Whither the treadmill desk?

Updated 4.2.2015
Anyone who's read through this site will be aware that I am a treadmill desk user and proponent. However, I have also discussed problems with treadmill desks, and certainly have never suggested that they were a panacea. I haven't provided an update about my treadmill desk in a while, these thoughts were inspired by this NPR piece.

Full disclosure: Lately I have been standing at my desk more than walking because of circumstances beyond my control. Mostly, I have a need to be with my homeschooling son as he finishes high school, which is not easy to do while walking, but there is also the issue of my aging treadmill and how much noise it makes. Treadmills designed for the office environment are much quieter than the exercise versions. There is also the fact (which I’ve noted before) that my treadmill is in my basement. Thus when I work at the treadmill desk I get no natural lighting at all, and I much prefer working in natural light. So while I still use my treadmill routinely for jogging, of late I haven't used it much for work.

The comments at NPR are interesting. There are those who think walking while working is impossible (obviously it isn’t, though there can be a learning curve involved), but others are real objections to treadmill desks in professional settings beyond the cost of the desk.

This is why, though I still like the idea of a treadmill desk, I actually think a standing desk is probably them more likely solution for most offices— if a solution to sedentariness is sought. Standing desks would be far less expensive to implement. Standing doesn’t burn as many calories, but walking on a treadmill isn’t about the calorie burn. It's about getting off your duff.

The thesis of the article is that treadmill desks don't replace exercise. I don’t think anyone ever suggested that walking while working would replace exercise— although for me it did, for a bit. However, I’ve started jogging three times a week again. And still doing yoga and light weights (actually push ups at the moment, but eventually I'll pull the Totalgym back out.) Yes, I lost weight during my two years of walking up to 10 miles a day on the treadmill. But I also reduced my calorie intake. I don’t walk as much now, but I’m still maintaining most of my weight loss. And if I could manage to moderate my adult beverage consumption a bit better, I’d go back to the weight that I was. Although, — again in the vein of full disclosure— I think that I did slip into the habit (promoted by the treadmill desk salespeople) that walking on the desk meant that I could go ahead and “eat that cookie”. In reality, the number of calories burned is relatively low, you still need to pay attention to intake.

The treadmill desk was never supposed to be exercise though. It’s NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, which I’ve talked about a LOT). NEAT is one of the larger terms in the energy balance (which I also talk about a lot), much larger than the thermal effect of food or the term for formal exercise. NEAT includes all motion outside of formal exercise.

I feel another experiment coming on. And well, it’s already ongoing because I’ve been standing not walking at my desk for about a month now, with no change in my weight (well, no gain anyway). I think what I’d like to do is jog or walk everyday on the treadmill, and when I walk I’ll have the computer in front of me. Here's a treadmill desk user who did as I did and adapted an existing exercise treadmill. His productivity increased greatly when he started working, but for me, the big boost came when I stood up to work rather than sit. Walking and working took some getting used to for me. One reason I'm not more fussed about not walking while working as much is that I'm hopeful that I'll be a bit more productive standing.

Funnily enough, the NPR author notes that although she’s not walking all day, she is standing. I wish she’d looked into the differences between the two. In both you are up off your ass, and that’s a positive. But eventually she (and most people who buy them) moved on from the fad and don’t use them. Not said (and what expect is the case) is that in a traditional office, the treadmill desk is genuinely out of place. They are large, and the they make conversation difficult, unless you have a cluster of them together.

Round up of other standing desk articles

Treadmill desks are very often considered a form of standing desk (for obvious reasons) but in this search I was looking specifically for non-treadmill desk results. This article expresses skepticism about the health benefits of standing desks, but the guy they quote that got one found that it helped his back. I think yoga helped my back more than standing, though I don’t think standing hurts. Standing is allowed to be better than sitting, but perhaps not enough to not be sedentary? I think that’s wrong. I also don’t think that standing desks need to cost $500. There’ are plenty of standing desks (professional office grade) available for less. The standing desk I use was less than $100, and its height can be adjusted (and it's on wheels so I can move it around easily). Of course, there’s always a more expensive option, but it’s not necessary to spend so much money.

