Sitting down for too long can increase your risk of numerous health conditions, including muscle pain, blood clots, and diabetes. It can also affect your mental health.
More than half of us spend over 6 hours sitting down each day, and a widening rear end isn’t the only result. Sitting too much (aka sedentary behavior) can have short- and long-term effects on your health and body, making this seemingly benign activity potentially serious.
Read on to learn how damaging it can be to sit all day — from your head to your toes.
If you don’t use them, you lose them! By sitting all day, you’re not depending on your powerful lower body muscles to hold you up. This leads to muscle atrophy, which is the weakening of these muscles. Without strong leg and glute muscles to stabilize you, your body is at risk of injury.
Moving causes your muscles to release molecules like lipoprotein lipase, which helps process the fats and sugars you eat. When you spend most of your day sitting, your body produces fewer of these molecules, which can affect your metabolism.
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Research also shows that the more time you spend sitting, the more visceral fat you build up. Visceral fat is more serious, as it’s the fat surrounding your vital organs. Increased visceral fat is linked to conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.
As with your leg and glute muscles, excessive sitting can lead to pain in your hips and back. Sitting causes your hip flexors to shorten, and your seated position can also hurt your back, particularly if you have bad posture or don’t use an ergonomic chair.
A 2021 review linked prolonged sitting to a 42% increase in lower back pain in adults. Children who spent a long time sitting playing on their phone, computer, or game console were even more likely (63%) to experience pain.
A slumped sitting posture can also cause compression on the discs in your spine and can lead to premature degeneration, which results in chronic pain.
A 2025 study of young adults found that those who didn’t meet physical activity benchmarks were 89% more likely to have symptoms of anxiety and 149% more likely to have symptoms of depression.
Studies also suggest that the risk of anxiety and depression can be mitigated with regular exercise.
Emerging studies suggest that prolonged sitting can increase your risk of certain types of cancer. A 2022 review found that sitting too much increased the risk of ovarian, endometrial, and colon cancer by more than 25%. Smaller risk increases were also observed with breast, prostate, and rectal cancer.
This may be because sedentary behavior can cause hormonal imbalances, insulin resistance, and chronic inflammation — conditions that contribute to tumor growth.
Sitting can hurt your heart, potentially leading to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Prolonged sitting causes blood to pool in your legs, reducing the amount of blood that returns to your heart. Your heart then has less blood to pump through your body.
Other effects of sedentary behavior we’ve already mentioned, like reduced metabolism, insulin resistance, and inflammation, can also affect your heart.
In a 2024 study, researchers linked prolonged sitting in front of the television with higher rates of high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, and heart failure. Another study found that each additional hour of TV viewing per day increased CVD risk by 32% and stroke risk by 58%.
Sitting down in front of the TV may be even worse for your diabetes risk. A 2022 study found a 135% increased risk of type 2 diabetes for those who spent a lot of time sitting while watching TV. On the other hand, the study linked moderate physical activity to a 69% reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.
If you already have diabetes, sedentary behavior increases the risk of complications, like stroke and eye disease.
Sitting for long periods of time can cause blood to pool in the legs. This can lead to varicose veins, or spider veins, a smaller version of the former. Though generally not harmful, these swollen and visible veins can be unsightly. In rare cases, they can lead to more serious conditions, like blood clots.
Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a type of blood clot that’s most common in the legs. When part of this clot breaks off, it can block blood flow to other parts of the body, such as your lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism. This is a medical emergency that can lead to major complications or even death. Sitting for too long, even on a long road trip, can cause DVT.
As with your legs, butt, and lower back, your shoulders and neck will also feel negative effects from prolonged sitting. This is especially true if you’re hunched over looking at a computer screen.
A 2025 study noted that this effect is more profound in females than in males. What you do while sitting also matters. For example, sitting while using your phone increases the risk of neck pain by 82%, while computer use increases it by 23%.
Experts recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week, but they also agree that some activity is better than none.
The World Health Organization (WHO) advises starting with small amounts of activity and gradually increasing the duration, intensity, and frequency. A 2024 study of female health workers found that even light physical activity was associated with healthy aging.
The following tips may be good ways to start small:
- Take microbreaks: These short breaks throughout the day help break up long periods of sitting. Every 30 minutes, take 5 minutes to stand up, stretch, or walk around.
- Try desk exercises: You can also use those microbreaks to do some “deskercise” to get your muscles moving.
- Be active during commercial breaks: Break up TV time by moving around during the ads.
- Park out of the way: Don’t stress yourself out searching for the perfect parking spot. Park far away to give yourself extra walking time both to and from your destination.
- Use fitness trackers: Fitness trackers can help track your daily steps and can remind you to move about every so often to avoid sitting for too long.
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