NMMR-for those of you with a desk job

jessica490 · May 2014

Brought to you by a co-worker who recently got a "standing desk" in his cube where I work. He was showing me this Mayo clinic article that talked about how if you sit for more than 2 hrs a day, your risk for certain diseases rises to 50% (and this is only SLIGHTLY lowered if you work out at a gym regularly as well). I know sitting is bad for you, but he got my paranoia going again.....

For those of you who sit all day at a desk, what things that you do to keep yourself from sitting all day?

What are your tips?

athlete010688 · May 2014

Thanks for asking this...I'm anxious to hear some responses!

I sit at a desk all day long. Some days, I do have to get up and walk around the warehouse; other days I don't. I try and at least stand up...It gets old sitting after awhile!!

hoffse · May 2014

I bought a fitbit zip that I wear under my clothes (attached to my bra). It's a tiny pedometer, and it's great. Picks up most of my steps, but doesn't pick up things like bumpy roads when driving, etc. Somehow it can usually tell the difference. I walk about 3000-3500 steps per day at the office, and I can check my progress on my phone (so I don't have to look down my shirt...) to know how well I'm doing. It usually motivates me to walk more.

You're supposed to hit 10,000 steps per day to stay in good health - so usually when I get home I call my parents and walk laps around the apartment complex to get it closer to 10,000. One lap around my complex is almost exactly 1,000 steps.

During the week I don't usually hit 10,000 outright, but I can often get close. On the weekends I make a bigger effort to hit 10,000.

I have coworkers with the standing desk. I've thought about doing it - it's just that I am on the computer writing memos and researching all day long, so I do need to sit to do that comfortably. Most of my colleagues with standing desks are partners. They tend to be answering emails or making phone calls most of the day - so it works better with that they are doing.

The disease risk thing doesn't really alarm me - they will be correlative, not necessarily causal. And the reality is that people who sit at a desk also tend to be sedentary in other ways and/or may have negative eating tendencies (like eating fast food for lunch). To me, the standing desk is more important for how many calories you burn over sitting all day long - standing vs. sitting has you burn significantly more calories.

jessica490 · May 2014

Good points. I've started walking on my breaks and at lunchtime, I also make many trips to the fax/printer, breakroom, restroom (I try to drink a lot of water) so I hope that it's helping some. I have a crappy pedometer, but I should get a good one because I'm very curious to see how many steps a day I walk. I think I can get one with my health insurance points for free.

IAmSherlocked · May 2014

I love the pedometer idea that hoffse suggested. I sort of have the same point of view--I'm not too worried about just sitting since I think there are a lot of factors at play when you read those studies, but I also try to maintain a healthy lifestyle because it makes me feel better.

I too sit at a desk all day on the computer for my normal 8-5 job, and then my part time job has me sitting sitting in front of my laptop writing, so I probably spend about 10-12 hours a day sitting--bleh. Luckily I have some flexibility since I work from home mostly but if I don't make a point to get up an move I find myself sitting in the same position for hours at a time (when I worked at an office it was actually easier for me to find excuses to get up--someone always needed help with something, no one could ever figure out how to unjam the copier, etc).

I try to go for a walk after work (my puppy has been a great inspiration for this since he always has tons of energy), and also do yoga or go for a swim in the morning. When possible I try to take a short walk around my block every hour and a half or so. If I'm on the phone with clients I walk around the house instead of sitting, little things like that. It's not much, but it seems to give me a little more energy if I move at least a little bit.

vlagrl29 · May 2014

when I use to work at a desk I would make sure I worked out after work a few days a week. Co Workers would sometimes workout during their lunch hour. I personally started gaining weight just from sitting down all the time. Now I'm smaller than before I was pregnant. It's very important to still be active if you sit down most the day.

formerlyGDaisy09 · May 2014

Actually @hoffse I think the Mayo Clinic controlled for things like diet and other confounders. if they were able to see a small decresase in risk for those who go to the gym, I would guess they had ways to measure and cotrol for other activity. if those things were controlled for things like diet and lifestyle wouldn't be confounding.

