Treadmill Desk

jeby8

I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with using a walking treadmill while working? My company just switched me to working from home full time and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to start upping my movement. We got a treadmill and a treadmill desk and I walked yesterday for 4.5 hours between 1.1-1.6 mph. I'm curious as to whether or not this is enough to lose weight if I did it on a day to day basis. Obviously, diet would also be a factor. But I have to think that doing 4+ hrs of walking as opposed to the walking I did before (none) has got to lead to some sort of weight loss...

hilts1969

I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with using a walking treadmill while working? My company just switched me to working from home full time and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to start upping my movement. We got a treadmill and a treadmill desk and I walked yesterday for 4.5 hours between 1.1-1.6 mph. I'm curious as to whether or not this is enough to lose weight if I did it on a day to day basis. Obviously, diet would also be a factor. But I have to think that doing 4+ hrs of walking as opposed to the walking I did before (none) has got to lead to some sort of weight loss...

Walking burns calories, so if you walk a lot it will help, sometimes it is as simple as that

0somuchbetter0

I would think so! As long as you're not consuming more calories, all that walking will put you at a calorie deficit for sure. I lost 6.5 lbs in 3 weeks without even trying while on vacation last summer, simply because the majority of my days were spent walking around rather than sitting at a desk.

KeepOnMoving

I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with using a walking treadmill while working? My company just switched me to working from home full time and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to start upping my movement. We got a treadmill and a treadmill desk and I walked yesterday for 4.5 hours between 1.1-1.6 mph. I'm curious as to whether or not this is enough to lose weight if I did it on a day to day basis. Obviously, diet would also be a factor. But I have to think that doing 4+ hrs of walking as opposed to the walking I did before (none) has got to lead to some sort of weight loss...

I also started to work from home. I have a treadmill but I am seriously thinking about purchasing another treadmill made not for running but for working on computer. Are you able to type and use mouse? I read reviews that mouse is very tricky with treadmill and that a task ball might be more effective.

Does your treadmill keep track of calories? I use a HRM to monitor my calories. Doing this and keeping track of your food log will help you determine if you need to up your burn.

Fullsterkur_woman

I do it one day a week and use my laptop, so there's no mouse problems. I can't really go faster than about 2-2.5 mph or I stop being able to type or read smoothly.

ETA: it probably doesn't amount to a large calorie difference, but it's better than sitting still all day like I usually do when I am at work! It's definitely good for my joint health and staying limber, so I can jump right into my weightlifting workout when I knock off work.

PinkNinjaLaura

I recently read an article about a study they did where people who walked slowly (like you have to on a treadmill desk) for a longer period of hours lost more weight than someone who did more intense activity for only an hour. I don't remember where I read it so I can't track it down.

Having said that, diet is most of it, but walking 4 hours a day won't hurt!

To the person who asked about using a mouse I haven't had any problems. You just can't walk very fast if you're typing & mousing. Some people at work who want to get a harder workout will bump up the incline.

goldfinger88

People who use them tend to love them. But I don't think I could get any work done while exercising. I need my full attention on one thing to do well. I get up every twenty minutes and do the exercise bike or the stairs or whatever for two minutes and then return to work. That works for me.

But, I applaud your desire to get one and it may just work very well for you. Being sedentary is the single worst thing for our health. We were not made for sitting.

1Lightstep

Hello

I am a recent convert to walking and working, welcome to the club!

I love the idea of multi tasking and knowing that moving my body is more healthy than sitting. It is also a great way to keep warm. I really enjoy it and I plan on continuing to do it.

I believe that movement is the key to weight loss. Since using the treadmill slowly while using the computer and also walking fast on its own, I have stopped putting on weight, which was my first concern and I have started to lose weight too. Of course working on maintaining a healthy diet is important as well and I find this website is very helpful not just for recording my food but for planning my daily meals and snacks.

Time moves fast when you are occupied, whether it is on a website such as this, reading, replying to emails or the myriad of other things that we can do on our computers. I have been on this website for over 45 minutes and I have been walking on my treadmill all that time, reading, inputting my details and typing this reply, with no problems. I like knowing that time spent on this website has been useful in more ways that one, as I have burned 105 calories by walking 1.05 km and still counting.

Once you have worked out where the right height and positioning of the computer and mouse is for you and finding a comfortable slow speed, with a little practice, it becomes easy. Sometimes, it is easy to spend long periods of time on the treadmill without realising it and I do occasionally experience jelly legs for a few minutes after but less so now that my body is more used to it. To avoid this, I set myself goals and stop when I have reached them. I think like most things, moderation is a good thing. You mentioned walking 4 and a half hours which seems like a good amount of time to put in to achieve results, but you might want to do short sessions while getting used to it. If you took breaks in between, you will probably benefit from that too. As I understand it, consistent regular exercise is what is needed for weight loss, so finding an amount that you can comfortably do on a regular basis is more beneficial than single long sessions, but you can still do them too (if you have the energy).

