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IT Workers Are Getting Fatter
buzzardsbay writes "While technologies such as virtualization, multi-threading, and blade servers have made the data center leaner, those who work there are getting... well... not leaner. According to a new study by CareerBuilder.com, 34 percent of IT workers say they have gained more than ten pounds in their current jobs. And 16 percent say they've gained at least twice that. The culprits seem to be the stressful-yet-sedentary nature of tech work coupled with our famously poor eating habits. According to the survey, some 41 percent of IT workers eat out for lunch twice or more per week, making portion and calorie control difficult. Eleven percent buy their lunch out of a vending machine at least once a week."
I guess if you're a sysadmin for the Internal Revenue Service then you're really screwed.
Nothing wrong with eating out (besides the financial hit). Just don't go to fastfood :)
...Mac is still skinny. He better watch out; PC may get peckish, and eat him.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
Basically if it's for your health then employers should get involved. Everyone can say that the employees should get off their arse and do it but clearly they're not, so someone will have to parent them on how to live. It's no big deal, it's just how some people are, and we should help them get exercise.
n/t
IT jobs like to hand you infinite snacks these days, there's a load of chips and such in the break room. Company culture tends to gravitate towards dubbing a measure of weight gain "The ACME Corp 20" or such nonsense, to which newbies gain some 20 pounds or so and then start limiting snack room visits.
Me, I use the stairs to get to floor 5. I have leg weights. I was in a martial arts class but a shift change took that off my plate, damn. Need to get back to the dojo. Diet? Exercise? Screw that, my entertainment and normal transportation (that is, without elevators) keeps me from being a fat ass.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
What next? to have their own gravity field too?
I didn't RTFA, but one thing to mention is a lot of companies these days have lots of food just laying around.
Where I work there is always a meeting with food somewhere in the building, and they always order more than they can eat. So of course as soon as the meeting is over, everyone goes and gets the leftovers. Next thing you know, you've had two lunches, two cookies and a bunch of soda you don't need.
It was the same at the last two companies I worked for and I asked a few friends and it's the same where they work.
I've been riding my bike to work to help turn the tide, but my main problem is just that food tastes so good! I'm sure the high stress and weird hours that many IT workers endure don't help either.
Perhaps its the biological inverse of Moores law.
you want power? well, you get power, fatty.
This is a big reason I can't stand television news, and here it is on /. And the source? A CareerBuilder study?! WTF?
And, anecdotally, at least in Austin (where we have a nice park system), the IT set seems pretty fit. Bicycles, kung fu, wii, etc...
I've actually managed to lose weight at my current job. Of course, I had to make it a focus point. I planned my meal for the whole day so I know what I could or couldn't eat. I barely keep any food in my house, expect for the food stuff I needed to make said meals with. And I still eat out a lot. Definitely a lot more than I did even in college. I just make sure that it fits into my food 'budget'. It's doable to lose weight, even in IT, it just requires some small changes to your habits and a little bit of will.
As Seen On TV's? Come back!!!
Try some Ankle Weights. Adding just 10 lbs extra to your weight you have to carry around burns calories and adds muscle tone. If you do not have a place you can walk to from your home, a coffee place, bar or the like...find one even if you have to drive to it. Walking around a museum or city park is still walking and you might find a new friend or more. An art museum in my town costs about 50 bucks a year for a year long membership, the natural history museum is almost 150 bucks and the parks are always free.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
It's pretty simple. I take the train to work. The train station is about 1.5 miles from where I work, which I walk, rain, snow, or shine. Then, I come home and lift weights 3-4 times a week. It's a bit gone to hell since I'm in the process of moving, but I might actually add a body building section to my Linux blog. Just because we like the Penguin, doesn't mean you have to be built like one!
This is my sig.
This was the contents of his fridge and pantry: Bologna
Beer
Hot dogs
Chocolate Syrup (three of these)
Two cartons of ice cream (only two, yet three chocolate syrup bottles)
Three Jack's frozen pizzas
Four containers of butter, and one box of sticked butter.
Bucket of fried chicken
Two pizzas from some pizza joint
The Pantry:
No bread just hot dog buns
Three containers of peanut butter
At least a pound to a pound a half of sugar I'm missing a few items, but its all about time. He just didn't have enough time to think about what hes eating. Hes on call most of the time and instead of buying healthier solutions he chose quickly made and heavily preserved foods.
around my belly mainly.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Never attribute this kind of stuff to your job unless other factors can be ruled out also. Lots of people without access to free snacks/pop put on weight starting about the age 25. For many, getting married seems to add a the pouch and love handles. Also, about age 25, you aren't as hyper as you were when you were 21, and so you are less anxious to run around. When I was 18-25, and in college, I ate like crap, out of vending machines and a quick pizza for lunch. Lots of un-diet sodas. I was still skinny as a rail. When I turned 25 and got married, then I started putting on weight.
Even with eating better, it still doesn't help because my activity levels are far lower than they were when I was younger.
IT and lights out management have nothing to do with it.
it's part of the stereotype. If your a fatso (me). You will be most likely to get the job. Wearing glasses helps. Evil Spock beard is better, best not to look like Pitr from User Friendly, go for Sid http://www.userfriendly.org/cartoons/sid/ but extra weight helps.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
I'm still only 30 and my metabolism hasn't slowed down yet.
Given the other studies I see about less computer graduates, that would indicate an aging workforce.
