Fat Workers Get Office Treadmill May 16, 2007

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There’s a push on these days to get our lardy, fat arses out of our chairs while working and gaming. We’ve had the Wii workout and now we have the vertical workstation, designed to keep you on your toes, literally, throughout the working day.

Just recall the last conference/show you attended, where the only place to put your laptop and work was standing at one of those stupid round breakfast bar stands, except with a treadmill attached for extra misery. Designed by the Mayo Clinic in the US, it was used by 15 obese people to see how many calories they burned while they worked. The volunteers burned 100 calories more each hour by walking slowly [1.6Km per hour] than by sitting. The researchers said:

“If obese individuals were to replace time spent sitting at the computer with walking computer time by 2 to 3 hours a day, and if other components of energy balance were constant, a weight loss of 20 to 30kg a year could occur.”

The desk cost around £800 to construct. I realise the novelty value of this but I think that this type of thing will be the desk of the future and that 'walking workers', for want of a better phrase, are going to become a lot more common in the coming decade. Whether we like it or not.

So chug those doughnuts while you can and before the rampaging skinny people get you.-Martin Lynch

health obesity technology office