If you’re in the herd of office and professional workers out there (this includes accountants, doctors, lawyers, nurses, writers, etc) there’s about a 51% chance that you’re a woman. That’s right, women now make up over half of professional workers!
That’s great news, of course, but unfortunately it comes with a piece of bad news: working women are more likely to be overweight.
This makes a lot of sense, of course. If you work an office job, you’re constantly sitting, and sitting is one of the most awful things you can do. And a lot of office jobs are staring at a computer, typing, and sitting, and then getting in a car to drive home and sit some more.
But there’s more bad news. The more hours you work per week, the more weight you’re likely to gain. ##MN_RESP##
Where does this data come from, you ask? A study done on 9,276 Australian women between the ages of 45 and 50 found that women who worked 35 hours per week were much more likely to gain weight than those who worked part-time or were out of the workforce, and that number just increased as women worked more.
The most likely causes? They’re not very surprising. The study attributed this weight gain to stress, inactivity, lack of sleep, less time for food preparation, and higher levels of alcohol consumption.
And it’s understandable. Most working women don’t have luxury time to distress and get out. Here are some quick and easy tips from the Huffington Post to reduce that weight gain, even with your busy schedule.
- Exercise outdoors every day. It doesn’t have to be a hardcore 45 minute jog (at least not every day). It could be as simple as a fifteen minute walk around the block or the office park. It’s getting outside and moving that matters. It reduces stress (which causes weight gain) and anxiety.
- Brown bag your lunch. It’s the easiest way to save calories.
- Don’t raid the office vending machine. For obvious reasons—there’s junk in there.
- Eat when you’re hungry. There’s no need to eat your feelings or eat because you feel like you should eat with your friend. Eat when you’re actually hungry, and you’ll find that you won’t pig out as much.
And don’t worry! You don’t have to be this statistic if you don’t want to be.
