Sitting Disease

Even if you think you have an energetic lifestyle, sitting is how most of us spend a good part of our day. And it's killing us-literally-by way of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. All this downtime is so unhealthy that it's giving birth to a new area of medical study called inactivity physiology, which explores the effects of our increasingly butt-bound, tech driven lives, as well as a deadly new epidemic researchers have dubbed "sitting disease".

Electronic living has all but sapped every flicker of activity from our daily lives. You can shop, pay bills, make a living, and with Twitter and Facebook, even catch up with friends without so much as standing up.

When you sit for an extended period of time, your body starts to shut down at the metabolic level. When muscles, especially the big ones meant for movement, like those in your legs, are immobile, your circulation slows and you burn fewer calories. Key flab-burning enzymes responsible for breaking down triglycerides (a type of fat) start switching off. Sit for a full day and those fat burners plummet by 50 percent.

The less you move, the less blood sugar your body uses; and your chance of contracting diabetes goes up 7 percent. Your risk of heart disease goes up, too, because enzymes that keep blood fats in check are inactive. With less blood flow, fewer feel-good hormones are circulating to your brain.

Shake things up throughout the day by interrupting your sedentary stints as often as possible. Stand up every half hour. If you are at home, limit the TV time two hours or less. Better yet, watch it from a treadmill or exercise bike.

Swapping a more active approach for just a few of your daily activities can help stave off the one-to-two pound weight gain most of us accumulate every year.