The incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) continues to skyrocket across the industrialized world leading to soaring medical costs, reduced quality of life and increased mortality rates. Therefore, a more firm understanding of the development of the disease and effective, low cost therapies for prevention and treatment are desperately needed. Accumulating evidence suggests that increased sedentary time (i.e. 'sitting time') combined with reduced physical activity levels, plays both a major role in the development of T2D and may contribute to the worsening of the condition after diagnosis. In this review, we cover these topics and use current scientific evidence to support our belief that 'type 2 diabetes sits in a chair'. We also discuss a relatively new question that has yet to be examined: Would reducing sitting time be an effective treatment for T2D?