Add Nifoler Merchant—author, lecturer, business exec, deep thinker—to the list of people who view prolonged sitting as a health risk.

Her recent contribution to the Harvard Business Review Blog Network is titled “Sitting is the Smoking of Our Generation.” Among her reasons:

• People average 9.3 hours of sitting daily. Sleeping? 7.7 hours per day.

• An hour of sitting can cause a 90% decrease in the production of enzymes that burn fat. (That's our hint to get up and move a little.)

Merchant writes that 4 years ago, in hopes of merging exercise and productivity, she began inviting business partners on walking meetings. She says she now averages 20 to 30 miles per week on walking/hiking meetings.

Merchant calls the effort “life-changing,” and cites colleagues who credit walking meetings for triggering a creativity boost.

Walk-and-talk sessions were common in The West Wing, and the show's crew reunited last year to create this walking-is-healthy public service announcement:

Meanwhile, a recent segment on NBC’s Rock Center focused on one researcher’s call for more self-locomotion in every person’s life. Note: A brief ad precedes the clip: