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The contemporary office worker spends a minimum of eight hours per day sitting in front of a computer screen. Add at least two hours a day to time spent surfing the Internet or watching television, and the time available for any physical activity is seriously restricted. Not only are our waist lines are showing the effects, but our insurance premiums are higher and our health system is being compromised by rising rates of diabetes and heart disease.

According to a study published this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the answer to the problem may be to walk while we work.

Researchers from the Endocrine Research Unit at the Mayo clinic compared the rate of calories burned when participants sat to work at a computer with the rate burned while the same participants walked very slowly on a treadmill while they worked. The 14 women and one man who participated in the study all worked at sedentary jobs and were obese.

When seated to work, participants burned an average of just 72 calories an hour. If they walked at a speed of just 1.1 miles an hour while working, they burned an average of 119 calories an hour, an increase of slightly over 85%.

Researchers James Levine and Jennifer Miller found that, over a year, continuing to walk and work for two or three hours a day could result in a weight loss of 20 to 30 kg (45 to 68 lbs) per obese worker. Presumably, for the mildly chunky among us, the difference would result in a smaller loss of five to ten pounds.

The amount and quality of work does not appear to be affected by adding a treadmill to a typical work station.

"Productivity is neutral or enhanced," Dr. Levine said in an email interview. "Happy, healthy workers are productive."

Workers in the technology sector complain not just of weight gain, but of a myriad of aches and pains brought on by too much work and too little movement. Still, responses to the study and the walk-work station were less than enthusiastic.

"Everyone should be taking hourly breaks to walk around, to sharpen the mind and to avoid getting too sedentary," says Jordan Christiansen, an online architect for a prominent Canadian ecommerce site.

"I already get head aches trying to read on treadmills. Coding just wouldn't work. Now, if they could find a way for me to code on a Nintendo Wii, that would be something I could be motivated to do," says Christiansen.

Other programmers agree that walking and coding probably don't mix.

"If I can't rest my hands on my desk, I can't type," says Jeremy Chan of the Jonah Group. "Still, if I had to lose 60 pounds to save my life I might give it a try."

Among non coders there are reservations too, especially from those who work from home where the office is always too close to the kitchen.

Kerri Aldrich, who writes My Name is Mommy, Marriage Actually and Play Library) coined the term "blogger's butt," after she gained 15 pounds. The weight gain followed the adoption of a more sedentary lifestyle when Aldrich took up pro-blogging.

Aldrich can definitely see the up side of the vertical work station used in the study although she doesn't think it would be safe for her to work on a treadmill in a home with three kids running.

"Every little bit helps, and finding ways to be more active in what are normally sedentary activities can't be a bad thing," Aldrich said in an email interview. "Walking up and down the bottom stair in my house while watching TV is what helped me lose the initial 30 pounds."

Aldrich cautions it's important not to bank all hope on a walking work station.

The possible downside to walking on such a device is the tendency, and I don't think I'm the only one, here, to think: 'Well, I did all that extra activity today while working, so surely this little snack won't hurt me too much.'"

The Walk Work vertical work station will be released commercially with the office furniture company Steelcase.