Will A Standing Desk Help Me Lose Weight?

Introduction

Standing desks were pretty much unheard of until March 2020, when COVID firmly took off on its round-the-world tour. Millions were forced, at the drop of a hat, to work from home if possible. This led to many having to develop some sort of home office space, or improving their current one as it now played a much greater role in their lives. As a dietitian working in the area of weight loss, if I had a quid for everyone who tells me how they gained weight during COVID, I’d be able to use Lurpak as my day-to-day spread (yes, that many people). So, a question on your lips may very well be – Will a standing desk help me lose weight?

Calories Burned Sitting Vs. Standing

Firstly, let’s dive into this question, because it’s arguably the most important factor.

Weight loss ultimately comes down to consuming less calories than your body needs each day, on a consistent basis so that your body uses up your stored fat to fuel itself with the missing calories.

So, if a standing desk doesn’t help increase your calories burned, it’s unlikely to help you lose weight.

Surprisingly, standing burns only a tiny amount of additional energy when compares to sitting.

A 2016 study which used indirect calorimetry (where the amount of oxygen you use, and carbon dioxide you produce is measured – basically, it’s very accurate!) found that there was very little different in the energy burned when sitting vs. standing.

They found that sitting for 15 minutes burned around 18-19 calories, whereas standing burned around 22 calories.

So, if you multiply that across an hour, that’s roughly a 12-calorie difference if you’re standing.

Multiply that by your standard 8-hour work day, and it’s around a 96-calorie different across the day.

To put that in to context, a chocolate digestive is around 85 calories.

Of course, everyone is different. Everyone will burn slightly different amounts of energy regardless of standing or sitting, so this is just a rough idea.

In addition, some research carried out in 2017 (that also used indirect calorimetry) also found relatively small different in amount of calories burned sitting vs. standing.

They found that standing increased hourly calorie burning by around 8.2 calories when compared to sitting.

Therefore, across a full day of working, 8.2 x 8hrs = 65.6 calories.

Again, it’s going to be slightly different for everyone, but it just shows how slight the difference is.

It just goes to show that in reality, standing still vs. sitting really doesn’t burn much extra energy.

Being Sedentary Makes Weight Loss Harder

Let’s do some example calculations to show the difference of being sedentary (very little activity) versus being lightly active (exercise 1-2 times per week).

A formula known as the Mifflin St. Jeor equation is thought to be the most accurate for having a good idea of how many calories we burn each day.

It is not 100% accurate and must always be used as a guide, or starting point to be adjusted as necessary.

Let’s use an example man and then use the Mifflin St. Jeor equation to estimate their rough calorie needs.

Our example is a 30-year-old, 15 stone (95.4kg), 5ft, 11in man.

Based on this information, here are the results:

As you can see, being sedentary, this person would roughly need around 2298 calories per day to maintain their current weight. Not to lose or gain, but to maintain.

So, to lose weight, it’s usually recommended to start by aiming for around 300-500 calories below your maintenance number. This would mean our example man aiming for around 1800-2000 calories per day.

The important thing would be to adjust this as necessary, as it’s not a perfectly accurate calculation.

And, if this person started exercising, this would need to change again, as they would now be burning more energy each day, as the example shows around 2633 calories per day needed for light exercises. This involves exercising 1-2 times per week.

However, it’s important to note that, when it comes to “exercising 1-2 times per week”, there’s no set amount. For someone, that might mean walking for 10 minutes twice per week. For someone else, it might mean going to a fitness class twice per week.

Both of which would burn very different amounts of energy.

That’s why it’s important to adjust your diet as necessary based on your progress.

Walking Is Better Than Standing for Weight Loss

Yep, and water is wet!

I know it sounds obvious, but my point is this:

Walking, on average, burns around 220 calories per hour.

Of course, factors such as your size, fitness, terrain you’re walking on, as well as the weather, will all have an impact, so this is just an estimate.

So, if you’re able to get out for a 30-minute walk on your lunch break, this could add up to around 110 calories burned.

I hate the idea of doing exercise just for the sake of burning calories, but this example is just to give you a different perspective.

If someone walked for even 20 minutes during their working day, this would likely lead to them burning more energy than if they spent their day standing at their desk.

However, combining the two, so having a standing desk and going for a walk during the day, you’re going to burn additional energy on top.

The Benefits of a Standing Desk

Just because a standing desk isn’t likely to be the key shedding a lot of weight, there are still a number of benefits to be had from using a standing desk.

Some research has found improvements in certain areas of health, including insulin resistance and in reducing cholesterol, but this area of research is still very much in its infancy.

In addition, some research has shown reduced neck and shoulder pain, as well as improvements in health and productivity.

Just because a standing desk isn’t likely to turn you in to a fat-burning machine, it’s still likely to offer a range of other benefits.

Conclusion

Will a standing desk help me lose weight? It’s unlikely. The additional energy you burn standing at a desk is so little, that it’s unlikely to make a difference.

It seems there are certainly other health and productivity-related benefits to using a standing desk, however, weight loss is seemingly not one of them.