Office workers could lose almost half a stone every year by doing this on the job

Pass.

Working in an office is grand. You sit, you make tea, you type away, everyone has the craic for at least 20 minutes of the day. It's sound. The one thing, though, that makes office work a little bit less than ideal is that you're stuck sitting at your desk all day. Sitting for so long can cause back pain, tiredness and, as it turns out, weight gain because apparently if we were standing around for the office for six hours every day instead of sitting, we could lose almost half a stone every year. It's just that simple! Well, actually it's not simple at all because who in their right mind would want to be stood at their desk all day. Not us, anyway. According to research published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology, standing for at least six hours each day saw participants lose an extra 54 calories a day. Work that out for the year and you're down almost half a stone. Pretty nice if anyone had the energy for it. The data was compiled from 1,000 men and women with an average age of 33-years-old and an average weight of 10 stone. Study author, Professor Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, said that the benefits of standing go beyond just losing weight. He said:

“Standing not only burns more calories, the additional muscle activity is linked to lower rates of heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes, so the benefits of standing could go beyond weight control. "It's important to avoid sitting for hours at a time. Standing is a very good first step, no pun intended, to avoid this mindset of sitting interminably without moving. “Who knows, it may also prompt some people to do a little more and take up some mild physical activity, which would be even more beneficial.”