Standing for six hours a day may help you lose weight: study

Standing for six hours a day could help people actually lose weight, a study has found.
Prolonged sitting has been linked to the obesity epidemic, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, researchers said.
For the study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, researchers analysed results from a total of 46 studies with 1,184 participants in all.
Participants, on average, were 33 years old, 60 per cent were men, and the average body mass index and weight were 24 kilogrammes per square meter and 65 kilogrammes, respectively.
"Standing not only burns more calories, the additional muscle activity is linked to lower rates of heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes, so the benefits of standing could go beyond weight control," said Professor Francisco Lopez- Jimenez, Chief of Preventive Cardiology at the Mayo Clinic in the US.

The gap in energy expenditure between standing and sitting could be even greater than the study found. The participants were standing still, while in reality people make small movements while standing.

"Our results might be an underestimate because when people stand they tend to make spontaneous movements like shifting weight or swaying from one foot to another, taking small steps forward and back," Lopez-Jimenez. said.
"People may even be more likely to walk to the filing cabinet or trash bin," he said.
The researchers concluded that replacing standing for sitting could be yet another behaviour change to help reduce the risk of long term weight gain.