How many hours a day do you spend sitting down? You should count the hours of sitting when you are at work, having a meal, or enjoying your favorite shows on TV upon getting home. How many hours is your average per day?
Most people spend around 8 hours a day sitting down (at work or in school). Aside from those regular sitting hours, people also spend around 2 to 3 hours a day sitting down while enjoying a meal or snacking on some goodies. Then, back at home, they spend another 2 to 3 hours a day watching TV, checking emails, chatting with friends, doing homework or preparing for a presentation, etc.
And you are forgetting something: how about the hour or so spent sitting down on any mode of transportation to get to and from work/school?
So, to sum it up, people usually spend around 12 to 16 hours sitting down each day. The rest of these hours are spent sleeping (around 8 hours) and other non-sitting activities.
Now, how much time do we spend in exercise and other physical activities? Sadly, most of us could not even allocate 30 minutes a day to do any form of exercise because of our busy schedule.
According to a fact-filled video by AsapSCIENCE, too much sitting is dangerous to your health! Though this is not as dangerous as adrenaline pumping activities like bungee jumping off a cliff or diving down a waterfall, it is still so hazardous that sitting just 6 hours per day for some 10 to 20 years could reduce your life expectancy by 7 years!
In contrast, the video claims that if people only sit around 3 hours a day, then their life expectancy is increased by 2 years.
It seems that the human body is not wired to do a lot of sitting down – perhaps we were meant to stay as hunter-gatherers? Hmmmm.
Check out the scientific explanations as to why too much sitting is dangerous to your health:
