Forty-one percent of the U.S. workforce has gained weight since starting their current position, a 2014 survey conducted by the job search website CareerBuilder.com discovered. Among those who have packed on the pounds, 59 percent gained more than 10, and 30 percent have added more than 20 pounds to their frame. Although many people say sedentary desk jobs are to blame, there are actually a number of other reasons your job may make it hard to stay trim. Here are some of the top offenders and easy ways to counteract the flab:
1. You Have too Much Responsibility
Long-term stress caused by things like too much job responsibility had a significantly larger effect on weight gain than short-term stressors brought on by things like quarterly reviews and once-in-a-while big assignments, a Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine study of nearly 3,000 people found. Why? When you’re under stress, you’re more apt to skip the gym after work and spend time doing sedentary things like vegging out in front of the TV to unwind. When every single day at the office leaves you feeling fried, these unhealthy coping tactics become daily occurrences and can lead to significant weight gain.
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To counteract after-work laziness, incorporate more activity throughout your day. If you take the bus or subway to and from your office, get off one stop early and walk the rest of the way. If you work in a high-rise, take the elevator half the way up to your office and then switch to the stairs. Working in bouts of activity throughout the day takes up very little time and can help keep the pounds from creeping up on you.
When you work later, you also eat later and go to sleep later, both of which lead to unwanted pounds. A study in the journal Nutrition Research found that those whose last meal was closest to bedtime took in more calories during the day. If you typically log late nights at the office, you could be diminishing the quality of your sleep and increasing your odds of weight gain. The blue light emitted from electronic devices like your office computer or iPad could negatively affect sleep quality, according to recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences research. Blue light emissions impair the production of the sleep hormone melatonin, making it harder to doze off. When you don’t feel rested, ghrelin–the hunger-stimulating hormone–goes into overdrive, increasing feelings of hunger even when the body isn’t in need of food.
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Invest in F.lux. Throughout the day the software gradually changes the light emissions from electronic devices from blue to a warm red, a hue that minimizes blue light’s stimulating effects.
3. You Work the Night Shift
Night-shift workers are more prone to weight gain than people who log daytime hours, a 2014 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study revealed. To arrive at these findings, University of Colorado at Boulder researchers studied 14 healthy adults for six days. For two days, study participants slept at night and stayed awake during the day, then they reversed their routines to mimic the schedules of night-time workers. When participants slept during the day, researchers found that they burned 52 to 59 fewer calories than they did while mimicking a “normal” sleep-work schedule. This seemingly small difference can add up over time. Researchers hypothesized that participants burned fewer calories because it threw off their circadian rhythm, the body's internal clock that plays a major role in metabolism.
Do This!
Aim to cut 50-60 calories from your daily diet. There are tons of easy ways to do this: Leave the cheese or the top piece of bread off your sandwich, order a tall latte instead of a venti, opt for whole fruit instead of the dried variety, or replace one serving of soda or juice with water.
Commuting to work by car isn’t doing your waistline any favors. A 2014 study published in the British Medical Journal found those who walk, bike or take public transportation to work tend to have lower BMIs than those who commute by car—which is bad news for the 90 percent of the workforce who drive.
Do This!
If you travel by car, park at the far end of the parking lot to get in some extra steps before settling in at your desk, and take a ten-minute walk before sitting down to have lunch. Every bout of exercise you can get throughout your day will help combat weight gain. You may also want to fat-proof your house. Here’s how: Toss these 13 foods out of your kitchen for good and restock your pantry and fridge with these 19 weight loss staples. Keeping bad-for-you fare out of your home and healthier picks on-hand will ensure you always have foods to eat that will help you maintain a healthy weight.
5. You Stay Glued to Your Seat
We sit an average of 67 hours a week — that's nine hours a day sitting, six hours lying down, and only about seven hours out of every 24 spent actually moving. And our sedentary jobs now cause us to burn 100 fewer calories a day than we did 50 years ago. That alone translates to gaining an extra 10 pounds a year.
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A recent study in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology found that a two-minute walk every hour can offset the effects of too much sitting.
If you don't have a window near you at work (at least 20 feet away), seek one out. Employees with windows near their desks receive 173% more white-light exposure during work hours and an additional 46 minutes of sleep per night than employees who don't have exposure to natural light. And those without windows get less physical activity. Plus, a new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Workers found that being exposed to artificial light leads to weight gain regardless of what you eat.
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If you're a prisoner of cubicleland, try to get as much morning sunlight before work as you can; in studies, sun exposure between 8 in the morning and noon is associated with higher fat burning and significantly lower BMIs, regardless of exercise, calorie intake, sleep or even age.
7. You Order Lunch
A study found that just having a lot of take-out options near your work or along your commute to work makes you twice as likely to be obese. Think about that for a moment: Just the mere presence of take-out food increases your risk of obesity.
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The best thing for you to do is pack your lunches and at least two snacks to make sure you don't have to go searching for food elsewhere.
We wouldn't dare ask you to forgo your morning cup of coffee...or even your 10 a.m. cup. But you might want to skip that 3:00 coffee run. Too much caffeine can lead to insulin resistance and increased fat storage, according to a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
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When the 3:00 slump hits, go for a walk or work out instead.
9. You Give in to Work Stress
When you're stressed at work, you are more likely to gain weight because you're more likely to want to hide under the covers when you get home. A recent study in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that people with high levels of job stress are 26 percent more likely to be inactive during their downtime than those with low-stress jobs. A University of Rochester study echoed these results, finding that stress at work leads to behaviors like watching TV and less exercise.
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It's one thing for your job to make you unhappy. But if it's making you unhealthy, it might be time to start looking around.
Source:MSN
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