So we have people who have been sitting in uncomfortable office chairs for 20 years writing code, eating Cheez Its or Doritos or jujubees or whatever and drinking copious quantities of caffeinated and often sugary beverages. Is it really surprising that on average they might have a couple extra pounds?
because if the food sucks, you are less likely to overeat?
I have a hunch this isn't so much a function of IT specifically but of the fact that as people get older, they tend to put on weight. The article even indicated that this wasn't just an IT issue.
"But, hey, no matter the culprits, IT workers can take heart in another CareerBuilder finding: They are less chubby than financial services and government workers. Fifty-three percent of financial workers said they have gained weight at their current jobs, while the number for government workers is 52 percent."
I actually draw a different conclusion from the article, the fact that 34% of IT professionals have gained 10+ lbs in their current profession means they've been in that profession a few years (generally you don't gain that weight overnight).
I don't know about financial workers but this hypothesis is backed up by the growth of government workers who don't change jobs a lot.
I stole this Sig
It is definitely harder to keep the pounds off in my graying years. Depression has led to alcohol and more pounds. Not sure what to do at this point ...
(insert fat, deep laugh) Just because I'm unafraid of thermal detonators, collaborate with bounty hunters, have a small rat-like thingy, gammorean guards and a passion for live, frozen wall ornaments does NOT make me fat!
PS, Where's my money Solo?
What about using a FLOSS meal planner, like both of the Gourmet meal planners: http://grecipe-manager.sourceforge.net/ http://frdcsa.onshore.net/frdcsa/internal/gourmet
Is being fat really funny?
...would be to have a treadmill or cross-trainer in every cubicle. The harder the worker exercises, the higher the priority his/her processes are given.
"Hey, Joe, you're covered in sweat!"
"Yeah, I know, those KDE apps take ages to compile!"
-- In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was UNSIGNED, and the main(){} was without form and void...
It's a little late for this (because I missed the /. coding munchies poll) but I gotta shoutout to Jelly Belly beans as a work snack because the assorted bag keeps you eating the beans one by one. They also don't leave residue on your fingers and are fat free with 4 calories and 1 gram carbs per bean. They have tasty flavors like tabasco, buttered popcorn, hawwiian punch etc. They're certified kosher and don't contain gluten. Great way to enjoy mindless, repetitive tasks.
And exercise. Get plenty of it on your offtime.
I don't see any mention of a control group or comparison to other occupations.
Maybe 34% of all people gain 10 pounds anyway regardless of their profession or even whether or not they're employed. A lot of people gain weight over time irrespective. What phenomena is being described here?
The Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle program has worked for me. I wrote a long summary of it a while back, and I'll just link it:
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=226411&cid=18343433
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
I'm a vegetarian.
I used to weigh about 250 pounds. My current weight is about 180. The majority of the weight I lost was when I was an omnivore. It wasn't a wholesale change in my diet, it was a vast increase in exercise.
I have gained about 10 pounds since I left my last job, but that's because my old job was a 25 minute bike ride away and I'd walk around at lunch.
My new job is a 10 minute drive (I take the kids to daycare now) and I don't really have anywhere to walk to.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Is that even possible?
You can't simply say that someone '10 lbs heavier' is worse off than before.. Sure it's probably a good bet (in this sector), but what if more and more are now going to the gym and gaining muscle mass instead? In my current role in IT, I've managed to put on 15lbs, but lean out.. You can't judge someone simply by their weight necessarily is all I'm trying to say
Don't work. Just sit around and read /. or similar sites. Then you are not an "IT not-worker" and you're not affected :)
I'm about 130 pounds (59kg), 5 foot 9 inches (175cm).
Other than daily walking just getting places, which equals maybe a mile, I don't exercise. I don't eat terribly well either. Barely sleep. Stress, got that too. I think weight has far more to do with genetics than anything you put in your body or do with it, although some lifestyles are worse than others. Sitting at computer all day is never going to make me 200+ pounds but maybe I'm not as fit as I could be if my job required me to be more active.
Maybe I'm missing something, but exactly how is portion control difficult if you're the one eating the portions? The food doesn't just get in your stomach magically...someone has to eat it (and continue to eat it past the point of too large a portion!).
-S
"According to a new study by CareerBuilder.com, 34 percent of IT workers say they have gained more than ten pounds in their current jobs. And 16 percent say they've gained at least twice that. The culprits seem to be the stressful-yet-sedentary nature of tech work coupled with our famously poor eating habits."
-I think that extra 10 lbs is upper-arm muscle, thanks to a few hi-def pix of Capt. Janeway and Seven-Of-Nine.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Wow. Half of IT workers are gaining weight, half aren't. And I thought that one forum having more posters than another was a nonstory. I stand corrected.
I'm an overweight American IT worker so now that this study is out I'll try to sue my company for making me fat.
A quick look at my office and the fact only 4 out of 11 people are at a healthy weight with 1 well over 300 pounds could have told me we are a bunch of fat asses.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
Stressful-yet-sedentary: I could exercise in the other sixteen hours of the day. I just don't.
Poor eating habits: I eat out a lot but they have this cool thing called "salad" now. It's like a complex collection of cellulose based food stuffs. If you have them put the CH3(CH2)nCOOH (they call this "dressing") on the side and only add enough for taste, it's surprisingly good for you.
