A lifestyle and diabetes expert says staying healthy is all about striking a balance. 

A new study has found people should be exercising more than four hours a day.

Exercise can range from light intensity to vigorous intensity.

Head of the Baker-Deakin Department of Lifestyle and Diabetes, David Dunston, says the study’s results are challenging for office workers because of the nature of their sedentary role. 

The study breaks down how adults should spend their 24 hours, to provide them with optimal metabolic and glycaemic control based whether or not they have diabetes. 

More than 2,000 participants used activity monitors, which were strapped to their thighs for eight days. Almost 700 participants had type 2 diabetes. 

The study found replacing sedentary time with active time was slightly more beneficial for people with type 2 diabetes compared with the sample group, but both groups benefitted.

Professor Dunston says it can be difficult to reach five hours of standing time in an office setting.

Professor Dunston says height adjustable desks are good for office workers as they allow for posture to be changed easily. 

The Market Bull journalist Noah O’Reilly says his job often means he’s sitting down or on his feet for most of the day. He says his back pain flares up when he does either all day.

Mr O’Reilly says, “it’s all about balance.” 

Changing your posture throughout the day is important for metabolic and muscular skeletal health, Professor Dunston says.

He says, it is important for people to alternate between standing and sitting during the day. 

Online fitness coach Luciano Rosato specialises in helping office workers achieve their fitness goals. He echoes Professor Dunstan’s belief that changing positions during the day is important. 

“There is no perfect posture but staying in the same position creates an issue,” he says. 

If the body is in the same sitting position for long periods, the back muscles can become stiff and their lower body muscles lose muscle mass, he says. 

In his work Mr Rosato finds people who don’t move throughout the day are likely to suffer from pains and aches. 

He recommends clients remain active by completing 10,000 steps a day. Mr Rosato says it’s good to break this up throughout the day by walking to work, on lunch break and after work. 

He says people should to pick a sport or activity they enjoy and do it consistently. 

On the other hand, Mr Rosato says people who participate in physical work tend to have no energy to exercise at the end of the day. 

Professor Dunston says completing strenuous physical activity for long periods of time can be detrimental to health. 

“It is a balancing act,” he says.  

Professor Duston hopes this findings get people thinking.

“The research is a guide of where people can shift their behaviour.”