{"id":252279,"date":"2025-10-26T08:03:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T08:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/252279\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T08:03:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T08:03:07","slug":"just-half-an-hour-less-of-sitting-each-day-can-boost-energy-and-metabolism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/252279\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Half an Hour Less of Sitting Each Day Can Boost Energy and Metabolism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"by Getty Images For Unsplash+<\/p>\n

Cutting your couch time by 30 minutes every day would give you an energy boost by improving metabolism, according to new research.<\/p>\n

It shows that reducing the time you\u2019re seated can improve your body\u2019s ability to utilize fats and carbohydrates for energy production.<\/p>\n

Study author Dr. Taru Garthwaite explained that it\u2019s particularly beneficial for people who are physically inactive and have an increased risk of heart diseases and diabetes.<\/p>\n

Previous research has shown that mixing an unhealthy diet with a \u201ccouch potato\u201d lifestyle is particularly hazardous, as energy intake can exceed the body\u2019s energy expenditure, increasing the risk of diabetes and heart issues.<\/p>\n

Such lifestyle habits affect the body\u2019s ability to switch between fats and carbohydrates as a source of energy, known as metabolic flexibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cA healthy body burns more fat at rest, but after meals and during high-intensity exercise, the main source of energy shifts to carbohydrates,\u201d said Garthwaite<\/a> of the University of Turku, Finland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf metabolic flexibility is impaired, blood sugar and lipid levels can rise and, instead of being used for energy production, excess fat and sugars may be directed to storage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study, published in the<\/a> Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, involved 64 sedentary adults with multiple risk factors for heart disease and diabetes.<\/p>\n

The intervention group was instructed to reduce sitting by an hour each day by increasing standing and physical activity in daily life, without starting intentional exercise training.<\/p>\n

The control group was instructed to continue their usual sedentary lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Sitting and physical activity were monitored using accelerometers for six months.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur results suggest encouragingly that reducing sedentary behavior and increasing even light daily physical activity \u2013 for example, standing up for a phone call or taking short walks \u2013 can support metabolic health and potentially help prevent lifestyle diseases in risk groups,\u201d said Garthwaite.<\/p>\n

She says physically inactive people can benefit from even a small increase in physical activity.<\/p>\n

The intervention group aiming to reduce sedentary behavior managed to reduce sitting by an average of 40 minutes per day.<\/p>\n

As there were significant differences between the participants within the groups in terms of reducing seated time, the researchers also looked at the results based on the actual, achieved changes.<\/p>\n

Those participants who successfully reduced sedentary time by at least half an hour showed improvements in metabolic flexibility and fat burning during light-intensity exercise compared to those who remained highly sedentary.<\/p>\n

And the more the participant increased their standing time, the more their metabolic flexibility improved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe positive metabolic effects of reducing sedentary behavior are likely to apply mainly to those who are physically inactive and already have excess weight and an elevated risk of disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven greater benefits can be achieved by following the physical activity recommendation of 2.5 hours of moderate-intensity activity each week\u2014but even a small increase in physical activity is beneficial, especially for those who are not physically active.\u201d<\/p>\n

SEND YOUR FRIENDS The HEALTH TIP By Sharing on Social Media\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Getty Images For Unsplash+ Cutting your couch time by 30 minutes every day would give you an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[985,3149,337,97,8982,269],"class_list":{"0":"post-252279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-diabetes","9":"tag-disease","10":"tag-fitness","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-heart","13":"tag-nutrition"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}