Sitting too long spells trouble for your health, no joke. But hey, sometimes you’ve got to park it for a while, right? Here’s the scoop: mixing in some standing time while you slog through the workday can crank up your calorie torching. **Standing kicks sitting’s butt** when it comes to burning off lunch. You’ll peel through those pesky calories without even noticing. Perfect for anyone looking to stay active, even at the desk. Stick around, and you’ll learn how easy-peasy it can be.
In this article, we will learn how calories are burned, the factors affecting calories burn, the number of calories burned when standing or sitting, which has better health benefits, and how to stand more at work.
Due to the prevalence of obesity, many methods and products for weight loss are available in the market. And one of the common promises of these methods and products is to help you burn calories. Here are just a few ways on how calories are burned:
It is already a common understanding that exercise is not only good for our entire being but also for losing weight. According to experts, the more you spend time exercising, and the more the intensity of the exercise, the more calories you will burn.
The calories you burn may further depend on your pace, weight, and height. If you weigh more, you will most likely burn more calories. Anyway, the calories you may need to burn may also depend on these factors, so you should know how to calculate it (1).
Exercise also helps in building muscles. Muscles are responsible for burning more calories without doing anything. You can burn up to 50 calories even if at rest if you have 10 pounds of muscles. On the other hand, you can burn around 20 calories every 10 pounds of fats (2).
One of the best exercises is strength training. If you get older, you will have a slower metabolism. If you want to avoid this to happen, you can do some strength training even just a few times a week. Your abdomen, chest, thighs, and arms contain the largest muscles, which means that these parts burn the largest calories.
Do you know that stimulants can help burn calories? Stimulants give the impression that you have a high dose of energy, which can make you perform more physical activities. Aside from that, caffeine can lead to metabolic changes, which can burn more calories (3).
Furthermore, black or green tea may contain catechins. Catechins are linked to weight loss. Several studies show that caffeine consumption makes users lose weight compared to those who have lesser caffeine intake. But you should drink the appropriate amount of caffeine as too much of it can cause anxiety, palpitation, upset stomach, and dizziness.
Your gastrointestinal tract is activated every time you eat food. If you digest food, your body absorbs nutrients. It also needs enough calories for you to have proper digestion. That is the reason why if you eat smaller meals frequently, the more the calories your body will burn.
According to the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, skipping breakfast may result in weight gain. If you don’t eat breakfast, chances are you will consume more calories for the rest of the day. Other studies show that skipping breakfast is linked to a higher body mass index.
It is also associated with type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and obesity. Nutritionists stress that the most crucial meal of the day is breakfast. The reason why breakfast is called as such is that it is a meal that breaks the fast (4).
Several factors affect the number of calories burned every day. Here are just a few factors that affect calories burn (5):
You can burn about 100 to 200 calories every hour if you are merely standing. But the calories you burn mainly depend upon your age, sex, weight, and height. On the other hand, the calories you burn are only 60 to 130 calories every hour if you are sitting (6).
A woman who weighs 100 pounds can burn 453 calories by sitting for 8 hours. On the other hand, a woman with the same weight can burn 691 calories by standing for 4 hours and sitting for 4 hours. The difference in calories burned over 8 hours is 238 calories. And that is already a huge number of calories burned compared to when you merely sit throughout the day.
A man who weighs 100 pounds can burn 500 calories by sitting for 8 hours. On the other hand, a woman with the same weight can burn 762 calories by standing for 4 hours and sitting for 4 hours. The difference in calories burned over 8 hours is 262 calories.
Sitting burns fewer calories because your body doesn’t move. Although the mere standing may not involve several movements, you can burn more calories. This is because muscle mass is activated. As we already learned, the more muscles you have, the more calories you will burn. Of course, your body moves, including those foot stretches and taps.
Probably, you are guilty if you sit too much throughout the day. Remember that your body is not designed to sit all day. If you stay in the same position for many hours, you are putting your body at risk of various health diseases (7). So which is better for your health?
Your body burns more calories if you stand more compared to if you sit. The truth about the sedentary lifestyle is that it might kill you (8). You know what will happen if you are overweight, much worse obese.
The good news is that standing for long hours is proven to reduce the risk of obesity. And this is true for both men and women. A study shows that men who stand for more than 6 hours a day have lower chances of obesity around 59 percent. On the other hand, women who stand for more than 6 hours a day have a 35 percent reduced probability of obesity (9).
Standing can help lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels. It also helps to maintain your weight, which is also linked to a decreased chance of heart diseases. A study shows that standing can help improve good cholesterol while reducing the levels of bad cholesterol (10).
Sitting is linked to increased waist size, weight, blood sugar levels, and bad cholesterol. It is advised to substitute even just 2 hours of standing for sitting to improve cholesterol and blood sugar levels. If you stand more, your risk of heart diseases will be reduced.
A study recommends breaking up sitting withstanding. And if you have time, you can substitute walking from standing (11). A study shows that you can reduce up to 34 percent of blood sugar levels by doing this shift.
This is also highly suggested for women during their postmenopausal period. Standing and walking can reduce insulin levels and blood glucose levels. This is an indication that standing truly helps in reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Sedentary time, such as sitting, increases your risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, much worse death (12). If you reduce excessive sitting, you can add up to 2 years of your life expectancy. So if you want to have a longer life span, then make it a habit to stand more than sitting. If you want greater health benefits, opt to run as you can burn more calories.
Do you know that around 40,000 cases of colon cancer and about 50,000 cases of breast cancer every year are due to inactivity? And even if you engage in regular exercise, you are still at a higher risk of getting cancer if you are used to prolonged sitting (13).
If you make standing a routine, you will have a reduced risk of inflammation. It can also help in improving your circulation. And yes, prolonged sitting is one of the biggest factors of cancer. So if you want to prevent cancer, you should be more active to burn more calories.
A study shows that people who are fond of sitting and standing experience lesser back pain. But those people who sit throughout the day usually experience chronic back pain (14). Another study also shows that people who shift their positions from sitting to standing every 30 minutes experience less fatigue and back discomfort (15).
We already discussed how a sedentary lifestyle, such as prolonged sitting, can lead to various health diseases. It cannot be denied, but if we are facing heavy workloads and desk jobs, we tend to sit throughout the day just to finish them.
Yes, we have to face our tasks, but we should make sure that we also find time to stand even just for two hours. If possible, we should stand for four hours for every workday (16). Just make it a goal to stand, walk, or even do stretching during those times allocated for standing.
Here are some of the ways to stand more at work (17):
There are many ways on how you can burn calories, such as exercising, building muscles, drinking caffeinated black or green tea, eating breakfast, and not skipping meals. The calories you burn may also depend on various factors such as age, sex, daily activity, body composition, weight, thermogenesis, pregnancy, and breastfeeding.
Furthermore, the calories you burn are higher when standing than sitting. Imagine burning about 100 to 200 calories by mere standing. If you are a woman, you can burn up to 691 calories, and if you are a man, you can burn up to 762 calories by standing and sitting for 4 hours each.
Not only standing can help you burn more calories, but it is also linked to various health benefits such as the decreased risk of weight gain, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, metabolic disease, chronic back pain, cancer, much worse death. So if you want to avoid these health issues, you should learn how to stand more at work.
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