There is a lot of information available on the subject on the internet, written by experts and those more experienced than me, that we might benefit from reading, to find the optimal treadmill exercise regime to make the most of our efforts.

When I first started my body had a few aches and pains while it was getting used to standing straight and moving rather than slouching in a chair over a computer and I think regular breaks helped.

I treat my working treadmill times, often with natural breaks that occur in the day, as my regular times and I add in faster treadmill times when I am not working to increase my energy use. I also increase the incline at different times. My hope is that a combination of treadmill work will aid in sustained weight loss. I am looking to increase my working treadmill time to do the same amount as you at intervals throughout the day on most days, I just have to organise my day a little better to make sure that I am doing treadmill friendly work on the treadmill when I can.

I have an ordinary treadmill and a makeshift desk and it works perfectly for me. I began using the treadmill at 1 km an hour when on the computer and can now go up to 2 km an hour for some things, but average use is about 1.7 km an hour and sometimes 3 km an hour when I am reading. I know some people go faster but I go at the speed that I find comfortable and that I can work at efficiently.

If I need to concentrate on something very closely or need fine mouse or pen control for some things, then I stop the treadmill. Standing has its benefits too. I still sit, particularly if dealing with paperwork, but this is less often than I used to. After some periods on the treadmill, it feels good to leave the standing position and sitting for a while feels earned.

Initially, I was using the treadmill to increase my steps as I felt I might not have been achieving the recommended minimum of steps of 10,000 per day for a healthy lifestyle. At the speed I go, when working and walking, It averages to about 1 step per second. This means that I have walked 2700 steps (45 x 60), just while on this website.

When I am fast walking on the treadmill without using the computer, I am walking at an average of about 2 steps per second. I tend to do this before meal times and when I am on the phone, watching tv or reading. So walking and working and just walking fast at other times means that 10,000 steps a day becomes easily achievable in a short space of time and an average treadmill working day can quickly far exceed that. I feel that every step I do over the recommended 10,000 is a step towards weight loss and the scales are telling me that it is working.

Good luck with your treadmill working days and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

jeby8

Thanks for all your responses! I'm coming back to comment now that I've done it for 6 days in a row. I walked for an average of 4 hrs every day. Two of the days, it was about 4.5 hrs. My highest calorie burn was 1172 calories. So far, I'm loving it. It's been easy to walk and work... using the laptop and mouse is not hard at all and I find that I'm actually more productive during my time on the treadmill than when I'm sitting at my desk. As one of the other posters said, I naturally take a break like I would at a desk -- getting off the tread to use the bathroom, let the dogs out or get more water and then I get right back to it.

Sadly, I didn't take any measurements before I started, so I'm not sure taking any now would really tell me anything. My pants/shirts still fit the same, so I'm guessing with just one week under my belt, I haven't lost any inches. As for weight, I gained 2 lbs after the first three days and then when I stepped on the scale this morning, was down 4. However, I feel like the fluctation is more of a diet thing... 1. I'm Gluten Intolerant so when I fall off the wagon -- I tend to see my weight either go up or hold steady even with intese workouts. So I'm guessing my Gluten intake has wreaked havoc on my system regardless of me burning such high calories while walking. 2. I'm SO not used to the balance of workout calories. A couple of the days, I felt so ravenous I ate back most of my calories -- thus, not really helping with the weight loss and on the other days, I just physically felt like I couldn't eat anymore and was WAY under my calorie goal with exercise cals added in. So I feel like part of my problem is either... eating TOO many calories or eating TOO few calories. I'm working on trying to find the right amount!

ETA: I use a Polar FT4 HRM with a chest strap to monitor my time/hr/burned calories. I don't trust the machine numbers.

WalkingAlong

For very long sessions like that, I'd subtract out your BMR calories. Like if your HRM said 1100 calories in 5 hours and your BMR is around 1440/day (1 calorie per minute) you really only burned an additional 1100 - (60 calories X 5 hours) = 800.

Another way to estimate your net calories is .3 times your body weight times miles walked. So if you weigh 170 and walked 6 miles, that's around 300 calories burned above what you would've burned sitting down over that time. So that 800 calorie burn above would take about 16 miles of walking, or 4 hours at 4mph. Not easy!

I'm not trying to discourage you, I have a treadmill desk set-up, too, and it's great.

titianwasp

Finally got the platform for my keyboard (using it now!). Keep it up - weight loss or no, moving is almost ALWAYS better than not moving. I am convinced I am walking towards a longer life.

titianwasp

Just for the record, in the month that I have put in more serious walking on the treaddesk, I've dropped nearly 10 pounds. Rock on walkers!