Yep, at the end of the day, I'm a lazy bastard who eats because I revel in it. Not as good a headline as "IT jobs are to blame" but way more honest.
On the positive side, I can slap one side of my gut and pretend it's a newton's cradle... which I'm sure you'll agree is pretty cool.
Guess that would make Linux a bodybuilder. He can eat whatever he wants and still kick both Mac and PCs asses.
Too much desk work, doing boring pointless projects, dulls the soul. Hours of marching to meet a foe in battle who outnumbers you, facing certain death with a chance to dispense death... that drops those pounds like nothing else!
Anti-Globalism, Traditionalism, and FreeBSD.
Join a gym.
Start running or cycling (no, walking isn't enough.)
Most of all, learn about proper nutrition. Being in shape is 60% nutrition, 30% exercise, and 10% genetics.
There's many good sources of information. Reading Men's Health may be a good start, or find some good books on the subject.
Schedule a couple of hours per week. It's not hard.
thegodmovie.com - watch it
Hm. I've lost 20lbs in 9 months at my tech job, despite eating out every day for lunch, and smoking plenty of weed.
Sure I'm stressed out and extremely busy. But it gives me an incentive to get out on my bike, bike to work as relaxation/stress relief, hit the gym more, and so on. It also helps that the job is vastly better than the Big4 shithole I came from (I swear those places are cults).
If you value getting in shape, you will. If you don't, you won't. If you have the all-too-common tech worker attitude of blaming everything on others and pissing and moaning about being paid only 100k to sit in an air conditioned building all day, well, guess what will happen when you start putting on weight? Yup, you'll blame it on everyone but yourself.
Bicycle to work.
but have the cubes grown in proportion to the programmers?
...wives are also getting fatter. Scientists have attributed this swelling to an unexplained allergic reaction to gold and diamonds.
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
Here I am, sitting and eating lunch while I read Slashdot.
I am definitely getting fatter.
Mind you, I find it hard to read Slashdot while I am out pounding the sidewalks getting exercise. So that leaves the other major thinning moment: when I am sitting on the toilet.
But I don't take my laptop into the toilet room (no, it's NOT a bathroom, it has no bath; the bath is in the room next door, oddly enough that room is called the bathroom).
So yes, whenever I am reading an article about IT workers getting fatter, I am likely to be getting fatter too.
Doesn't mean I am any fatter than last year, though.
I am anarch of all I survey.
I take Zyprexa for my mental illness. It makes most people gain weight, because it eliminates the feeling that you've had enough to eat.
Well I've sworn off the ice cream, and am now bicycling to work and elsewhere around Silicon Valley.
I've only just started this, so I don't have measurable progress yet, but I'm very determined.
Several times I've put on a lot of weight then managed to lose it. Usually cycling is a big part of that.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
Dont want to sound mean, but it's the truth.
Even though we're in an era of people being more health conscious, most people don't apply it.
Cut out the crap food and just work out. It's that simple. I've been skinny most my life. Actually being a skinny geek is what motivated me to work out because I had a negative body image. I stopped working out though when I turned 30, and coupled with a poor fast food diet, I went from 190 lbs to 240. All fat. One day I realized, this isn't me, and got back to my old ways.
I train 6 days a week. You might say, 'who has the time?'. I only train about 30-40 minutes. It doesn't take 3 hours at the gym killing yourself.
You want to save even more time? Screw steady state cardio, do HIIT training (high intensity interval training). Explode for 10-12 minutes instead of plodding along for 30. It'll be over sooner, and it's actually fun. You can do sprints, skipping or burpees are killer.
Yeah, stupid name, but you won't laugh if you try it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v/R4KRofyvRPg&l=63&sk=pHnpfDQLUPWWgqBEDDbfeaF-gzW6-8Z3U&fmt_map=&t=OEgsToPDskLvCCyAZA763kgMJEqJTX5D&hl=en&plid=AARNtgMFBGZbAwI5AAAAoAAAAAA
Bottom line, it's not your job, it's you. The blame lands in your lap.
There are so many things in life you might say you wish you didn't do. 'I regret eating that pizza. I wish we didn't see that boring movie. etc.'
You will never finish a workout and think, I wish I can go back half an hour and not have done this workout. It might be hard as hell to start, but once you're done you'll never regret it.'
I _ a m _ n o t _ g e t t i n g _ f a t t e r ! Y o u _ m a d e _ t h a t _ u p .
Table-ized A.I.
IT people aren't fat. They're just big boned.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
You can partly blame the government for it, because their food pyramid is complete and utter nonsense, because basically it was made by the food companies.
Just a few days ago Haward released a food pyramid that is not driven by big business:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/pyramid/index.html
*That* is how the food pyramid should have looked like from the start. More information here.
Open Source Alternatives
You can still get laid! Our friends at google ads posted this gem for me (on /.'s forntpage, no less!) Formatting not preserved. Sorry.
Ads by Google
Beautiful Russian Girls
10,000 Russian Girls for Marriage. Find Your Russian Beauty Queen!
www.Anastasia-International.com
I am already talking to Svetlana from Odessa and she is going to come to me as soon as I wire her $1500 for the ticket. Oh boy, oh boy, boy!!!
Find something ... ANYTHING ... do to outside of IT/Computers/sedentary shit....amazing how it works.
... nothing like hitting a round object with a bat and running around the bases .... and if the other team gets chirpy, going in spikes high ...
