Newswise — In studies of large groups of people in the population, it appears those who stand up more times over the course of the day are a little slimmer than those who stand up less frequently. It is not clear why this is the case. The investigators of this study undertook a research study to assess whether standing up more often, while keeping the total amount of time spent standing up the same, influenced the number of calories burnt over the course of the day in a group of 10 overweight men. Standing for 15 minutes at a time over the day increased the number of calories burnt by 10.7 percent, but standing more frequently for 1.5 minutes at a time increased calorie burn by 20.4 percent over sitting. This suggests that the number of times you stand up as well as the total amount of time you spend standing affects the number of calories your body is burning, so there may be body-weight benefits from getting up on your feet as many times as you can during the day.

For more information about this research, view the abstract or contact the investigator.