If most of your day is spent sitting, it is time you included an hour-long brisk walk in your daily routine, for it is the minimum you can do to undo the damages of a sedentary lifestyle, suggest researchers.
Scientists analysing data from more than 1 million people found that it takes about 60 to 75 minutes of ‘moderate intensity’ exercise to undo the damage of sitting for at least eight hours a day. Not exercising and sitting all day is as dangerous as being obese or smoking, they found.
And the added risk of parking yourself in front of a television for five hours or more a day after sitting at the office is so high even the hour of exercise is not enough to reverse the damage.
It has been long suspected that sitting a lot, at work or at home, is not healthy. Previous studies have found that prolonged sitting can raise the chances of heart disease, various cancers and an earlier death.
In the new research , experts combed through 13 papers with data on factors including how long people spend sitting, their physical activity levels and their television-watching habits. The majority of studies included people older than age 45. All except one were done in the U.S., Western Europe and Australia.
The paper was published online Wednesday in the journal Lancet.
Lars Bo Andersen, who co-authored an accompanying commentary, called the new research “very convincing,” explaining that too much sitting increases the risk of problems including diabetes and heart disease because it can make insulin levels spike and might slow the body’s metabolism.
Andersen said that watching lots of television was probably even worse than sitting at the office all day because it likely includes other unhealthy habits.