Me? I take care of 3 issues by playing ball (softball/baseball/arena softball) six days a week, 1 to 3 games per night.
1) It's great exercise
2) It's even better of a stress burner
3) It prevents 16 hour workdays....
I'm bigger than you! Now get in my belly!
i don't eat lunch so much
hahahaha
duh?!?...this is nothing new. As if we didn't have enough problems with women, we have to keep the wheels of progress turning for idiot marketing people that have to be taught that just because you buy a wireless router, doesn't mean you're on the internet, and do it in such a way that he/she can get to the gym on time to work off that 1pound she/he gained over christmas break....but NOOooOOOo...we have to stick around and fix everything they broke over our vacation.
...compounded by the fact that we have to field some of the STUPIDEST questions, repeatedly, and to the same people...it's mind-numbingly aggrivating, because we have to smile while we're telling someone they're an idiot, under our breath, and between our teeth....so you add stress on top of a shitty diet, horrible working conditions,and we have to do it, on time, underbudget, or face the prospect of getting outsourced to some "Dirka Dirka" carpet pilot, named "Mike".....(which is another rant in and of itself. Your name's not Mike, Mahatma...you're not fooling anyone, and the fact that you're lying as soon as you pick up the phone, immediately puts me on the defensive....but that's another rant for another subject.)
We have to stay glued to our desks. Glued to our cell phones. Glued to a connection while we're off...
Does it really take a study to figure this stuff out? I mean seriously. It doesn't take a scientist with degrees in quantum physics to figure that out. My 7 year old nephew figured that one out..."Uncle, you need to get a new job, so you can work out more".
Studies like this are insulting to every IT worker , we know why we put on weight, we've been telling people for years!
There are 2 groups of people you can make fun of on the Internet without fear of attack. The illiterate, and the Amish.
I lost some weight when I became vegan (going from omni), but I later went back to my normal weight.
I attribute to not knowing what junk food was vegan in the beginning, and later learning. :D
For losing weight, the Hacker's Diet (google it) and exercise is working for me, but I'm never more than 20-25 lbs above my ideal body weight. It is rare I stray outside of a "healthy" BMI -- but I do tend to keep a little fat around my middle even if the BMI says I'm healthy.
Wait a minute, what's going on here? None of the figures quoted in the summary or article are above 50%, so wouldn't that mean most I.T. workers are either staying the same weight or losing weight? Wouldn't that make the majority of I.T. workers a fairly healthy bunch overall, the exact opposite of what the rather smugly-written article is trying to say? I could see if they were saying that the numbers have increased compared to an identical survey in the past but they're not even doing that. Forget making mountains out of molehills, this article made one out of a canyon.
I blame you, high fructose corn syrup! You taste just like you smell, delicious!
Im the most underweight person i know, and I sit at a desk all day programming!!!
I'm already eating out for lunch twice or more per DAY.
Just get a fucking hobby. I went from 97kg to 107kg in my first year of IT work. Got fed up with being a fat ass last year, started eating low carb food and added exercise to my hobby list. Now I'm 85kg and spend a few nights at our gym doing bjj. Don't make excuses, I've got a 7 month old kid and I still manage to get some training time without any inhuman efforts or harming my relationship with my family. Just do it, you lazy bum.
I refuse to fit the stereotype of the fat, unkempt, unsociable IT worker. I'm 5'11", 158lbs, 12% bodyfat, bench 225lbs, squat 225lbs and can run a 5k in 25min. Oh yeah, and I'll be 35 next month.
I have kinda bad work-lunch habits. Mostly vending machine stuff, though I don't go calorie crazy with soda and pie and stuff (usually) but it's definitely not healthy. But seriously I can and have tried an all cookie diet for 2 days and I just simply don't gain weight. It's genetic. So not to go all Hitlery on everyone not so lucky but if you have superior genetics like me, you're more likely to be healthy in IT :D plus I got a kick ass immune system so I never call in sick cuz I never am and I have absolutely perfect 15/20+ vision and absolutely don't need glasses. I'm like some kind of mutant super geek hehehe.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
My stepdad introduced me to linux and gave me (the best) job - migrating the office away from windows. He's an old unix hacker who sits in front of the box for 10+ hrs a day and wanted a way to maintain his body. So he came up with a pretty cool toy which attaches to a standard office chair. Check it out at www.exchair.com (website still under construction). I know this is a shameless plug but I don't think he's sold one yet (in over 5 years) so this is hardly a big capitalist venture. It is just a tool made for coders (or anyone else who sits long hours).
According to the pro-aspartame website aspartame.org, the product is in over 5000 other products.
Others say that the aspartame product is hidden by the name "natural flavor", or "artificial flavor".
And according to:
http://www.wnho.net/aspartame_makes_you_fatter.htm
"ASPARTAME MAKES YOU FATTER!"
"COMMENTS BY DR. BETTY MARTINI:
Also with regard to obesity and aspartame, the Trocho Study in Barcelona in l998 showed that the formaldehyde converted from the free methyl alcohol accumulates in the cells and damages DNA with most toxicity in the liver but substantial toxicity in the adipose tissue or fat cells. Further a recent epidemiological study by Sharon Fowler at the University of Texas in 2005 linked diet drinks with obesity.
