--- title: This Workplace Trend to Boost Health Might Be Pointless description: The calories you burn standing versus sitting are minimal, according to researchers who question the health benefits of standing desks. authors: - name: Denver Nicks url: https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 60 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Personal Finance - Pets - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://x.com/DenverNicks - https://plus.google.com/105122198911201917932 former_staff: true published: '2016-03-18T15:18:39.000Z' modified: '2023-05-26T13:13:46.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - health - HR - pubdesk - Science - Sitting - standing - standing desk - Workplace word_count: 312 canonical: https://money.com/standing-desks-health-benefits/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![diagram of silhouetted woman at standing desk](https://img.money.com/2016/03/160318_car_standingdesks.jpg) It’s well known that sitting too much shortens life expectancy and increases risk of problems like heart failure and diabetes. But [according to a new study](http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/03/17/470713717/stand-to-work-if-you-like-but-dont-brag-about-its-benefits) published this week it seems treadmill desks, [standing desks](https://money.com/best-standing-desk/), and the like may not be the solution many hoped. “What we actually found is that most of it is, very much, just fashionable and not proven good for your health,” health researcher Dr. Jos. Verbeek told NPR. Verbeek and his co-authors published their [findings](http://www.cochrane.org/CD010912/OCCHEALTH_workplace-interventions-reducing-sitting-time-work) in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, after looking at 20 of the best studies on the matter. What they found is that the studies tended to be either too small or poorly designed, leading them to conclude that there is no solid evidence demonstrating that standing is better than sitting. "The idea you should be standing four hours a day? There's no real evidence for that," he said. "I would say that there's evidence that standing can be bad for your health,” in fact, pointing to a 2005 study linking prolonged standing with enlarged veins. The extra calories burned off by standing versus sitting are minimal, he said--perhaps the equivalent of a couple of banana chips daily. Behavioral medicine professor Lucas Carr, who was not involved in the study, pushes back against the authors’ conclusions, insisting that moderation and balance are key. “The health benefits of standing are not well-known,” Carr tells NPR. “But you’re going to burn more calories standing than sitting. I know it’s not a tremendous amount,” he says, but "those calories every day over many years will add up.” One thing the two sides do agree on is that, in Carr’s words, “the state of the science is definitely early.” More rigorous studies will need to be conducted before more real evidence emerges to support your co-workers constant humblebrags about the benefits of their standing desks. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/standing-desks-health-benefits/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Health and Wellness", "item": "https://money.com/health-and-wellness/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "This Workplace Trend to Boost Health Might Be Pointless" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/standing-desks-health-benefits/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/standing-desks-health-benefits/", "name": "This Workplace Trend to Boost Health Might Be Pointless", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-03-18T15:18:39.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/standing-desks-health-benefits/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/standing-desks-health-benefits/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2023-05-26T13:13:46.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "This Workplace Trend to Boost Health Might Be Pointless", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/03/160318_car_standingdesks.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1400, "caption": "160318_CAR_StandingDesks" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Denver Nicks", "url": "https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2012/09/09_1165862081.jpg?quality=85&w=640&h=640&crop=1", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/DenverNicks", "https://plus.google.com/105122198911201917932" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-03-18T15:18:39.000Z", "description": "The calories you burn standing versus sitting are minimal, according to researchers who question the health benefits of standing desks.", "abstract": "The calories you burn standing versus sitting are minimal, according to researchers who question the health benefits of standing desks.", "@id": "https://money.com/standing-desks-health-benefits/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2023-05-26T13:13:46.000Z", "wordCount": 312, "keywords": [ "health", "HR", "pubdesk", "Science", "Sitting", "standing", "standing desk", "Workplace" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Health", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health" ] } ] } ] } ```