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Being active doesn’t make up for sitting all day. While getting out and exercising may help lower your risk of a variety of diseases, it doesn’t make up for being inactive all day. “Those who engage in regular physical activity but still spend a large proportion of their day in sedentary activity were found, on average, to be 30% less likely to die of any cause in a given period than were those who get little to no exercise. But even those who punctuate a long day of sitting with a vigorous workout were estimated to be 16% more likely to die of any cause in a given time than were those who do not sit for long.” The risk seemed to hold even if sitting all day didn’t make you heavier. “The amount of time spent sitting was found to drive up health risks independently of other factors that would often contribute to poor health and which might also be linked to sedentary behavior, such as smoking, age and obesity. That suggests, for example, that although long hours spent sitting might indeed contribute to weight gain, it is probably harmful even if it doesn’t make you obese.” The authors recommend “getting up from your desk for one to three minutes every half-hour or so and move around. While watching TV, stand or exercise during the advertisements.”