In the Congressional Record, Senate, S - 5511, May 7, l985, and part of the protest of the National Soft Drink Assn, now American Beverage, is this Statement:
"Aspartame has been demonstrated to inhibit the carbohydrate-induced synthesis of the neurotransmitter serotonin (Wurtman affidavit). Serotonin blunts the sensation of craving carbohydrates and this is part of the body's feedback system that helps limit consumption of carbohydrate to appropriate levels. Its inhibition by aspartame could lead to the anomalous result of a diet product causing increased consumption of carbohydrates."
So as far as product liability is concerned you have companies marketing an addictive excitoneurotoxic carcinogenic drug to the population as a sugarfree diet product knowing full well this is causing obesity. They also know that aspartame is addictive and that the methanol component is classified as a narcotic. Aspartame liberates free methyl alcohol causing chronic methanol poisoning. This affects the dopamine system of the brain causing the addiction."
I do an hour a day every day and I've put on 10 pounds straight to the midsection in the last year. Granted, since I'm about 6'2" and my new weight is 145 I'm not exactly the poster child for the obesity crisis, but you're going to need slightly more than bicycling to get out of the IT rut.
I find myself in it for a triple whammy of reasons:
1) Crazy long hours means I cut my gym time from 3 times a week to once a month.
2) Crazy long hours means I now eat out constantly, and many of my favorites are just not healthy at all.
3) My energy level after the long day and commute is zero so to the extent that I used to get "free" excercize for simple things like taking a quick jaunt to the video store, I no longer do such things, but rather just crash or make due with downloads/Netflix-equivalents.
My goal for this summer is to cook more, develop some new habits for when I eat out (more salad, less all-you-can-eat pizza, etc), get out a bit more, and above all cut out an hour or two a day.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
... Seven of Nine? I guess its true, there are all sorts of weirdoes on the Internet...
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
No, certainly not just IT. Anyone who works a desk/office job [a good percent of the readers, for sure] is, in a sense, at risk.
If each mistake being made is a new one, then progress is being made.
I took two weeks off when my son was born. I changed nothing in my eating habits, but I was doing chores around the house constantly. Lost 8 lbs. I slowly gained it back once I was back at my desk.
--alop
Yeah, thanks to Wii Fit, I've actually lost weight in the last month :-)
All of my colleagues from work are also pretty fit, they swim, go biking and play football (not the american kind).
"According to the survey, some 41 percent of IT workers eat out for lunch twice or more per week, making portion and calorie control difficult."
Secret Diet Tip available exclusively to slashdot readers - EXERCISE restraint! Share that giant sized portion with another IT worker.
People here are giving well meant advice like 'Cycle to work', 'Change diet', etc.
However, I've observed that most of my geek friends - including my once slender geek buddy now turned fatso - have gained the habit of eating far beyond their appetite. And my fat buddy does a lot of exercise.
Newsflash: Exercise doesn't help you lose weight very effectively. There is a far more effective solution: Eat less.
Whenever I notice my jeans pinching and my belly gaining (my thighs have gained to much allready - I ought to get them a tad thinner aswell) and my belt going up a notch I simply eat less. It's become something of a bi-monthly rythym of eating normal or what my spoose has trained me to consider normal (read: eating to much!) and barking at her or simply refusing to eat when she heaps to much on to my plate despite me telling her that I'll help myself.
Eating over your appetite has become a social thing, and if you refuse to do it you get queer looks from all sides. Especially if you're still what other *call* slender. Well, guess why I *am* slender, fat-ass!? It's not because I'm doing Aikido twice a week. I simply restrain myself from stuffing my face. Eating slowly helps btw. Eating to fast is one of my prime cause for overweight tendency.
Bottom line: If you can't come up with anthing better, switch to scheduled Broughth and Ramen for 10 weeks and you'll be suprised how well your body starts eating away at those extra pounds stored all over the place. And train yourself to eat less, even if it takes a few ups and downs along the JoJo String. You'll eventually reach your ideal weight if you apply reason to your image in the mirror.
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
is a reasonable way of getting fit :) How about using a fixed gear or single speed bike as a commuter to save on maintenance and cost? www.sheldonbrown.com www.fixedgeargallery.com are some good sites on the topic
except that it doesn't work that way:
mat@desktop:~$ host -t ANY mlkqsdjf.irs.gov
mlkqsdjf.irs.gov mail is handled by 5 MX-RELAY1.treas.gov.
mlkqsdjf.irs.gov mail is handled by 10 mx-relay24.treas.gov.
Anything (*.irs.gov) will get handled by that server; doesn't mean that the address exists.
Posting anon because I modded the fp funny.
Is it really that difficult?
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
For losing weight, the Hacker's Diet (google it) and exercise is working for me
Sir, I salute you. I found it here, I've never heard of this method but I find it fascinating.
In the last ten years I've put on about 50 pounds. One of the reasons why, I believe, is that when you're so engrossed in your computer work, you just don't take the time to eat right and/or exercise. And why should you? The computer stuff is so awesome, you never think about all that other stuff.
To make matters worse, most "health nuts" (and/or diet freaks) are so irritatingly moronic, you just get turned off on the whole thing entirely. Refreshing and inspiring to see a book/site written by a true engineer.
Thanks again.
I wonder if the average age of IT workers have increased. This is just idle speculation on my part, but seems to me that in the early nineties there was a bit of a boom when it came to people going for an IT related education. Perhaps one of the factors is that a large group of the people working with IT is aging and thus the average age increases. Of course I have no doubt that unhealthy eating habits plays it's part; just how much worse is it for IT workers than people in general. Seems to me that spending time and capacity understanding what is good for your body and trying to act upon that information; is something most people could benefit from; not just IT workers.
