'Sittingitis' is the new taboo in the office

Despite the rise of trends such as the mobile workforce and standing desks, sitting down is still a large part of everyday life in the office and at home.

Despite numerous health warnings on the negative effects of prolonged sitting, people continue to sit too much, says a company called Varidesk.

Sitting too much can increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart diseases, poor mental health and even certain cancers.

A new phrase has even been coined to explain the dangers of sitting. That word is 'sittingitis', and it's now the new taboo.

Varidesk says that most people know they sit too much, but the majority do nothing about it. This may be down to work-placed habits and routine leading to sedentary repetition, or the lack of understanding on solutions to break the taboo.

The company says that 78% of office workers feel they sit too much, but only 41% of office workers actually stand for more than 30 minutes per day at work.

Varidesk says there are three steps that will help turn an inactive days into active days. These include:

1.    Take phone calls and meetings while you're standing up. It not only gets your blood flowing faster, it increases your confidence and you'll actually get through the call quicker than taking it if you're sitting down.

2.    Have a walk and eat lunch in the open air. Fresh air really picks you up, your step count will increase and that little walk back to the office will help your blood sugar decreases, reducing afternoon dips in energy.

3.    Adopt a standing desk, using a standing desk has been proven to help reduce blood sugar, improve mental wellbeing and reduce the risk of cardiovascular, even more using standing desk for just 30 minutes per day ca reduce your body weight by a staggering 2.3 kilograms per year. When you consider the average office worker gains 5.4 kilograms on average, it's a good way to burn calories.

In fact if you rotated sitting and standing for a day, you'd burn an additional 50 calories per hour off when standing up, so in 4 hours you'd burn off 200 calories, or 1,000 calories per week.