Many people invest in a treadmill desk to help lose weight, sometimes we're asked how many calories you can burn whilst walking at your desk opposed to sitting.

The science behind calories and weight loss can be made very complex but it is a simple fact that walking at your desk will make you burn more calories than sitting or just standing!

The body will naturally burn calories even sitting and doing nothing, the amount of calories we burn varies with different people for a number of reasons. Anybody wanting to lose weight can work on the general rule that burning more calories than you consume over a sustained period of time will help rid you of unwanted body fat.

So, let us assume that whilst sitting in an office the average person will burn 80 calories per hour doing absolutely nothing - that sounds great but how can we increase it?

Firstly, standing up helps but not by much! Our bodies will burn extra calories keeping us upright and maintaining balance. However, humans are very efficient at standing so you can only bank on an extra 15 to 20 calories per hour.

When we start to walk, we use a number of muscles in our body (including our largest muscles) and this means burning calories.

Again, the amount of calories you burn depends on numerous factors and of course your speed. There have been a few studies on exactly how many calories you burn whilst walking on a treadmill desk (opposed to walking in the street). The general concensus seems to be anything from 160 - 230 calories per hour.

Most of our customers seem to walk fairly slowly whilst working. A speed between 1.1mph and 1.5mph enables people to work most effectively with a keyboard and mouse. So, we conservatively estimate you can burn at least an extra 150 calories per hour by working at a treadmill desk.

What is interesting here is that moving from a chair to a treadmill desk can very easily double or even treble the amount of calories you burn per hour.

If you're lucky enough to have your own walking desk and can walk for just 3 hours per day then you potentially burn an additional 2,000 calories per week. This goes a long way to helping with your weight loss goals - all done utilising the time you spend working!

There are many other health benefits including improving your posture, improving circulation and boosting your productivity!

It took me 30 minutes to write this article and my Lifespan DT3 controller recorded 112 calories so that works out around 144 extra calories per hour.

Please get in touch if you'd like to discuss any aspects of walking and working.