The modern lifestyle is a mostly sedentary one with most people spending more time on their backside than on their feet. All this sitting with little or no exercise is doing a lot of harm to the body and can affect the health negatively.
Basically, sitting is a normal human body posture, and when people work, socialise, study or travel, they often do so in a seated position. It’s second nature.
However, it’s the amount of sitting that’s the problem as it can be harmful if you do too much of it – and these days, our lifestyles encourage most people to sit more.
Over half of the average person’s day is spent sitting, doing things like driving, working at a desk or watching television.
Infact, the typical office worker may spend up to a whopping 15 hours per day sitting. Agricultural workers, on the other hand, only sit about three hours a day – sitting does not burn plenty calories
Your everyday non-exercise activities, like standing, walking and even fidgeting, still burn calories.
This energy expenditure is known as non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), the lack of which is an important risk factor for weight gain.
Sedentary behaviour, like sitting or lying down, involves very little energy expenditure. It severely limits the calories you burn through NEAT.
When it comes to weight management, the fewer calories you burn, the more likely you are to gain weight.
This is why sedentary behaviour is so closely linked to obesity. Infact, research shows that obese individuals sit for an average of two hours longer each day than lean people do.
