Calories Used Standing

by Andrea Cespedes, Demand Media Google

Sitting most of the day away increases your risk of early death, reported a study in "Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise" published in May 2009. . Standing is a better alternative to sitting, according to Marc Hamilton, Ph.D., a professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Missouri in Columbia, because it engages muscles and encourages circulation of lipase, a compound that stimulates fat and cholesterol processing. On top of this, you can also expect to burn slightly more calories when you spend time upright.

Calorie Burn

A 155-pound person who stands for a half hour burns approximately 47 calories. Larger people burn more calories because their bodies require more energy. A 185-pound person, for example, burns about 56 calories in the same period. By contrast a lighter person burns fewer calories. For instance, 125-pound person burns just 38 calories in 30 minutes.

Increase Your Burn

Turn your stand into walking or pacing and you can burn even more calories. For example, if you weight 155 pounds and walk at a leisurely speed of 2 mph you'll burn 70 calories in 30 minutes. At 130 pounds, you'll burn 148 calories doing the same activity while at 205 pounds you'll burn 233 calories. You can easily keep up this tempo while taking a phone call or having a walk-and-talk meeting with colleagues. Going faster burns even more calories.

Non-Exercise Thermogenesis

The activity you do all day long, from taking the stairs to doing the dishes to tapping your foot, is called non-exercise thermogenesis. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic told "USA Today" in 2009 that the modern, sedentary lifestyle robs people of 1,500 to 2,400 calories per day that they could burn through NEAT activities. Standing, in lieu of sitting, is a way to increase your NEAT value during the day.


Standing instead of sitting can make a significant impact on your daily calorie burn. A study published in the September 2012 issue of the "Journal of Physical Activity and Health" found that young adults fitted with a standing desk at school burned significantly more calories than students sitting in a traditional desk. On average, the standing students burned about 1.36 more calories per minute. Over the course of one hour, this translates to more than 80 calories.

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