Most people in the UK spend long amounts of time sitting down. At work, many of us have jobs where we sit at a desk all day. At home, we are spending more time doing sedentary activities like watching television, surfing the Internet or reading.
Spending long periods of time sitting down can contribute to weight gain. But breaking up the time you spend sitting will help you control your weight.
People often feel that they don’t have enough time to be more active. And for many of us, it is indeed difficult to find a large block of time to devote to activity.
But activity need not be done in a single energetic bout - frequent, smaller movements can also be beneficial to your health.
You can be more active each day by doing bits of housework like cleaning or washing, doing chores like putting the rubbish out, changing your working day so you spend less time sitting down, or even fidgeting. When it comes to activity, every little bit counts if it means you are sitting less.
Incorporating small changes into your lifestyle will increase the amount of movement and activity you do each day. If you lead a very inactive lifestyle, your first goal should be to reduce the amount of time you spend sitting down. Try and seize the small opportunities to work a bit more activity into your schedule. Here are some tips for doing this:
Our Ten Top Tips page has more advice on reaching a healthy body weight through healthy eating and physical activity. Ten Top Tips is a programme for weight loss through lifestyle changes that you can fit into your daily routine.