How many of you spend most of your day sitting, whether its at your desk, on the couch or in the car?  The average American spends 11 hours a day, 5 days a week SITTING! Just think about an average day.  It may look something like this…Wake up, eat breakfast, drive to work, sit at your desk, attend a meeting, go back to your desk, another meeting, back to the desk, drive to the gym and workout(hopefully), drive home, make dinner, sit down and eat dinner, sit on the couch and watch TV, go to bed….repeat.   This may be a little over the top, but a recent study supports these claims.

Katzmarzyk and colleagues found that since 1960, the estimated daily energy expenditure from work-related physical activity has dropped by more than 100 calories per day for both women and men. In the early 1960s, almost 50% of jobs required moderate activity whereas now, five decades later, less than 20% of jobs require moderate activity. That 100 calories per day may not seem like much, but over a year, the lost opportunity to burn 36,500 calories accounts for a significant part of the overall increase in U.S. body weights.  Say this is true for you, that equates to about 10 pounds a year.

“We are made to move, not sit at a desk 12 hours a day,” says Joan Price, author of The Anytime, Anywhere Exercise Book. “As ergonomic as your desk or chair may be, sitting produces back pains, headaches, and listlessness. You become less productive.”

So what do we do.  First off make the necessary changes and understand that you may be sitting too long.  Try stretching every hour,  taking the stairs, sitting on a STB, walking at your lunch break and what ever else you can do to move more!

I suggest investing in a Treadmill Desk if you’re up for it! Yes, I said a treadmill desk.  Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic came up with the idea of a “Treadmill Desk”. The idea is to slowly walk on a treadmill while working at a desk built around the treadmill…a Treadmill Desk.

Update: The Treadmill Desk really works! For 10 years I had been trying to lose 10 lbs with absolutely no success (I actually gained 5 lbs during those 10 years). After just four months of working/walking at my office Treadmill Desk, I lost 16 lbs! Now I have the wonderful problem of trying to eat more every day. Details below in “Is it possible to walk Across America…” Jay Buster

It may be an incredibly silly idea, but maybe its just what our nation needs to start implementing, and turn around this idea of sitting is productive.  And stop thinking that you only need 30 minutes of exercise a day.  Try and move more!!!