How one woman proved that standing up instead of sitting can deliver astounding weight loss results

As a company that is naturally passionate about standing desk products, we were delighted to see a story on the Daily Mail website in August - an article about one woman’s experiment to remain standing as much as possible for an entire month, including during periods of work, rest and play.

Her objective was to prove that remaining upright increases the resting heart rate of the body, and in turn speeds up the rate at which the body naturally burns fat. As it turns out, the scientific predictions were absolutely spot on, and by the end of the month Louise Atkinson had burned 10,000 calories more than her ‘seated’ rate. When you consider that this figure is equal to running four or five marathons, this was clearly an experiment that needs to be looked at further.

Although the initial amount of standing was a shock to Louise's system, at the very least any pain that was experienced was a sign that the change in lifestyle was having an effect. At this point it is very important to point out that the official medical advice is to build up to a full day’s standing gradually bit by bit, and in reality this mirrors advice about any kind of new health and fitness regime.

For Louise, she found that her constant heart rate went from the low 60s to the high 70s, and this is how she was able to burn an extra 0.7 calories per minute - this added up to a significant increase over the course of the hours, days and weeks of the experiment.

While burning calories is always important, she also noticed a number of other health benefits that complement weight loss perfectly. After a while, a number of persistent aches and pains seemed to fade away, and there was also a marked change to her state of mind - when the initial going got tough, she sensibly worked small periods of sitting at her height adjustable desk into the routine to provide her body and mind with a sort of ‘refresh.’ 

So well done Louise - fancy joining her?