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30.06.2018 Health & Fitness

How Sitting For Longer Hours Can Be Unhealthy For You

By Lifehacker.com
Photo culled from Lovebscott.comPhoto culled from Lovebscott.com
30.06.2018 LISTEN

Do you sit in an office chair or on your couch for more than six hours a day? Then here are some disturbing facts: Your risk of heart disease has increased by up to 64 percent . You're shaving off seven years of quality life . You're also more at risk for certain types of cancer . Simply put, sitting is killing you . That's the bad news. The good news: It's easy to counteract no matter how lazy you are.

Let's start with the basics. Since childhood you've known being a couch potato is bad. But why? Simply put, our bodies weren't made to sit all day. Sitting for long periods of time, even with exercise, has a negative effect on our health. What's worse, many of us sit up to 15 hours a day . That means some of us spend the bulk of our waking moments on the couch, in an office chair, or in a car.

Sitting all day long isn't hard to counteract, but you have to keep your eye on two details: your daily activity and the amount of time you sit. Let's start by taking a look at what sitting all day does to your body.

An Estimated Timeline of the Effects of Sitting
It's difficult to get an accurate assessment of what sitting all day will do to you because the effects work in tandem with diet and other risk factors. So we're going to start with a relatively healthy person who does not drink in excess, smoke, and who isn't overweight. Then we'll estimate the effects of sitting for over six hours a day based on what starts happening immediately after you sit down. For a general overview of the effects, take a look at this chart from Medical Billing and Coding to see a breakdown of what that happens in your body when you sit down. (If the majority of your sitting time takes place at a desk, keep in mind that a standing desk has its own problems , too.)

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