How many extra calories could you burn while you stand?

As a general rule, we all tend to spend more time sitting during our day than standing; and this is a by-product of the way in which we live our lives. This, in part, can be explained by our use of technology for travel, work and leisure. The increased time spent being sedentary (not moving) has lowered our daily calorie expenditure (In particular our Non-Exercise activity thermogenic; NEAT for short). This combined with increased food availability has resulted in increasing waist lines and body fat percentages; which in turn have associations with a number of metabolic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes.

As a consequence, people and companies are searching for new and innovative ways in which we can improve our health.

In recent times, we have seen the popularity of sit stand desks emerge – this a method of working which allows a person to switch between seated and standing positions. These have been advertised as a means to help your posture and increase your calorie expenditure by extending the time spent on your feet. This article is going to focus on the benefits, if any, that there could be from a calorie expenditure viewpoint.

These claims from standing desk companies have seen a number of studies being performed on them to ascertain whether these have a grounding in science. One study even went a little further to see if the standing and sitting position had any effect on the productivity of a worker, which I think we can all agree is a highly relevant point as it wouldn’t be if being in a standing position reduced your ability to work.

But first things first, what does it do for your calories?

It’s an interesting answer, and one that requires you to take the benefits with a long view. A study published in 2018 suggested that on average (variables that can affect this value being gender and weight) a person can burn on average 9 extra calories per hour by standing versus sitting. Now that doesn’t sound like a tremendous amount, however, the same paper highlighted that by increasing your standing for 6 hours a day, you could expend the number of calories needed to burn 2.5kg of fat per year. When I broke those numbers down it, included 6 extra hours standing every single day which most likely didn’t consider holidays and travel and, I think we can agree, is therefore an unrealistic target. I do think; however, it does convey a message that by standing on a consistent basis you can increase your calorie expenditure; and in the long term that can have positive effects on body composition which can translate to improved health.

Of course, if you are looking for a quicker method to improve your body composition, one of our 6-week transformations or shape off courses may be better suited to your requirements.

The other question I asked was; is there an effect on productivity?

There seems to be a mixture of evidence coming through in the research with some studies suggesting that there is no significant difference in productivity as a result of using stand sit desks. However, there was at least one paper that found standing had no effect on typing tasks, but there was a small negative effect on work performed on spreadsheets when standing. I am not sure this is hugely significant as the joy of the sit stand desk is that you can alternate between the two options depending on your preference and the task at hand.

What can we take from all this?

• Standing desks can slightly increase our daily expenditure and this in turn can contribute to increased fat loss.
• Reduced sitting times can reduce the risk of suffering metabolic diseases such as type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
• It appears to have no significant effects on productivity when working.

This is a growing area of study, with companies interested in how they can keep their workforce healthy. Not everyone will have the availability of a sit stand desk but we can infer from this research that we can all benefit from increasing the time we spend on our feet and should be therefore on the lookout for opportunities in our day to stand or better yet, move; For example, if you are on a phone call or listening into a meeting try and do it while standing or walking – anything that helps us make small strides towards improved body composition and health can only be a positive for ourselves and the people around us.