is a huge jump. Our bodies have not changed to adapt to this new reality of not being as active.
In my recent talk with Business Insider, I mentioned a couple of problems you will definitely develop when you are sitting down for too long, plus I will go into more details for you to understand.
Summary
More deposits of fats in the body
On average, we spend 5.8 ± 1.2 hours a day sitting down at our desks. And its effect is much more significant than we can imagine. Fat is not a bad thing. We need fat to provide cushions between our organs, making up the majority of our skin.
But sitting down for too long may increase the amount of fat surrounding your visceral organs. We do not want this happening. This amount of fat surrounding our organs will impede our organs’ functions and leak even more fat into our bloodstream.
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Increase the risk of chronic diseases
Chronic diseases such as coronary diseases, diabetes, obesity are problems that we develop later in life. It was not a concern before, but as we start to live longer, these diseases will continue to degrade our quality of life.
As discussed above, not meeting the recommended amount of activity can increase your risk of developing obesity due to the amount of fat you might be accumulating when you sit down. In addition, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus type 2 are two more problems you need to worry about.
Related post: How to start exercising
Decrease overall mood
As you sit down for an extended period of time, your body is not moving. You will then feel very heavy and lazy. It becomes so hard to move.
But you and I are still animals with bodies evolved from millions of years, this change of laziness does not do you any good. You will feel pent up with anxiety. Are you missing an important deadline that you are just not aware of?
The stress hormones increase with no way to release them. Your situation suddenly becomes too overwhelming to deal with.
How to fix the harmful side effects of sitting down?
The solution is straightforward, start standing. The simple act helps you burn more calories, improves glucose metabolism and muscle contractions to improve blood circulation, and reduces cardiovascular risks.
And you do not have to make it more complicated than it is supposed to be. To break the cycle, just start standing up for at least 2 minutes for every 60 minutes of you sitting down. Like I told Prit in our podcast episode, make being active be easy and fun.
It is best to try standing up as part of your break so that you can associate some physical activity with positive reinforcement. It is a fun thing you can do instead of a chore.
Now that you have been standing, what else can you do?
What’s the next thing after standing around? Exercise!
Are you tired of the depressing cycle of working out and quitting? Why not build a sustainable routine that works? Download the FREE Habit Forming Checklist today!
!!Treat the whole process like how you play a video game. You have leveled up from standing to wanting even more physical activity. You go from level 0 to now level 2. That is progress.
I have detailed everything you need to know about how to start exercising. Give that article a read to jumpstart your routine!
Remember, sitting is the new smoking! But the problem is much easier to fix.
What do you think about sitting versus standing versus exercising? Is there something else that I am missing?