I have a desk job, I try to get up and stretch every hour or so...or take a trip to the coffee machine, bathroom, etc. I have seriously considered a standing desk...my employer won't purchase one for me, so I'd have to cover the cost myself.

maple2 · May 2014

I haven't made the leap to a standing desk though I hope to eventually. DH has one that is adjustable so that he can take sitting breaks if and when he needs to, so it doesn't have to be an all or nothing thing. I sit on a yoga ball at work. That adds at least some movement to my sitting, though I am sure standing would be healthier. I also make sure to do 10-15 minutes of "exercise" every 2-3 hours. I may go for a walk, run the stairs, do yoga, stretch, whatever. My understanding of these studies is like gdaisy's in that even after controlling for lifestyle and diet, there is still a strong correlation between prolonged sitting and poor health outcomes. I may be misremembering, but I thought people who exercised regularly but sat most of the day at work were worse off than people who did less sitting and less exercising. The conclusion I remember reading was that you can't just exercise away the health risks of too much sitting.

hoffse · May 2014

Gdaisy09 said:

Actually @hoffse I think the Mayo Clinic controlled for things like diet and other confounders. if they were able to see a small decresase in risk for those who go to the gym, I would guess they had ways to measure and cotrol for other activity. if those things were controlled for things like diet and lifestyle wouldn't be confounding.

I have a desk job, I try to get up and stretch every hour or so...or take a trip to the coffee machine, bathroom, etc. I have seriously considered a standing desk...my employer won't purchase one for me, so I'd have to cover the cost myself.

From what I saw, the Mayo clinic reports are from a collection of external studies that primarily measured things like obesity & TV time. Did Mayo actually replicate the studies? I'm certainly not arguing that sittingis better than moving. But to somehow come to the conclusion that 2 hours is the magic number just seems like a stretch to me. Nothing I've read says that by the way - but it's what the OP mentioned in this study her coworker showed her.

All I'm saying is that even when controlling for diet, lifestyle (no idea how you actually manage to control for "lifestyle" by the way) - these studies show no more than correlation. And controls can only be managed for a limited period of time when the test subjects are humans. Maybe the cause of the increased risk of disease in the sitting group was actually all the aspertame they drank in diet sodas for the 10 yearsbefore the study began? Or maybe it's living in a house that was formerly owned by smokers? Sitting around all day surely plays into it - but to what degree?

I just think that people shouldn't be so alarmed by articles like that.

formerlyGDaisy09 · May 2014

Ok, I looked a little closer at the Mayo article. it looks like it's a registry study, with an N of 5000 people. I guess I can't say they controlled for things without knowing what was asked in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. If they asked questions to begin to document lifestyle type choices they can use statistics to control for any of those vairables they asked about, however what's on the Mayo website doesn't contain any statistical measures and seems like just a summary article, it doesn't have a link to a more comprehensive paper.

I suppose as one of the leading research hospitals in the country I was giving Mayo more credit than I should have for publishing robust research (still possible it is, but can't know without seeing some stats)

I'm guessing the nutitionists who did this registry study looked at aspartame. I wrote a white paper on aspartame-sweetened beverages last year, RDs are convinced that aspartame/sucrolse/etc are not good for us, but as of March 2013 I couldn't find any research showing that aspartame is worse than sugar.

BTW, love this discussion, always question research, especially a lot of the "junk science" that gets posted on social media.

KatieCutie05 · May 2014

"if you sit for more than 2 hrs a day, your risk for certain diseases rises to 50%"

thats just rediculous. i'm all for not sitting 9 hours straight every day... and hey getting up and taking a walk at lunch or something. and admittedly i havent seen the article but i mean c'mon EVERYONE sits for 2 hours a day. everyone. If you said 8 then i'd probably understand. But think about it even sitting for a 3 hour movie then would give you some disease.

jessica490 · May 2014

I know....everything is bad for us one way or another....

Mom987 · May 2014

I have a desk job and I know that I need to get up and move around more. I have 2 different people I could go "visit" but I also like to be really efficient and focus a lot. I don't really go on walks and I eat lunch at my desk, so that also doesn't help.

blondie42107 · May 2014

I have a Fitbit Flex. I try to get up from my desk at the top of every hour and walk for a bit. Helps rest my eyes from the computer as well. I also spend time on the road most days at work so I get a mix of sitting, walking and driving.

tigerfighter · May 2014

I try to drink lots of water while at work, as our bathroom is outside of my company's office, so it gives me time to walk, and then walking to refill my cup (which is right next to my desk). I also do Krav Maga and kickboxing, but I may need to cut one out for the time being due to finances.

NMMR-for those of you with a desk job

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