Most of us have a desk job where we sit for about 8 hours a day. Maybe in the morning or after work you spend about an hour at the gym and another 2 hours running errands and making dinner, but combined with the amount of time Americans spend in the car or on the couch, it adds up to way too much sitting throughout the day.
A study that followed 222,497 adults during their daily life over several years discovered that, over the course of the study, participants who sat for more than 11 hours a day had the highest risk for all-cause mortality, followed by those who sat between 8-11 hours a day and those who sat for less than 4 hours daily had the lowest risk for all-cause mortality.
The scariest thing about these studies are the fact that the effects of sitting this long can NOT be exercised away. Although you burn more calories, you do not increase the overall muscle activity in the body. A different study proved that the muscles of people who are desk workers are inactive for about 70% of the day, regardless if they do planned exercise or not.
The take away point? We need to move more! On average, people currently walk 3,000-4,000 steps per day. According to the World Health Organization's daily activity requirement, we should walk about 10,000 steps daily for general health. And if you are trying to lose weight... increase that number to 20,000 steps per day. A good goal for individuals who are trying to become more active, is to increase average daily steps each week by 500 per day until you can easily average your final goal of 10,000-20,000.
The easiest way to track your number of steps is with a pedometer. Start by wearing one every day for a week from sunrise to when your feet hit the bed. At the end of each day, log how many steps you took in a notebook and find your average daily steps at the end of the week. My guess is you'll be surprised at how many (or should I say how few) steps you took!
You can purchase a basic pedometer at a local sporting goods store for a relatively good price. I like the Omron Pedometer HJ 320 because it uses a pendulum design so that it doesn't miscount steps. With this design you can wear the device wherever it feels best (on your body or even in a purse!). This device also has 7 day memory so you can see how you are progressing over the week.
If you are not ready to spend any money on something like this yet and you have a smart phone, you could always try an app. I use the "Pacer" app from an Iphone. Just be careful to pause the pedometer if you are picking your phone up and down a lot as it may read as a step.
Finally, I love Fit devices such as the FitBit Flex, The Nike Fuelband or the Up by Jawbone. Check those out on a recent blog I did here.
Need some great tips to help you get started?
1. Park in the back of the lot when you get to work or go to the store
2. Take the stairs over the elevator or escalator when possible
3. Go to a different floor/building when you need to use the restroom
4. Set an alarm at your desk to get up and do a lap around the office every hour
5. Fidget while you work at your desk
6. Incorporate walking lunges into your workout routine to burn extra calories while doing bicep curls or an overhead press
7. Schedule a walking work meeting or walk during a conference call
8. Skip the drive through and walk in to get your coffee or lunch
9. Instead of meeting a friend for lunch, meet up for a hike or walk in the city
10. Walk the dog everyday (good chance that if your dog is overweight... you aren't getting enough exercise!)
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