Researchers have found that people who are able to walk while they work lose weight. A "walk and work" station enabled overweight people to lose as much as 66 pounds a year while at work.

Participants were given a vertical "walk and work" desk designed by the study authors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, N.Y. Equipped with an "H"-shaped steel frame with four locking rubber wheels it could be placed over a treadmill. It had adjustable arms to hold a computer, keyboard and mouse.

Study participants reported that using the "walk and work" desk was easy and that they were able to work normally. The participants only used the desk a few hours a day, not for an entire eight hours.

Researchers measured the energy that the 15 participants in the study used while sitting at the exercise desk versus a normal desk. they found that sitting at a normal desk burns about 72 kilocalories per hour, compared to 191 kilocalories an hour while using the "walk and work" desk. Participants walked an average of one mile an hour.

The study findings are published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.