What Is A Sedentary Lifestyle And How To Fix It?

With the rapid advancement in technology, many people now live a sedentary existence. So, what is a sedentary lifestyle? It’s a life where activity and exercise are almost non-existent. A sedentary lifestyle usually creeps up on you undetected. It’s not necessarily an intentional choice; sometimes it just happens.  

Being inactive is associated with several severe health concerns including weight problems, high blood pressure, heart disease and cancers. Other symptoms include feeling tired, irritable and not having enough energy.  

The good news is that a sedentary lifestyle can be fixed just by becoming more active! You’ll then not only become fitter, healthier and happier but you’ll have more stamina to face the challenges of each day!   

This post “What Is A Sedentary Lifestyle And How To Fix It?” offers a treasure trove of great tips for changing your lifestyle. Eating healthier foods alone isn’t going to cut it to help you lose weight. If you want to shed those pounds and have a great looking midsection, then you need to incorporate simple exercise into your life!

What Is A Sedentary Lifestyle?

A person who lives a sedentary lifestyle is one that doesn’t get much physical exercise. Much of the blame for many people being inactive is due to developments in technology.  With the advancement of technology our lives have automatically became less active.

As technology advances, more and more people work in an office environment. This means that many of us sit all day long and focus our attention on a computer screen. Other people spend long hours in conference rooms with colleagues, clients or with patients.  

The development of technology means that more people have direct access to personal transport either their own car, or an Uber. This means that we now rely on door to door transport more than ever before. We no longer walk great distances to catch a bus or a train, instead we jump into a car to get to the train station, to work, or to school.

Once we get home from work or school we tend to sit on the couch. With our feet up, we order UberEats and stream our favorite shows. Or we sit with our eyes glued to our phones to check our social media feed. 

Our leisure time has also been affected by technology.  Instead of being outdoors and active, we prefer to be inactive. We do this by sitting down to watch television, surf the web, read, socialize, or play video games. These sedentary activities are detrimentally affecting our lives!  

What Is A Sedentary Lifestyle: Consequences?

Having a sedentary lifestyle is the cause of many major health problems, weight issues and diseases that can be life threatening. The consequences of leading a sedentary lifestyle can be devastating!

Lack of getting enough physical activity throughout the day coupled with poor nutrition are contributing to global mortality! A medical paper titled  Lack Of Exercise Is A Major Cause Of Chronic Diseases, claims that inactivity has led to an increase of 35 preventable chronic conditions.

Some of these conditions include; obesity, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression, diabetes, migraines, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, colon cancer, premature aging, lack of balance, and inflexibility.  

Living A Healthy Lifestyle

Living a healthy lifestyle involves making time for regular daily exercise which is essential for well-being. This is because physical activity such as walking, running and playing sports, prevents or delays chronic diseases. At the same time exercise increases fitness, stamina, flexibility and general happiness.

Living a healthy life to fix a sedentary lifestyle can be achievable for most people.  There are several easy ways to fix a sedentary lifestyle. One of the easiest ways is to regularly stand rather than sit. You can achieve this by simply setting 30 minute reminders to stand up at your desk. If you regularly catch public transport, try standing instead of grabbing a seat on the bus or train.  

Another way to start living a healthy lifestyle is to walk more often. Mentally go through your daily schedule and identify opportunities when you can take a walk during the day. See if you can increase your activity levels by walking at lunch time. If you have a dog, incorporate more exercise into your day by extending the amount of time that you walk your dog.  

Living a healthy lifestyle can be as easy as making time to exercise before or after work. If you are overweight or obese, combine an increase in movement with a decrease in food consumption.  A decrease in calories consumed combined with an increase in the number of steps you take each day will help you to lose weight.

Increasing your physical activity will help you to burn off more calories than just dieting on its own. Once you increase your mobility you will start to notice some positive changes to your health and weight within 2 to 3 weeks. After 3 to 4 months you will definitely notice that your health and fitness has improved.   

Move Your Body

What is a sedentary lifestyle? It’s one where you forget, or choose not to move your body on a regular basis. An idle body is an unconditioned body that will become diseased and overweight over time. To stop this from occurring and reduce belly fat you need to regularly move your body! 

Standing is better than sitting as it uses more of your body’s muscles. If you don’t already have a standing desk, ask your workplace to provide one for you. To prevent yourself from forgetting to stand, set yourself reminders to stand up every 30 minutes when working at your desk.

While it’s tempting to sit on public transport, living a healthy lifestyle might mean that you should stand for part of your trip.  To improve your stamina, try to move your body for at least 30 minutes every day. One way to move your body is to walk, or ride your bike to work, to the train station, or to the local shops.  

If you must drive, park your car as far away as you can from the entrance to your building. Remember to set aside time to walk at lunchtime, before work, or after work if that suits you better. Another way to move your body is by taking the stairs instead of the lift or escalator. 

When you’re at home, don’t just sit for hours in front of the TV. Get up and stretch or walk around the lounge room during the commercials breaks. Instead of being glued to your social feed, go for a walk or a run around the block. A great way to keep track of how often you move your body is to get yourself a Fitbit fitness tracker.    

Fitbit Fitness Tracker

Unfortunately, many women don’t realize just how inactive they are. Because they feel tired at the end of the day, they wrongly believe that they’ve had enough exercise. That’s until they get a Fitbit fitness tracker. Then the real truth about their daily activity levels is revealed.  