This is a decent article about standing desks. Not a study obviously, but it is specific to standing desks, not treadmill desks. Yes, good shoes are a must if you’re going to stand all day, and by all means sit if you’re starting to ache. A lot of the "problems" that people report having when standing or walking while working amount to lack of common sense in my not so humble opinion. Here's another report of a standing desk experience. He loves standing while working, but two years on he doesn’t stand all the time, and now has an adjustable desk. I have no problem standing all day. And he now sells the adjustable desks, the sit/stand type.

Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation in 2015 discusses whether to stand or sit while working, and whether it will improve your blood markers. The article references three studies, including a meta study published in 2015. A quote from the article:

Some small clinical trials have examined the effects of changing to standing desk or treadmill desk (2).  Standing desks appear to have little impact on most measures of health although one trial has reported an increase in the ‘good’ HDL cholesterol.   Changing to a treadmill desk has more impact on our bodies (2) but may be more challenging to implement in the workplace.   Unfortunately, since we don’t yet understand how prolonged sitting might damage the body over time, we cannot easily measure whether a change in lifestyle can protect against the damage. 

Standing desks can also impose health risks of their own.  As any long-time nurse or retail worker can attest, prolonged standing has risks such as chronic venous insufficiency and varicose veins, pain in the lower back and feet, and preterm birth and spontaneous abortions (3).   The safest bet may be to periodically switch between standing to sitting during the work day.

Here's the 2015 meta-study (abstract only). Results (from the abstract): Treadmill desks led to the greatest improvement in physiological outcomes including postprandial glucose, HDL cholesterol, and anthropometrics, while standing desk use was associated with few physiological changes. Standing and treadmill desks both showed mixed results for improving psychological well-being with little impact on work performance.

Here's another skeptical article. He notes that prolonged standing can cause problems, but in at least one of the sources he lists the issue was that the woman trying to stand all day was doing so in heels. The stupid… it burns. I'm not sure why the need to wear comfortable shoes wouldn't be obvious, but apparently for some, it's not. Other issues mentioned for prolonged standing seem to me to be an issue on not moving. While standing here typing, my knees are locked nor am I stationary as though I'm a guard at Buckingham Palace. Again, I would think that would be obvious (and natural— I think it would be unnatural to stand stock still), but apparently not.

Here's an account by a guy who makes another common mistake. Rather than starting off slowly and standing for only part of the day, he jumped right in and stood the whole day. At first he really liked it, but after two weeks his feet ached, so he changed his mind. If I felt like I needed to sit when I first started, I took a seat. It’s really not that hard.
Dr James Levine (he of treadmill desk fame) also warns people that moving while standing is important.

I think it’s correct to say we’re in the middle of a ‘stand up movement,’ but the emphasis needs to be on movement,” said the study author Dr. James Levine, director of the Mayo Clinic/Arizona State University Obesity Solutions Initiative. “I don’t want people to think that they should stand up like still soldiers. That is not a good idea.”

Kerem Shuval, a senior research specialist at the American Cancer Society who uses a standing desk, agrees. “I find when I stand, I’m more likely to walk out of my office to talk to a colleague than call or e-mail.”Animal studies suggest that levels of a fat-burning enzyme called lipoprotein lipase rise not from standing but when muscles get activated by moving around. “That’s why non-exercise activity is so important throughout the day,” Shuval said. Keeping the body in a fat-burning metabolic mode also helps improve cholesterol, blood sugar, and high blood pressure.

Not everybody wants to stand while working, of course, and that's fine. Plenty of famous writers did stand while writing though, it's really a matter of preference. Ben Crair (author of the Sitters Manifesto) is actually doesn't have an issue with the desks, it with the attitude of people who stand at them. Their moral superiority irks him.

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