Sitting Is Not the New Smoking | Better Humans

Sitting Is Not the New Smoking
It’s time to bury this myth
Smoking is very bad for you. This can’t be debated if you pay any attention to the large body of research testing the effects of smoking.
If we are going to state that another behavior is equivalent to smoking, we better have a substantial amount of evidence backing up the claim.
And we don’t.
First, the act of sitting is not harmful, no matter how “good” your posture is. Taking a broader view, some people will associate sitting with inactivity, explaining desk jobs and screens have increased the amount we sit thus reducing our overall activity.
I’ll bite. We have data showing activity levels are directly linked with our health. We can measure activity through step counts. We can also look at someone's strength and VO2 max (your cardiac fitness) as health markers as developing them requires high levels of physical activity.
So, sitting itself is not the issue here, rather, it is inactivity leading to poor strength, muscle mass, and cardiac capacity. But how much physical activity do we need? Can physical activity reduce the detrimental effects of being sedentary most of the day?
Absolutely.
This robust study showed that 60–75 minutes of moderate to vigorous-intensity activity (a minimum of 4 METs, exercise that makes you breathe a little heavier such as a brisk walk) a day can reverse the effects of sitting 8 hours a day.
The researchers use MET-h/week to measure exercise levels. Resistance training is typically 5–6 METs (moderate to high intensity). If you exercise for 60 minutes at vigorous intensity three times a week, that would be 18 MET-h/week or 1080 MET-min/week (for reference, the physical activity guidelines call for 600–1200 MET-min/week).
If you sit for up to 8 hours a day (a sedentary job), you need six sessions of moderate intensity at 75 min (5 MET) or high intensity at 60 min (6 MET), bringing you to a total of 36 MET-h or 2160 MET-min per week. Keep in mind, that this is only one variable and observational studies cannot account for all contributing factors such as diet, sleep, stress, strength, VO2max, age, smoking history, comorbidities, and genetics.