Exercise offers many health benefits, from reducing your risk for heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes to strengthening your bones and improving your mental health. But even regular exercise can’t undo all the negative health effects that come from spending much of your day sitting — something many of us probably do.

A new study adds more support to the idea that our modern, screen-filled, sedentary lifestyle is taking a toll on our health, including increasing our risk for cardiovascular disease. In the new study, women who spent more of their day sitting or doing so in longer sessions had worse biomarkers related to cardiovascular disease. This included body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, fasting glucose, insulin resistance, and triglycerides. The effect was more pronounced for women with obesity compared to overweight women. This connection between sedentary behavior and cardiovascular disease risk remained even when researchers took into account women’s physical activity levels. That means being sedentary was linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease even in women who exercised regularly.

Steinbaum says that when it comes to heart health, we need to think about physical activity and time spent sitting as two separate things. “Does exercise make up for an exorbitant amount of sitting? The answer is no,” she said. “That’s why you should get up and move more often during the day.” Some studies suggest that you should get up and move about every 30 minutes. Steinbaum says you can also increase your heart rate at the same time by doing something like walking up and down a flight of stairs. “Because of the profound effect sitting has on the metabolism and the risk factors for heart disease, physical activity needs to be part of our lives all day long, not just when we are consciously exercising,” she said.