The Long Now Foundation
I gained 50 pounds working in IT. I have lost it since quiting my job and working in retail.
I'm a lot happier now.
I'm not fat, just a wee bit full up.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
But I was thinking of a way
To feed oneself on batter,
And so go on from day to day
Getting a little fatter.
I shook him well from side to side,
Until his face was blue:
"Come, tell me how you live," I cried,
"And what it is you do!"
--The White Knight's Song by Lewis Carroll
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
Even a short challenge to yourself, like eating vegan (or even vegetarian, if meat features heavily on your diet) for a month, can get you really thinking about your food, and forming habits that will be healthier once you return to a diet rich in actual food.
fuuuck - i'm getting older, hairier and uglier too.
I too had been gaining weight until I finally read a book on the Atkins diet and for the past two years I have lost literally all of that extra weight. I bring in raw chicken breasts to work and leave them in the fridge. When it's lunchtime I pop one of them (I put them in sandwich bags so they can be easily separated) in the microwave and my hunger is satisfied and I'm done. Easy and convenient and cheap. I had been drinking sugared Mountain Dew and eating pasta. But I did learn that sugared Dew, potatoes, pasta, bread and rice have one thing in common: they turn to sugar in your body. Then you get an insulin spike to deal with the sugar spike and when the insulin spike has dealt with the excess sugar by turning it into fat, you're hungry again! If you eat protein--such as chicken breasts--it does NOT turn to sugar because it takes a long time to digest. You therefore do not get the insulin spike and do not get hungry! So, over the past 18 months, I have been forced to cut three new belt holes in my old belt. Can you say: high-school weight?
the key is to get off your ass workout at least 30min each day and eat every 3 hrs between 330-350 calories stay away from sugar and rice. you can take 1 day a week off to take care of any cravings
I lost 90lbs in 11 months using this planand and managed to fit back into size 32 pants, its hard at first but if you stick to it yoll see major results.
just remenber it's not a diet but a lifestyle chage. Diets dont work!
running windows server 2000 will make you lose a lot of weight
We get free pop. But they took away the green tea and the filtered water cooler. And the subsidized cafeteria? If you ate there every day for a couple years, you would have clogged arteries, heart disease and diabetes. They push this crap on folks, then are outraged everyone is over weight! WTF?!?
It sounds blasphemous, but biking 25Km a day burns off the unimaginable calories you intake in one day. Novel idea, huh.
A morning without coffee is like something without something else.
Both parties are responsible here.
The employer for not making good food readily available to their employees.
Have a good cafeteria set up with good food, people will eat it, they are hungry not stupid.
They are also pressed for time, so don't put a machine full of junk instead of having
a whole wheat sandwich bar nearby.
Second, it's the employees fault. Discipline... and exercise. It's ok to have 3 level 70s
on WoW, it's not ok to have a girlfriend that not only lifts more then you, but that you need
to help you move cause your out of shape.
I go to the gym at least 4 times a week. If i have to choose between nighttime rest and working out
I go to the gym, cause i know no on else will do it for me!
If you're a little chubby and are also very lazy (like me), you may get really good results doing what I did: Cut out all added sugar and high fructose corn syrup from your diet.
I lost 35 pounds in 3 months and sort of tabled out down there.
I still eat as much as I want, whatever else I want, just no more added sugar.
Oh, and fruit sugars are okay, so pure fruit juices, all-fruit spreads, and the actual fruit itself is all a-okay. Just read the labels and watch for the extra sweetener those sneaky bastards love to slip in...
I'm going to be honest and say that I'll probably NEVER find the time to exercise. There's just too many MythTV and Asterisk boxes I'd rather be tinkering with in my spare time. I discovered this no-sugar thing completely by accident (it started out as doctor's orders for my son, I just did it out of sympathy), but I'm really glad I did.
OH! And before I forget to warn you, TOO MUCH SUGAR-FREE CANDY CAUSES DIARRHEA!!! You can eat the whole bag, and it tastes fine, but expect to spend the next WEEK on the john. True story!
I've recently taken up cycling (both road and MTB). Not only is it good for your health, but it's also high in geek factor - carbon fiber, titanium, wireless computers...what's not to love?
Meant to also add that the person is at least 50% to blame. People seem to know they shouldn't eat at burger king all the time but they still do because of laziness in not wanting to make their own food or just because they like it and to hell with the future. Everyone lives for the now and satisfying whatever temptation they have at the moment and to hell with their future. They'll all end up on 10 different medications for blood pressure, cholesterol and type 2 diabetes or more.
And there's a sale at JC Penneys!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
F all that. I've lost around 50 lbs at my IT job, cut out elevators and empty carbs and learn how to optimally walk up stairs.
This remark, while funny to the morons who don't know about the shit companies put in your food, is not quite correct.
:|
:|
It should read, "Because the food is not laden with appetite inducing chemicals and additives, you just won't have the desire to overeat."
Food production companies put all kinds of shit in your food to help you, essentially by drugging you, to eat more food.
One of the most common is sweeteners like sugar, corn syrup, and fructose, glucose, etc... which increase appetite all by themselves.
