Sitting time associated with cardiometabolic risk markers

Many people spend several hours daily watching television and in addition to that sit the major part of the day at work. The effects of both sitting time and TV viewing were investigated in 2,761 women and 2,103 men by measuring waist circumference, body mass index (BMI), resting blood pressure, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, fasting and 2 hours postload plasma glucose and fasting insulin (Thorp, AA, et al. 2010., Dunstan DW, et al. 2010).

The results showed that sitting time for both men and women was detrimentally associated with waist circumference, BMI, systolic blood pressure, fasting triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, 2 hours postload plasma glucose and fasting insulin.

Most people could probably cut down on TV viewing, but spending hours exercising everyday would not be practical and possible. The good news is that it is not necessary to spend hours exercising everyday to improve these cardiometabolic risk factors.

If you have been reading prior blogs, you may remember research showing equal benefits of short, intensive interval training and much longer, but less intensive training. It showed that just some few minutes of the actual activity 3 times a week could save hours weekly, and it will still produce the same benefits. If you, in addition to that adjusted the way you eat to high nutrients, low glycemic index meals you would see a big difference in your health in just some few weeks.

To read the original abstracts, click on the references below.



References:

Dunstan DW, Barr EL, Healy GN, Salmon J, Shaw JE, Balkau B, Magliano DJ, Cameron AJ, Zimmet PZ, Owen N. Television viewing time and mortality: the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab). Circulation. 2010 Jan 26;121(3):384-91. Epub 2010 Jan 11.

Thorp AA, Healy GN, Owen N, Salmon J, Ball K, Shaw JE, Zimmet PZ, Dunstan DW. Deleterious associations of sitting time and television viewing time with cardiometabolic risk biomarkers: Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle (AusDiab) study 2004-2005. Diabetes Care. 2010 Feb;33(2):327-34. Epub 2009 Nov 16.