What happens if you stand for 3 hours a day

About a year after the start of the pandemic, I noticed that all day I was just sitting. No exaggeration! I watched myself for about a week and found out that I spend 12 hours daily in a chair in front of my laptop, on the couch, or at the kitchen table.

At the same time, I used to be very active. For example, I easily walked 10,000 steps every day, commuting to work, walking during my lunch break, or winding circles in the office corridor with the phone to my ear. But in 2020, all these habits disappeared. I think I stopped getting up altogether. The only exceptions were dog walks and infrequent shopping trips.

I wanted to discuss this situation with an expert. After talking with physiotherapist Phung Tran, I found out that the habit of spending a lot of time sitting, to put it mildly, is unsafe.

Are Standing Desks Better for You?. With this lifestyle, it is easy to gain excess weight - up to obesity, and you can also get cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus. But there is a healthier alternative - not to sit, but to stand.

Fung's words impressed me and I decided to stand for at least three hours every day for a week. Here's what came of it.

What Changed When I Started Standing 3 Hours a Day

The goal of the experiment was simple: I wanted to feel energetic and healthy again, as before, before the pandemic. And, in principle, this goal has been achieved.

1. I started to move more and hopefully burn more calories.

It turns out that if you forbid yourself to sit down, you can even walk around a tiny apartment. For example, I answered calls by cutting circles around the bedroom. For comparison: to talk on the phone, I would not rise from a sitting position. Also, moving around the room, I watched TV serials.

I spoke with nutritionist Laura Gilstrap about how this will affect weight. According to her, a man while standing burns 100-200 kcal per hour. For comparison, when we sit, we consume only from 60 to 130 kcal - that is, almost half as much.

(According to other sourcesStanding several hours a day could help you lose weight, Mayo Clinic research finds, the difference in calorie expenditure is not so great: only 0.15 kcal per minute. That is, in an hour spent on his feet, the average person will burn only 9 kcal more. - Approx. ed.)

2. Gone are the back and neck pains

Unpleasant and even painful sensations appeared in me a few months after the beginning of the forced quarantine confinement. It looked like I was overtraining or awkwardly doing some physical exercise. Although there was no training, or even just walking in my life at that time. I wondered: could the pain be the result of sitting too much and looking at the screen?

In search of an answer to this question, I turned to physiotherapist Alice Holland. And I found out: the connection really exists. When we sit, the spine is under increased stress. If held in this position for a long time every day, it can lead to protrusion and even herniated disc - a common cause of back pain.

The load on the spine increases if you sit without controlling your posture. By the way, standing in this sense is much safer.

When I started to stand for three hours a day, my back began to bother me much less. The neck has ceased to ache. And it also seemed to me that the pressure on the vertebrae decreased.

3. I became more energetic

Honestly, it was difficult at first. Firstly, it was difficult to remember every time to get up. Secondly, it was much more comfortable to sit hunched over in a chair. As a result, by the end of the first day, I felt exhausted.

However, by the third day, everything had changed. I felt like I had more energy.

Why is it not worth standing continuously for 3 hours a day?

After a week, during which I spent three hours every day, my health clearly improved. And the discomfort also disappeared: by the end of this quest, I easily watched a TV show or answered work letters while standing.

I hope to keep this habit. But in the future, I will no longer adhere so strictly to the rule about the daily three hours. According to physiotherapist Karena Wu, standing for too long can be harmful.

On the advice of a physiotherapist, I decided to take 10 minute breaks and rest sitting or lying down after every hour I spent standing. Everything should be in moderation.