The Standing Desk Experiment

Originally posted to myfitnesspal.com on 10/8/11

Early last year, the New York Times posted a great online piece on the benefits of standing at work (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/stand-up-while-you-read-this/).  These include reduced risk for obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and even some type of cancers.  For those of us trying to lose weight, standing at your desk also burns about 60 more calories an hour than sitting.  But there aren't a lot of alternatives for most of us with desk jobs.  Every year, I ask my facility manager to look into convertible desks (those that can be used either sitting or standing) but the short term costs are prohibitive. 

So I decided to take matters into my own hands.  I first did some research on the desks themselves and quickly came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to invest in them myself.  While there are some inexpensive solutions, there weren't any that would work in my situation below about $1500.  There are some good options to just raise a computer workstation (display, keyboard, and mouse; check ergodesktop.com), and, while I like them, I still felt that the initial investment was a little high if things didn't work out.  A DIY project seemed to be my best option for this trial.

Fortunately, my display is mounted on an adjustable swing arm and I found that I could rotate it up to a point where it was easily viewable from a standing position. While not at the ideal viewing level, it would do for a month or so until I could make a determination if this was going to be something I would want to do permanently.  The next step was to elevate my keyboard and mouse.  I built a small table, similar to a piano bench, that I could place on my desktop when I wanted to stand.  I used a solid oak stair riser and some matching balusters which I cut and measured to give me the ideal keyboard height.  Some non-skid, rubber feet, a couple of coats of dark stain, a decent pair of shoes to stand in when at the desk (dress shoes are not made for standing), and I was ready to go.  You can see the look of the setup below.

With those things in place, I started my experiment in late August.  My goal was to stand at my desk whenever I was in my office on the phone, working on projects, etc. The only times I would sit during the day was when I had meetings or lunch.  It was tough at first; my feet, legs and back would get sore toward the end of the day and I got more than a few funny looks and comments.  After more than a month, however, it feels much more natural and I don't tire as easily, even when I've hit the gym in the morning.  While the improvement could be part of my better overall fitness level (a loss of 19lbs during the experiment to date), I can't help feel that standing at work has had its contributions.   While I'm not quite ready to make the investment in a more advanced system (partially because my DIY solution works pretty well), I know that I will be standing at my desk whenever possible for a long time to come.  I might even change my daily activity level from "Sedentary" to  "Lightly Active" on myfitnesspal.com. 

Even if you can't make accommodations to stand at your desk, at least make sure that you take small breaks to get up, walk around, or stretch.  The Times piece has other good suggestions plus the web is full of options for keeping healthy at work.