A Fitbit fitness tracker or Fitbit smartwatch is a great way to gauge daily activities. Knowing how often you move your body can alert you to the periods of time when you are inactive. This will enable you to find opportunities to move throughout your day. 

A Fitbit fitness tracker or a Fitbit smartwatch does much more than just count your steps. It helps you begin living a healthy lifestyle by tracking the number of calories you burn, tracking your heart rate, sleep patterns, and distance traveled.

You can use your Fitbit device to set reminders to move your body, or even to set yourself fitness goals. Buy yourself a Fitbit fitness tracker if you want to lose weight, improve your health or you just want to be more active!  

Two features that all Fitbit devices have is the ability to count steps and a reminder to move. I love these features as my personal goal is to walk at least 10,000 steps per day. My hourly reminder to get up and move is a fantastic feature. This is especially handy when I’m busily working on my computer and lose track of time.

If I don’t get up and walk my Fitbit fitness tracker vibrates to remind me to get up and move. Oh, it’s just vibrated, that means that I need to walk 250 steps … I’ll be back soon!   

Get 10,000 Steps Per Day

Health authorities recommend that we should get 10,000 steps per day. The reason we should aim for 10,000 steps is because being physically active has many health benefits. It enables us to become leaner, fitter and healthier in body, mind and soul.  

When you get 10,000 steps per day your whole body benefits. Taking 10,000 steps helps with weight issues. It helps reduce blood pressure, improves heart and lung performance, improves brain health, bone health, slims your midsection and improves your quality of life. 

According to Why 10,000 Steps people are considered to be: ·

• Sedentary: if they take less than 5,000 steps per day.
• Low active: if they take 5,000 to 7,499 steps per day.
• Somewhat active: if they get 7,500 to 9,999 steps per day.
• Active: if they get 10,000 steps per day or more.
• Highly active: if they take more than 12,500.  

For good health get 10,000 steps per day; that equates to walking about 5 miles (8.05 kilometers). However with our sedentary lifestyle it’s difficult for most people to get 10,000 steps per day. That’s why it’s important to use a Fitbit fitness tracker to plan and schedule more movement into your life!

Now that I have a Fitbit fitness tracker, I find that getting 10,000 steps per day is a must. It’s now an ingrained routine almost like brushing my teeth! I crave that magical number and if I haven’t reached 10,000 steps  before bedtime, I run around the house until I do.

The reason that I want to get 10,000 steps per day is because I feel better within myself when I’ve clocked up those steps. Another advantage is that it helps me to burn calories and keep my weight in check.  

How Many Calories Does 10000 Steps Burn?

How many calories does 10,000 steps burn? It’s actually difficult to assess exactly how many calories are burnt because each person is built differently. People are different in age, height, weight, fitness, race, shape, size and gender. These factors all affect how many calories each person burns. 

In addition to the above factors each person is likely to burn a different number of calories every time they get 10,000 steps per day. This is because the number of calories burnt, through physical activity, is affected by external factors such as speed.

It takes roughly 1hr and 20 minutes to take 10,000 steps if you are walking at a moderate rate. If you are walking quickly it takes roughly 1hr and 15mins. 

Other factors which effect how many calories 10,000 steps burn, are terrain and gradient. For example, if you’re walking briskly uphill in rough terrain, you’ll burn more calories than if you are walking slowly downhill on the pavement. 

Regardless of exactly how many calories you burn by taking 10,000 steps per day a general estimate is somewhere between 400 – 500 calories. You could get a better idea of exactly how many calories you burn by using a Wi-Fi smart scale such as Fitbit Aria 2™.  

Fitbit Aria 2™

Purchasing a Fitbit Aria 2 is a great investment if you want a clear picture of your overall health. The Fitbit Aria 2 is an easy-to-use Wi-Fi smart scale.

It measures weight, body fat percentage and BMI all in one step. The Fitbit Aria 2 syncs with the app on your phone. It records your weight wirelessly so you don’t have to enter it.  

Features: 

• Measures weight, body fat percentage, lean mass and BMI.
• Syncs stats wirelessly to computers and 200+ leading iOS and Android devices via Bluetooth.
• Syncs stats automatically to your Fitbit dashboard using Wi-Fi encryption.
• Tracks your progress with simple, easy-to-read graphs.·
• Recognizes up to 8 users while keeping individual stats private.
• Easy Bluetooth setup takes just a few minutes with your smartphone.
• Modern, polished glass surface looks stylish.   

A Fitbit Aria 2 is a must if you want to know how many calories your burn and to keep track of your weight.

Summing Up: What Is A Sedentary Lifestyle

The problem with leading a sedentary lifestyle is that when you don’t get enough exercise, your body, muscles and joints are likely to become diseased. People who aren’t active can develop a range of chronic diseases which can impact negatively on their life. Worse still some people will have a reduced life expectancy due to obesity!

Living a healthy lifestyle isn’t difficult. It’s as easy as regularly moving your body! You don’t have to exercise rigorously.  All you need do is to get 10,000 steps per day. You could do this by walking more often during the day, running, biking, or by participating in a sport.  

A great way to ensure you get 10,000 steps per day is by wearing a Fitbit fitness tracker or Fitbit smartwatch. The Fitbit device not only counts your steps, but sends you notifications to move your body every hour. Being active will not only increase your stamina, but it will improve your fitness, health, well-being and your life!

Do you led a sedentary lifestyle?

What devices do you use to remind you to move your body on a regular basis?