Health Cost of Sitting at a Desk, Measured in Calories

The health cost of sitting at a desk for work is indicated by how few active calories are burned across the workday. Active calories are the extra calories your body uses above resting metabolism.

A pure desk job involving little to no standing results in about the same amount of movement as a short daily walk, rather than a full day of physical activity.

An average 75 kg person working at a desk for 8 hours burns around 180 active calories. By comparison, a brisk one-mile walk burns about 78 active calories, meaning that walking a mile to and from work produces almost the same movement energy as an entire workday spent sitting.

You can estimate your own calories burned while sitting at a desk using the calculator below.

Why We Use Active Calories

Physical activity is commonly quantified using metabolic equivalents (METs), which express how much energy an activity uses relative to resting metabolism. Converting MET values into calories above rest gives active calories, the portion of daily energy expenditure produced by movement rather than basic body function.

Both seated and standing desk work are classified as sedentary because they require minimal muscle activity. In contrast, light physical activity, such as walking within the workplace and performing tasks on your feet, involves repeated muscle contraction and circulation.

The calculator uses representative activity levels sourced from the Compendium of Physical Activities:

• Sitting, computer work: 1.3 MET
• Standing workstation, computer work: 1.3 MET
• Sitting meetings: 1.3 MET
• Standing tasks, light effort: 1.8 MET
• Walking slowly in office or lab: 2.0 MET
• Walking at slow speed, carrying light objects: 3.5 MET
• Walking on a work break: 3.5 MET

Energy expenditure is then calculated using the standard MET energy-expenditure formula used in exercise science to estimate movement energy during the workday, specifically: Calories = MET × body weight (kg) × time (hours)

How many calories do you burn if you sit at a desk all day?

For an adult weighing 75 kg (165 lb), an 8-hour desk workday uses about 780 calories. For an adult weighing 90.7 kg (200 lb), the same workday uses about 943 calories.

As explained by Office Organiser, “an 8-hour office workday burns about 780 to 940 calories for an average person weighing 75 kg, depending on how much time is spent walking or standing rather than sitting.”

But the sitting work itself accounts for only a small share of that energy use. After subtracting resting metabolism, the activity created by desk work is about 180 active calories for the 75 kg person and about 217 active calories for the 200 lb person.

In practical terms, a full day of office work provides only a low level of physical activity. The job occupies the day, but it does not involve much movement.

Does standing at my desk burn more calories than sitting?

In metabolic studies, computer work performed while seated and computer work performed while standing are both classified at 1.3 MET. Changing posture alone therefore does not materially change energy use during desk tasks such as typing, emailing, or video calls.

To produce a measurable difference, the work has to involve actual activity. Light standing tasks (Compendium code 11600, about 1.8 MET) include filing, assembling, stocking, and standing-and-talking work that requires continuous low-level movement.

Even then, the impact is modest if it occupies only part of the day. For a 75 kg (165 lb) worker, replacing one hour of desk time with light standing tasks raises the workday from about 780 calories to about 818 calories, increasing active calories from roughly 180 to about 218.

Calories burned: sitting vs standing vs walking

Sitting at a desk all day establishes a baseline level of calories burned at work. For a 75 kg (165 lb) person, an 8-hour shift of pure desk work is estimated to burn about 780 calories.

Simply standing up to work at a desk does not change this calculation. In activity studies, computer work performed seated and computer work performed standing are both rated at 1.3 MET. A 75 kg person working at a standing desk for 8 hours therefore still burns about 780 calories.

The difference appears when movement is introduced. A light-movement job combines desk time with standing tasks and slow workplace walking. If roughly half the day involves those activities, total workday energy rises to about 960 calories.

The larger change is in activity rather than total calories. Active calories increase from about 180 to about 360. The job still looks sedentary, but the body is moving regularly instead of remaining stationary for most of the day.

Related: Calories Burned at Work Calculator

The health cost of sitting at a desk

A desk job is not unhealthy just because of how you sit or stand and the risk of injury in sedentary mode. It is unhealthy fundamentally because it involves very little movement.

For a 75 kg (165 lb) person, an entire 8-hour day of desk work produces only about 180 active calories. That is the total movement energy generated by a full workday spent mostly sitting.

By comparison, a brisk one-mile walk burns about 78 active calories according to our Calories Burned Walking One Mile calculator. Walking a mile to work and a mile back therefore produces almost the same amount of movement as an entire office workday.

This difference has health consequences. Large population studies consistently show that health risk is linked not just to exercise sessions but to total daily movement. A major pooled analysis published in The Lancet found that people who accumulated about 60–75 minutes of moderate activity per day largely eliminated the increased mortality risk associated with prolonged sitting.

The calculator illustrates the same principle. Desk work fills the day but provides little physical activity. Short, regular walking does not look like exercise, yet it supplies a large share of the movement the body expects. When work itself does not require movement, that activity has to be added elsewhere.

Reference: Ekelund U. et al. (2016). Does physical activity attenuate, or even eliminate, the detrimental association of sitting time with mortality? A harmonised meta-analysis of data from more than 1 million men and women. The Lancet.