One study after another has proven that sitting is bad for you. This daily “activity” of yours is linked to worse mental health, a higher risk of having heart disease and even a shorter life expectancy. It also slows down your metabolism, gives you high blood pressure and adds just a few more pounds to your mid-section.
Apart from lying down, sitting down probably uses up the least number of calories. Fidgeting or eating a banana uses up more calories. And when you keep repeating that activity every day for a considerable amount of time, those effects are likely to pop out of their minimal-show pretense.
Chronic sitters have it way worse than most of sedentary workers, but it doesn’t mean that they’re in any less trouble. You are probably worrying about your crazy weight gain every day, and how it just won’t go down. Here are some problems that you’re facing that are probably caused by your every day sitting regime in front of the television:
Watch that waistline
If you sit around a lot, it is quite likely that you’ll slowly notice tires around your waist, one after another, dropping an extra five pounds on that weight machine of yours.
It makes you hungry
You might think that sitting is, in fact, going to help you not be hungry. However, the reality could not be further from this. A new research has shown that your level of activity has no effect at all on your appetite, so if you thought that your calorie intake has gone down a notch since you started parking your bottom on the couch every evening, you were wrong. That is also the reason why you’ve been complaining about that weight gain. It’s not rocket science.
It messes with your digestion
When you sit down for long periods of time after a meal, sometimes those digestive juices fling back into the esophagus, giving you a heart burn. This, unfortunately, also means your food takes longer to digest and that is going to hurt your metabolism too.
Take a break
If you think not sitting is the solution, you’re wrong. It is suggested that you break up your sitting time keeping in mind that you should get up and take a nice walk around the house every 30 minutes or so, that is, between two sitcoms.
Couch potato
Try to replace your couch with a standing desk, and keep reminding yourself to sit less. Use the TV commercial breaks to go get yourself a small glass of water so that your trips to the dining room are more frequent. Once you start sitting less, you’ll be more open to the idea of finally using your gym membership. Good luck!