So maybe if there wasn't this pervasive availability of appetite increasing (as well as mind and body destroying) foods that are ruthlessly pushed by companies for profit$$$ then people wouldn't be so fucking fat.
Note: I became a vegan recently... just in time too, the government just asked the meat companies to stop testing for mad cow disease... yay
It is a fact of life that if you work long enough in IT you will slowly morph into THIS.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Eleven percent buy their lunch out of a vending machine at least once a week.
Damn, that's it? The only food I get is vending machine, and bad cafeteria food. Of course, I only eat one "meal" a day, so I don't fall into these statistics, unless underweight, underpaid, and overworked counts. I don't get paid enough to eat more than one "meal" a day, and sometimes not even that.
They're obviously overpaying the IT people who can get fat. For the rest of us, our exercise is defending the cardboard box that we're calling home, because we can't afford rent, power, or even the car we used to drive.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Duh. IT is a sedentary job. And most people who go into it do so in their 20s where the greatest physiological changes happen and are likely to stick. And the display companies didn't do us any favors by switch from nice heavy leaded glass CRT's to lightweight LCD's.
If most IT shops have evolved like the one I work in, then the resulting goal is to work to do as little as possible. When I started here there were many service tasks that would be handled by going to the user's desk. Re-imaging systems, software installation, helping the user find the 'allow zebras' checkbox, etc... With remote management and imaging software, the butt rarely has to leave the chair. Now it can focus on more important things, like getting bigger.
If you really want to lose weight, here are some tips:
1) get into cycling for your day to day tasks. Concerned about sweat/cold/rain/snow? Google 'bicycle commuting' for a wealth of information. Look into merino wool ("smart wool") and bamboo clothes. Shower before your ride and once you cool down you won't feel disgusting. Start off doing it a day a week, then two, etc. Get a bike with racks and panniers so you can start replacing other errands, like shopping. Look into dyno hubs for lighting, and internal gear hubs for exceptionally low maintenance. Good commuting bikes can be pricey, but you are investing in your health, and with gas getting pricey it will pay for itself sooner rather than later.
2) Don't drink anything with calories. Especially sodas/energy drinks/sugar added fruit juices. This can be very hard. I was so addicted to soda for so, so long, it took a long time to get off. But now I don't miss it at all. Also, skip the caffein. At first you'll feel like shit but after a few weeks you'll have never felt better.
3) Don't buy anything with high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated fats. Look for whole grain breads, natural peanut butters (skippy makes a great one that you don't need to stir or refrigerate), etc. Find veggies you like and have some with every meal. Keep stuff at work (bread, PBJ, frozen veggies) so when you don't have time to pack food you'll have something decent there.
4) when you get a craving for junk food, eat fruit instead. It can help with that empty feeling of wanting something heavy to eat.
5) when you are cycling all the time, make sure to eat enough (although make it healthy as possible), and make sure to get plenty of good carbs or you will feel worn out a lot.
6) if you have overwhelming cravings for terrible things, have a cheat day here and there. just don't go too crazy. eventually you'll always cave if you want something bad enough, so limit yourself to certain days where you can have it (pizza and such).
It takes time, but after a while you'll be in amazing shape. I find it incredibly enjoying to cruise by backed up traffic at rush hour, and give the finger to gas stations on the way by. Plus you always get a great parking spot.
life is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think
I recently spent 5 months in India for IT training, and a friend of mine who had been studying abroad in Ireland also found that in places where meat is considered a luxury(or expensive), it is really easy to lose weight.
I went out nearly every other night for dinner usually consisting of chicken or lamb and an appetizer. I ate till wanted to die, but conversely, my lunch every day was a veg or lentil dish. Coupled with a 20-30 minute run every other day, I lost 20 pounds. Switching one meal a day to veg can have a big difference, and it can balance out your diet in terms of variety and nutrients.Vista induced stress is resulting in mass eating binges. Quart of Rocky Road ice cream anyone?
...one time, some people wanted to have a gym in the office. I was saying the treadmills should be in the server room hooked up to the UPS array - it's clean energy that would just be turned into heat in the treadmill anyways, and if the power goes out and we need more time at least we have options. Plus there would be no need for another room with more air conditioning. For security, the server room could have two doors and be divided with fencewire or something between the secure server room area and the open gym area.
I was only half joking. Do they make treadmills with power outputs? Also some sort of power controller to reduce AC power usage as the treadmills kick in would be required. The only real downside is that the server room might start to smell bad.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
The purported reason employers want to do this is to reduce health insurance costs by having hard data to bargain with when making health insurance deals.
Here's the link for more info on this terrific program. Virgin Health Miles Program FAQ
-- Each tock of the Planck clock is a new world and here we are still life. --
PEOPLE are getting fatter.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
You wouldn't believe the looks I get from my family when I tell them that WoW has improved my diet and helped in my effort to control my weight, but it's true. As long as I'm getting regular exercise before sitting down for my marathon sessions, WoW is actually more interesting than snacking.
This won't work for everyone, especially if you like to bring cheetos to your computer, but for me it's been a very pleasant surprise.
I've also found that Rock Band drums give you a pretty decent workout, the Wii sports like boxing can be a bit of a challenge, and of course the benefits of DDR are pretty well known. I'm really looking forward to Wii Fit today.
microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
"I don't really have anywhere to walk to."
I find that hard to believe, even if it's a rock 300 yards a way, that is someplace to walk to. The great part about you only need to be motivated to get to the walk, you ahve to walk back motivated or not!
