Don’t Fall Prey to Couch Potato Syndrome
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We know. You’ve heard “sitting is the new smoking” so many times you’re ready to throttle someone. “I can’t help it,” you may want to say. “Is it my fault my job keeps me sitting at a desk
for 50 hours a week?” To some people, even regular exercisers, the health curse of sedentary behavior has been starting to feel like a death sentence.
But an important new analysis finally has good news for desk jockeys. The research, which focused on 16 studies of the risk of sedentary behavior, found that 60 to 75 minutes of
moderate-intensity physical activity each day eliminates the elevated risk of death from sitting too much. But the news isn’t great for couch potatoes: People who watch three hours or more
per day still have an elevated risk, no matter how much they work out.
“60 to 75 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each day eliminates the elevated risk of death from sitting too much.”
“I had expected that physical activity would mitigate the hazards of sitting,” says I-Min Lee, M.D., a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and one of the authors. “What was more
unexpected to me is that with enough activity, the hazard of sitting for mortality can be completely eliminated.”
She says it isn’t clear why TV sitting is much harder to counter with exercise than other types of sitting. One possibility? “Long hours that people spend watching TV may be a marker of a
more unhealthy lifestyle in general, including being less likely to exercise,” she says. The studies all focused on people 45 and older, and she says it’s also possible that unlike younger
people, who are more likely to be watching videos throughout the day, “older people usually watch TV in the evenings after eating dinner, which might affect their metabolism.” And there’s
always the chance that people snack more while watching TV.
How Much Exercise Do You Need?Gym rats are breathing a sigh of relief at this news, while couch potatoes are likely to view 60 to 75 minutes of exercise a day as impossible.