01

Today’s verified habit quote

“Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.”

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, 19 August 1785

02

Why this habit matters

A full workout can feel like too much when the real obstacle is the transition from eating to moving. A one-minute stair session makes that transition easier to practice.

The aim is not to label a normal rise in blood glucose as a failure or to erase a meal. It is to interrupt an automatic stretch of sitting with one deliberate minute of leg movement.

03

Start with one small practice

Lunch → about 25–30 minutes → one minute of stairs

  1. When lunch ends, set a timer for 27 minutes. This approximate timing follows the mixed-meal study; it has not been shown to be the best time to move.
  2. When it rings, if stairs are safe and appropriate for you, hold the handrail and climb and descend at a comfortable pace for 60 seconds. If stairs are unsafe or unavailable, walk on level ground for the same 60 seconds without assuming an identical effect.
  3. After your breathing has settled, record the practice and your effort from 1 to 10 in 66 Days. Recovery and recording are not timed.

The 60-second duration covers only the stair movement, not the waiting interval, recovery, or recording. The research tested a short-term response in small, young samples; it did not show that this routine treats diabetes, changes HbA1c, causes weight loss, or prevents disease.

04

What the science can—and cannot—say

What the one-minute result actually measured

In a 2024 randomized crossover trial, 31 apparently healthy young adults ate a 650-kcal mixed meal and completed zero, one, three, or ten minutes of comfortable stair climbing and descending. All movement ended 28 minutes after the meal.

Compared with sitting, the one-minute condition had a 14.0 mg/dL smaller rise in glucose and a 1.8 μIU/mL smaller rise in insulin at the 30-minute measurement. The study did not establish a clear change in its estimate of insulin sensitivity for the one-minute condition.

Jeff M. Moore et al., 2024

A second evening trial pointed in the same direction

A second crossover trial tested 30 young adults without diabetes after a 75-g evening glucose drink. One minute of self-paced stair stepping began at minute 57; the average baseline-to-60-minute glucose rise was 2.5 mmol/L with stairs versus 4.3 mmol/L while seated, although individual responses varied in both conditions.

This was a glucose drink rather than an ordinary meal, and the measurement came only minutes after movement. Some investigators were also on the earlier study, so the result is supportive—not a fully independent replication or evidence of long-term prevention.

Austin Morales et al., 2026

How using large leg muscles might help—and what the one-minute study did not measure

Contracting large leg muscles creates a glucose-uptake signal that is not identical to the classic insulin–Akt route. In a human biopsy study, 30 minutes of moderate exercise increased AMPKα2 activity and phosphorylation of TBC1D1 sites linked to contraction-stimulated glucose transport, without a detectable increase in Akt phosphorylation.

A separate ten-person study found that 45–60 minutes of cycling moved more GLUT4 transporters to the muscle-cell membrane in every participant. Those studies used far more exercise than one minute of stairs, so connecting the molecular pathway to the tiny stair snack is a mechanistic inference, not a direct measurement.

Niels Jessen et al., 2011 · J. W. Kennedy et al., 1999

The broader evidence favors breaking up sitting, with dose still unsettled

Across seven randomized crossover trials conducted over one day, a 2022 meta-analysis found lower post-meal glucose—but not clearly lower insulin—with repeated standing breaks than with continued sitting. Light-walking breaks were associated with lower glucose and, in the four trials reporting it, lower insulin. Results varied greatly across studies, and bias tests suggested possible publication bias, so the estimated size of the benefit should not be treated as stable across protocols.

Most protocols used repeated two-minute breaks every 20 minutes or five-minute breaks every 30 minutes. The review could not establish the best duration or frequency, so one minute should be treated as a manageable cue to start moving—not a universal dose.

Aidan J. Buffey et al., 2022

05

Reflect and connect it to your tracker

Which meal is most often followed by a long sit, and what existing cue could remind me to move safely about 25–30 minutes later?

Create “one minute after lunch” in 66 Days and track whether you responded to the cue—not a perfect glucose result—over your next 66 practices.

Track this cue in 66 Days

Research and primary sources

  1. Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 19 August 1785Founders Online, National Archives, 1785Primary-source letter. The quoted wording appears in the letter; modern editorial annotations are not quoted.
  2. One minute of stair climbing and descending reduces postprandial insulin and glucose with 3-min improving insulin resistance following a mixed meal in young adults: A randomized controlled crossover trialJournal of Exercise Science & Fitness, 2024 · DOI 10.1016/j.jesf.2024.03.00431 apparently healthy young adults in a four-condition randomized crossover trialShort-term mixed-meal study. The reported outcomes were changes from baseline to the single measurement taken 30 minutes after the meal; the study did not test any long-term clinical outcome.
  3. One minute of light-intensity stair-stepping decreases postprandial glycaemia in the evening in non-diabetic adults: A randomized controlled trialExperimental Physiology, 2026 · DOI 10.1113/EP09227430 young non-diabetic adults in a randomized crossover trialThis short-term evening study of the response to oral glucose was first published online in 2024. The research group overlaps with the 2024 mixed-meal trial, so this is not an independent replication.
  4. Exercise increases TBC1D1 phosphorylation in human skeletal muscleAmerican Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism, 2011 · DOI 10.1152/ajpendo.00042.201110 adults with obesity studied with skeletal-muscle biopsies after 30 minutes of moderate exerciseMechanistic evidence from a much larger exercise dose than the one-minute stair intervention.
  5. Acute exercise induces GLUT4 translocation in skeletal muscle of normal human subjects and subjects with type 2 diabetesDiabetes, 1999 · DOI 10.2337/diabetes.48.5.1192Five adults without diabetes and five adults with type 2 diabetes after 45–60 minutes of cycle exerciseDirect human evidence, from a very small sample and a much larger exercise dose than one minute of stairs, that exercise moved GLUT4 glucose transporters to the muscle-cell membrane.
  6. The Acute Effects of Interrupting Prolonged Sitting Time in Adults with Standing and Light-Intensity Walking on Biomarkers of Cardiometabolic Health in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysisSports Medicine, 2022 · DOI 10.1007/s40279-022-01649-4Seven randomized crossover trials conducted over one day, predominantly in adults who were overweight or had obesityPooled evidence concerns repeated standing or light-intensity walking breaks, not a single one-minute stair bout or long-term outcomes. Results varied greatly across studies, and bias tests suggested possible publication bias.