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Five Reasons You Should Switch to a Standing Desk
By: Scottsdale Weight Loss Center
Published: May 9, 2019
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Sitting for extended periods of time is one of the worst habits you can have for your health. Research has repeatedly shown that prolonged sitting increases your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.
Breaking up your sitting into smaller chunks of less than half an hour can have tons of benefits for your health. However, sometimes sitting is unavoidable like when you’re on long flights or commuting to work. If you work at a desk, it’s easy to spend more than ten hours a day sitting at home and in the office. By switching to a standing desk, you can drastically reduce your number of seated hours.
- Standing Desks Lower Your Risk of Obesity. When you’re sitting at your desk, your body is essentially idling and burning the minimum amount of calories it needs for survival. However, when you’re standing, your body has to activate muscles in your legs and core which increases the number of calories you burn. Even if you only burn off a few extra hundred calories per day over the course of a year, it quickly adds up.
- Standing Desks Reduce Back Pain. Sitting with poor posture is an excellent way to put extra pressure on your spine. Your spine is like a tower of Lego blocks balanced on top of each other. When you slump your head forward or tip the tower of blocks, the tower is likely to break somewhere close to the bottom, at your lumbar vertebra. A study published by Pronk et al. found that by reducing sitting time by 224% per day, they were able to reduce the incidence of back and neck pain by 54%
- Standing Desks May Increase lifespan. By switching to a standing desk, you may actually add years to your life. A study published in 2009 by Katzmarzyk et al. examined 17,000 adults for an average of twelve years and found a correlation between the amount of time sitting and risk of mortality from natural death.
- Standing Desks Improve Insulin Sensitivity. When you sit for an extended period of time without breaks, your body becomes more resistant to insulin. A study by David Dunstan and his colleges found that participants who sat for five hours without a break had plasma insulin levels 20% higher than in participants who broke up sitting. Even after an hour or two of continuous sitting, there were noticeable differences in the insulin levels between the group who took breaks and the group who didn’t. A standing desk helps break up your sitting throughout the day even if you chose to sit at times.
- Standing Desks May Increase Productivity. One of the main concerns with standing desks is that they may hurt productivity in the workplace. However, one study published in 2009 by Husemann et al. found that there was no increase in spelling mistakes or word processing speed when workers switched to a standing desk. There may even be potential for improvements in productivity because standing increases mental alertness. More research needs to be done to be conclusive.
Investing in a standing desk is an investment in your health. By sitting less you will not only lower your risk of heart disease, but you may also improve your body composition. When choosing a desk, finding a model that gives you the option to sit for part of the day so that you can transition into full time standing.
Nick
Nick's Story
"I wish I would have come here first. We spend all our time reacting to the next great weight loss tip or program. It might work for a while, but does not last and we end up yo-yoing from one fad to the next – as we gain more weight." Read More
Gina
Lost 44.5 lbs
"I had no trouble adhering to the meals and they really helped catapult my progress! The classes were so beneficial to me because they helped change my thinking about how I viewed health, nutrition, and fitness.
I will always have my relationship with Scottsdale Weight Loss Center. They truly helped me change my life forever." Read More
Lauren
Lost 60 lbs
"Dr. Ziltzer and everyone who I have come in contact with at the Scottsdale Weight Loss office have been so encouraging and I look forward to seeing them each week. It is now a year and 2 months later since I started. I am down 60 lbs., which is the average amount a 9-year-old weighs, it is crazy to think I lost a whole person! I feel amazing, I hit my goal weight in November 2021 just before Thanksgiving. Nothing on my body hurts anymore..." Read More
Chuck
Lost 66 lbs
"The best thing I did was call the Scottsdale Weight Loss Center. I have a lot more energy, I'm not hungry, and it feels great.
You can take it from me that this is a program that produces results. The staff is always positive, supportive, and never judgmental.
Your visits always result in positive reinforcement, no matter if you had a good week or a bad week." Read More
Emily
Lost 101 lbs
"Here I am at the lowest I have been since high school weighing in at 155lbs. I have lost 101 lbs, BMI of 39 when I started, to 21.6, and of course at body fat % of 47.1 to 26.5%. I told myself by my 30th birthday I wanted to be confident in the way I look and I owe it all to SWLC. The entire staff is so welcoming and they are rooting for you just as much as you are rooting for yourself...." Read More
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Meet Our Team
Robert Ziltzer, MD, FACP, FAAP, FOMA
Obesity Medicine Certified Physician
Diana Bone, FNP-C
Specializing in Obesity Medicine
Craig Primack, MD, FACP, FAAP, MFOMA
Obesity Medicine Certified Physician
Kristen Ash, FNP-C, FNP-BC
Nurse Practitioner
Alicia Earley, FNP-C
Family Nurse Practitioner
