How Sitting can KILL you? YES! It can & It does.

Person A may have low body fat. He may possess excellent strength and stamina. He may be a teetotaler who never smokes. He may eat healthy and take omega-3’s and multivitamins regularly. But Is Mr.A fit and healthy? NOT necessarily!

Research has linked prolonged sitting time with a cluster of health concerns, including obesity, increased blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist & abnormal cholesterol levels. No matter how much you exercise, eat well, avoid smoking, or add other healthy habits, excessive sitting more than six hours a day greatly increases your risk of an early death. 

Did you know that chronic sitting could be compared with smoking and has a similar mortality rate! Prolonged sitting seems to increase the risk of death from Cardiovascular disease and CANCER.

Effects Exposed -

Let's define Sedentary Lifestyle(SeL) as taking fewer than 3000 steps/day.

• SeL is associated with a 112 percent increased risk of diabetes. Researchers studied the effects of just 5 days of bed rest and found increased insulin resistance, a precursor condition to diabetes.
• People who spend more time sitting also have a  147 percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Recent research points out that men who spent more than 23 hours per week watching TV had a 64 percent greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than men who watched TV only for 11 hours. 
• Below data relates positive associations between cancer risk and SeL - 
• – Lung cancer risk increases by 54 percent.
• – Uterine cancer risk increases by 66 percent.
• – Colon cancer risk increases by 30 percent.

Scary! Isn't? The solution seems to be simple - Less sitting and More moving. After all, Human body was designed to move.

Sitting vs Walking

Sitting actually puts stress on your entire kinetic chain, leading to muscular imbalances like tight hip flexors, rounded shoulders, and a forward neck. It can cause breathing problems and put severe stress on your lower back.

The impact that Movements can introduce on your body, can be profound. For starters, you'll start burning more calories. Eg: Walking might lead to weight loss and increased energy overall. Standing and other movements seem to trigger essential processes like breakdown of fats and sugars within our body. 

Make Walking your daily Routine

Try implementing small changes in your routine. Find ways to add steps to your daily routine. Start by simply standing rather than sitting whenever you have the chance. Think about ways to walk while you work. Ideally we need to focus on taking at least 5,000 steps every day and gradually increase it to 10,000 steps.

Try Counting your every Step

Buying a fitness tracking device like Fit bit is definitely a healthy idea (Tracks not only your steps but also gives suggestions regarding the quantity and quality of your sleep). Be sure you are taking at least 5,000 steps daily because fewer steps suggest Sedentary Lifestyle. Aim for a minimum of 7,000 steps but the optimal average lies between 7,000 and 10,000. 

In fact, a daily target of 10,000 steps, is a solid healthy lifestyle habit.