Many people sit in the car on the commute to work. Then, another eight hours at a desk. They leave the office at the end of the day only to sit in the car again and return home so exhausted that the evening is spent on the couch scrolling or watching TV.

These long, repeated days filled with hours upon hours of sitting are hurting people’s health — even if they’re young and active, according to a study by the University of Colorado Boulder.

“Certainly many of us sit at work, and not only that, but at leisure time, too,” CU Boulder professor Chandra Reynolds said. “I think we could be more mindful about how to move during the day.”

The study examined 1,000 former or current Colorado residents ages 28 to 49 and how prolonged sitting impacts their health using indicators including cholesterol and body mass index.

It included 730 twins, which made it easier to rule out genetic factors impacting certain health outcomes.

“Sitting for a long period of time, well over eight hours, was not good for one’s health even at these younger ages,” said first author Ryan Bruellman, a doctoral candidate at the University of California Riverside.

Participants reported sitting almost nine hours daily on average and some sat for up to 16 hours a day. They reported between 80 and 160 minutes of moderate physical activity on average weekly and less than 135 minutes of vigorous exercise.

By looking at cholesterol and body mass index, the study found that sitting caused health markers to worsen. The study found that people who sat more than eight hours a day and performed at or below current exercise recommendations could enter a moderate to high-risk category for cardiovascular and metabolic disease.

Bruellman said for those that are sitting a lot during the day, the study suggests getting more exercise than the recommended guidelines to offset it. The research shows that exercise guidelines may need to be changed to incorporate how much an individual is sitting throughout the day, he said.

“The current exercise recommendations are good, but generally individuals want to be surpassing that, especially if they’re sitting throughout the day,” Bruellman said.

If you can’t sit less, then the authors recommend 30 minutes of vigorous activity a day or any vigorous activity you can do throughout the week. Vigorous activity, or working out while consistently out of breath, was shown to be more powerful in combatting the negative impacts of sitting.

But for a lot of people, exercising that much can be overwhelming when they have to also cook, clean and take care of their family.The best thing people can do is reduce how much they sit per day, even if it’s for an hour less a day, Bruellman said. People can utilize a standing desk and take breaks to walk or stretch.

One of the main points of the study is the importance of moving throughout the day and reducing sitting time.

“Taking a run after a work day with long hours of sitting might not necessarily be as optimal as trying to reduce some of the sitting and taking a run,” Reynolds said.

Sitting can also have a negative impact on blood vessels, muscle strength and calorie burning.

“I want individuals to grasp how much they’re sitting in an average day and see if there’s little tweaks they can make to that sitting behavior,” Bruellman said.

Reynolds said the study shows how important it is to be mindful of establishing healthy habits early in life.

“Our study was looking at relatively healthy individuals, many of whom live in Colorado and are quite active,” she said. “Seeing the links we have in our sample was illuminating and I think that’s an important point that we were looking at a relatively healthy set of individuals and still seeing those effects. I think that’s a message for many of us.”