We're well aware that sitting all day is damaging your body in countless ways, but counteracting that isn't just about exercising. As the Wall Street Journal points out, it's also about getting up and walking more.

The focus for most health departments has been to push people to get about 30 minutes of exercise a day, but exercise alone isn't enough if you spend the rest of your day sitting around:





The reason is pretty simple, all the movement you do throughout the day, from getting up to grab a glass of water to doing the dishes, burns calories and increase metabolism. Even if you're exercising daily, sitting all day counteracts that. The best thing you can do? Walk more. The goal is to hit about 10,000 steps a day (which is the equivalent of about four miles. We typically average around 5,000 steps a day). You can track your steps with fitness tracking gear, a cheap pedometer, or even a free app like Moves for iPhone or Accupedo for Android.

Since you may need to essentially double the amount of steps you take a day, you might have to get creative with how you spend your day. We've heard plenty of tricks to do this before, like walking up the stairs instead of taking an elevator (walking up 10 stairs is the equivalent of taking 38 steps on the ground), parking further away in the parking lot, and getting up throughout the day to walk around the office. But if you still want to sit around and watch TV, the Wall Street Journal has a simple fix with surprising results:



That's a pretty big boost to your step count, and it doesn't really require that much effort on your part (although you may annoy anyone watching TV with you).



Hard Math: Adding Up Just How Little We Actually Move | The Wall Street Journal

Photo by DieselDemon.