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Sunday 20 October 2019

How to Break Up Your Sitting Time with Movement : Good advice for all


This article by Sheri Colberg-Ochs, Ph.D.
"If you have diabetes or prediabetes and are also out of shape and living a sedentary lifestyle, your doctor might be telling you that it’s time to make a change. 

The good news is that if you’re starting out on the lower end of the fitness and/or activity scale, you have the most to gain from adding in even minimal amounts of daily physical activity. 

The first thing you should consider is adding in more daily living activities and other daily movements. Simply standing up and moving around more can lower your metabolic risk and help control blood glucose levels. 

In fact, you can gain health benefits by cutting back on the total amount of time you spend doing sedentary activities, which you can do by adding frequent, short bouts of standing or other movements to break up the time you spend sitting into smaller chunks. 

This helps even if you’re already physically active. 

Making small changes in your daily activity, such as taking a 5-minute walking break every hour, also likely benefits you if you’re trying to lose weight or keep it off. 

Theoretically, during an 8-hour workday, a person can burn off an extra 24, 59, or 132 calories by simply getting up and walking around at a normal walking pace for one, two, or five minutes every hour, respectively, compared with sitting. 

Even modest amounts of exercise that don’t result in weight loss benefit your body’s ability to metabolize glucose and fat. In short, simply taking breaks from sedentary time is a potential way to lose weight and prevent weight gain, and it may help prevent Type 2 diabetes in the first place. 

Taking frequent breaks from sitting during the day likely also helps prevent or lower your post-meal blood glucose spikes, even if your diabetes is already in good control (an A1C level well below 7.0 percent). 

Studies have also shown that in newly-diagnosed adults with Type 2 diabetes (ages 30-80), the more time that they spent doing sedentary things, the larger their waist size. 

A larger waistline means you have more of the “bad” fat stored inside your abdomen and a greater chance of developing high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, heart disease, and even cancer — it’s always better to have less fat stored there. 

Simply being more active all day long doing regular activities can actually keep you from gaining as much of that bad fat by using up a lot of calories. 

If you do nothing else, just stand up more — it counts as unstructured activity. In one study, the main difference between groups of lean and obese adults was that the obese people sat for about 2.5 hours more per day and walked an average of 3.5 miles less per day than their lean counterparts. 

Those lean adults usually did nothing more than take walks of short duration (less than 15 minutes) and low velocity (about one mile per hour). 

Thus, how long you spend sitting each day and whether you move at all during periods of prolonged inactivity are both critical in determining how well your metabolism works and your blood glucose is controlled. 

Of course, if you progress from taking more frequent breaks in your sedentary time to moving more all day long and engaging in more structured physical activities (especially if you meet the guidelines of doing at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week and two days of resistance training), you will likely gain additional health benefits. 

If you’re currently sedentary, you have to start somewhere, though, and just getting up on your feet can move you well out of the highest health risk category without your ever having to break a sweat. 

A good rule of thumb is to never sit more than 30 minutes continuously without standing up and taking a break—or even better, walking around for a few minutes to minimize the negative metabolic effects of prolonged sitting. 

NOTE: The information is not intended to be a replacement or substitute for consultation with a qualified medical professional or for professional medical advice related to diabetes or another medical condition. Please contact your physician or medical professional with any questions and concerns about your medical condition."

This article above taken from, and can be seen, here

Speaking personally, I think this is good advice for all, whether diabetic, pre-diabetic or not. I'm sure, at times, many of us are 'guilty' of sitting too long … checking phones, emails, reading blogs, books etc. Why not get up and have a move around … better still go out for a walk!

Now where are my walking shoes, and pink coat?


All the best Jan

28 comments:

Tom said...

...good advice.

Valerie-Jael said...

My motto is always keep moving! Valerie

Debbie Harris said...

Great informative post and this is certainly good for everyone.
I've always said, "body in motion" even with aches and pains we must keep our bodies moving.
Thank you for sharing this and the great reminder. :-)

Happy day to you!

Lorrie said...

They say that sitting is the new smoking - our bodies function best when moving.

Elephant's Child said...

Thank you. I try, and a little later this morning will certainly be walking (for the bus, and to appointments).
My mobility is certainly in the use it/lose it category and I hope to hang onto it for a while yet.

William Kendall said...

That is good advice.

Nas said...

I need to follow this advice. The problem is motivation. All the best!

Christine said...

great advice!

peppylady (Dora) said...

Walking does have lot benifits. It also subsribe to those who face depression.
Coffee is on

aussie aNNie said...

Exactly what I do, am on the laptop a lot so every hour or two I get up and move around, play with the dog or go for a walk.x

Iris Flavia said...

The (not) "funny" thing is: It was accepted that smokers go outside at least once an hour to have a cigarette (that takes at least 8 minutes?) - but dare go for a short walk... no.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Good advice for all of us. I force myself to get up every so often when I am on the computer. I can feel my muscles in my shoulders and neck tightening, so need to relax them by moving.

Icy BC said...

I take breaks when my eyes got tired, every two hours or so..It is a good advice to do a bit of movement in between.

Jenny Woolf said...

Good advice. Thanks for the reminder, it is really useful today as it did inspire me to get up and go for a walk!! I've been doing a lot of writing lately and feeling the effects of sitting around. I've stopped all social media (apart from my blog) and online newspapers though, which helps.

Natalia said...

Very useful and wise post, great advice! We should all remember that☺

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Jan and Sheri, this is definitely good advice for anyone, diabetic or not. I've had a cold all week and woke up this morning thinking about this very thing. Sitting and lying about all week, having to skip my usual daily workout, has not been good. I like the idea of getting up and moving around every half hour, as suggested. I've done that before, setting a timer (because I get really engrossed in what I'm doing!) to remind me.

Ygraine said...

I do try to keep moving, Jan...I do aerobic classes and weight training at least three times a week. And I have even been known to go hiking once in a while!😉
However, I do have "lazy times"...when I just sit here with my tablet and can't be bothered to move at all - usually on cold, rainy days! Lol
Great (and timely!) advice here though...many thanks!😊😊

Have a great day!

Hugs xxx

pam nash said...

Good article and excellent advise.

Chatty Crone said...

We were actually talking about this very thing yesterday.

Sue said...

What a great article Jan, the valves in my calves and ankles aren't too good but my veins are so much better when I'm more active xx

Linda said...

It's good advice. I once worked in an office where there wasn't a parking lot and I had to move my car every two hours or get a ticket. I was glad to have a chance to get up and walk outside, drive the car around the corner and re-park it, and walk back to the office.

eileeninmd said...

Hello,

This is great advice and information. I enjoy my walks when the weather is good, but I tend to sit when it is rainy, cold or snowing. Thanks for sharing. Enjoy your day, wishing you a great week ahead.

Snowbird said...

Fab advice Jan. Loving your pic and that glam pink coat!xxx

Debbie said...

awesome advice, i definitely sit way too much. you look great!!!

Phil Slade said...

Good advice as always. Now as i have been sat here at the PC for more than an hour (or two), I'd best go for a break.

carol l mckenna said...

great post and so helpful ^_^

Happy Day to You,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)

Conniecrafter said...

yes I think this has been my problem for the past few months, when it was too hot outside that I couldn't breathe. Now I hope to get back to it

Magic Love Crow said...

Great post Jan! Love the picture of you too! Big Hugs!