We’re breaking records here in America, but it’s not for any remarkable achievement. Just when you thought Americans couldn’t get any fatter . . . we have! A new Gallup poll has found that almost 1/3 of us are now obese. Gallup-Healthways began this survey in 2008, at which time 25.5% of the American population was obese. Since then, the percentage has been inching up and reached 27.7% in 2014.

While obesity is a multi-causal problem , Never Be Fat Again for a comprehensive approach), one factor is surely how sedentary we’ve become. It’s very possible to go through a day without moving much at all: roll out of bed and sit for our breakfast, drive to work, sit at a computer all day with a break for a sit-down lunch, then home in the car to sit at the dinner table and spend an evening watching the tube.

While we view such a day as normal, it is really isn’t. According to Steve Lohr, in The New York Times, even office workers in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, like clerks, accountants, and managers, mostly stood as they worked.

And the common assumption that spending at least half an hour most days day engaged in moderate-to-vigorous exercise can compensate for all this sitting turns out to be wrong. While exercise is good, according to Marc T. Hamilton, PhD, of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a leader in the new field of “inactivity physiology,” there’s a detrimental physiology at work when you sit for protracted periods of time that is harmful whether you exercise or not. For example, levels of lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme that helps burn fats to produce energy, go way down. Not only does this encourage obesity, but it also has detrimental effects on metabolic markers like cholesterol and blood sugar.

All of this has led some to call sitting the “new smoking,” a serious risk factor for obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and even earlier death.

What to do? Lohr describes novel work stations that allow shifting from sitting to standing, or even attach desks to treadmills or unicycles. However there may be an easier solution.

Joan Vernikos, PhD, author of Sitting Kills, Moving Heals is an exercise physiologist who worked with astronauts at NASA and later conducted experiments on mitigating the effects of long-term bed rest. She says all we really need to do is stand up and move around a bit 36 times throughout the day to prevent the negative consequences of sitting.

Moving in opposition to gravity is the key, at various intervals throughout the day, maybe every 15 minutes. The more you move against gravity, and the more varied the movement, the better. Dr. Vernikos recommends “playing” with gravity and becoming inventive: stooping, squatting, reaching, bending, stretching, jumping, etc.

It just makes sense. Our bodies were designed to move. That’s why we enjoy dancing. We just need to take little dance breaks throughout the day!