The Hidden Cost of Sitting All Day — How NEAT Patterns Show Up in the Workplace
The Hidden Cost of Sitting All Day — How NEAT Patterns Show Up in the Workplace There's a particular exhaustion that settles in around 2 PM in offices across America. Not the kind that comes from physical exertion. Something heavier. A draining fatigue that arrives despite having barely moved all day. Research on this exact phenomenon keeps piling up, yet the default response remains the same: another coffee, another energy drink, another sugar hit that briefly sparks then fades. Most people chalk it up to lunch, or stress, or just the grind of work itself. But there's something else happening — something metabolic, quiet, and surprisingly consequential. We're not designed to be still for eight, ten, twelve hours at a stretch. The body expects movement, not as formal exercise necessarily, but as the constant low-level activity that humans engaged in for most of evolutionary history. Walking to fetch something. Standing to reach. Shifting position. Small movements ...