Standing at Work Could Aid Weight Loss

Standing instead of sitting while at work could potentially help prevent long-term weight gain among individuals living a sedentary lifestyle, according to a recent systematic review and meta-analysis.

For their review, the researchers evaluated 1184 participants enrolled in 46 studies that had compared the energy expenditure of standing vs sitting. Patient data were obtained from Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar.
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A random effects model was used to calculate mean differences, and predefined subgroup analyses were conducted based on participant characteristics and study design.

The researchers found that the mean difference in energy expenditure between standing and sitting was 0.15 kcal/min, with a difference of 0.1 kcal/min for women and 0.19 kcal/min for men.

Ultimately, these findings indicated that a 143.3-lb person could expend an additional 54 kcal/day by substituting standing with sitting for 6 hours per day, noting that this difference in energy expenditure would translate into the energy content of about 5.5 lbs of body fat mass in 1 year.

“The substitution of sitting with standing could be a potential solution for a sedentary lifestyle to prevent weight gain in the long term,” the researchers concluded. “Future studies should aim to assess the effectiveness and feasibility of this strategy.”

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Saeidifard F, Medina-Inojosa JR, Supervia M, et al. Differences of energy expenditure while sitting versus standing: A systematic review and meta-analysis [Published online January 31, 2018]. Eur J Prev Cardiol. https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487317752186.