If you are in a 10x10 square, the other side is someplace to walk to. Plus you get the extra exercise when you ahve to kill the Orc.
Sorry about the ob. DnD reference.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
E^2 = (mc^2)^2 + (pc)^2
and all that.
http://van.physics.uiuc.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1414
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I definitely agree with the fat-geek stereotype. Reference Homer buying the moo-moo, "What's the connection? Must be all the non-stop sitting and snacking."
I've actually dropped about 20 pounds over the course of the last few months. Part of it is increased physical activity, but I was really able to cut my calorie intake, fat intake, and portions for lunch. I'm not a fitness freak, I don't go to the gym, I am somewhat active but not every day or even every week.
I'm not affiliated with these guys by any means, but Quizno's and Taco Bell both offer low-cal, low-fat, low-cost food right now. Quizno's has their Flatbread Sammies, and Taco Bell has their new Freso Menu.
http://www.quiznos.com/menu/watchingcalories/index.asp
http://www.tacobell.com/fresco/
And without a soda or chips, you can get out of there for under $6! Under $5 usually =)
if you're smart and analytical enough to figure out how complex systems work, shouldn't you also be able to at least minimally dissect your own impulsiveness and tendencies toward instant gratification? Be able to figure out your own mind, get some discipline, eat right, work out, etc?
Aside from pro athletes, you'd think that analytical thinkers would be some of the best at dissecting the concept of self-discipline, but I guess many people learn to view themselves as too smart to have a problem that needs solving. Smart minds can also create smart rationalizations.
Personally, I'm jacked, and I work in I.T. I decided it was something I wanted, and then formulated my ideology around it.
Heh, I usually have a Mimic guarding an illusory Orc.
But yes, you're right, there are places I can walk to. There's a horticulture centre nearby, and I even bought a season pass so I can go there any time I want. (Last week, I took my daughter to a lunchtime picnic there.) My last job was just a lot more convenient to get out, probably because nobody cared when I wasn't around.
At least there's no stores nearby. My first job was across the street from a Tim Horton's.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
So, is it still bad if I put on 20 pounds? I know I'm not the only IT worker who gained this kind of body from spending more time in front of a computer than outside during my teens.
While I don't work in IT. I live a pretty sedentary lifestyle sitting in front of my computer, and/or TV for hours on end every day.
:)
I ended up losing weight by changing to a vegan diet. For those of you who don't know, eating a vegan diet means NOT eating any animal products such as meat, dairy, eggs, honey.
I also opted to remove pure refined sugars from my diet such as refined and bleached sugar cane, and High fructose corn syrups. You'd be surprised how many types of pre-made food pure refined sugars is added to, just look at the ingredients! What this means for me is that I eat mostly whole, unprocessed foods that I cook and/or make myself.
Within a month and half of eating this way, I lost 3 inches around my waste. And I hardly exercised during that period of time. So now I am only one inch around my waste away from being my former size. I can live with being a slim sized man.
Some good links for reading:
http://www.veganoutreach.org/
http://www.ghchealth.com/refined-sugar-the-sweetest-poison-of-all.html
GiveLove
hell I have 5 lbs nanodust just in my lungs
wow these pants stay really clean though
*cough cough*
I'm an IT worker, and my health routine is pretty atypical: Vegan diet and marathons.
Eating breakfast is essentially a bunch of "free" calories. Since doing so ups your metabolism for the whole day. Or at least that's what I think the evidence suggests.
No matter how you slice it though, there's a huge positive correlation with eating breakfast and losing and maintaining a healthy weight.
See:
Skipping Cereal and Eggs, and Packing on Pounds
Lose Weight: Eat Breakfast
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
-------------- It turns out that 11 percent of IT workers buy their lunch from what CareerBuilder called "a notoriously unhealthy vending machine at least once a week." -------------- I have the answer! Send the vending machine the gym and all is perfect.
i agree. When you're a vegetarian (or vegan), you're forced to think more about what you eat. When you have to read all the nutrition lables to make sure what you're buying is meat-free, you realize how surpringly unhealthy some foods can be. of course, there are still plenty of fat vegans who eat chips and cookies all day.
I'm sitting here, eating an entire loaf of French bread, accompanied by a tub of spreadable butter with canola oil.
I'm going to have a few Keebler Fudge Shoppe Caramel Filled cookies afterward.
What's yours?
Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
"Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
I guess these IT guys have never heard of The Hacker's Diet. The body is a big machine, and how much is weighs is just an engineering problem.
A lot of people want to insist that it's full of vagaries and hocus-pocus, but it's really not. It's all about calorie intake vs. calories used.
"That which does not kill us makes us stranger." -Trevor Goodchild
In General Americans are getting fatter (US & Canada mostly, but its also spreading in South and Central too). Also there is a similar trend in the UK, and France. (I'm guessing its probably more widespread trend of people getting fatter around the world)
Reason 1: Economies
Food Costs Money. Healthy food costs more money. Businesses want to save money. More businesses choose to put less healthy products in the food we eat. Less businesses with healthy food means less access to healthy food.
Reason 2: Globalization
In most parts of the world fast food is profitable, and the trends are spreading to other countries. Foods that were only minor percentages of people's diets are now becoming dietary staples.
Reason 3: Technology
Technology is cheaper, and many everyday tasks are easier (requiring less physical work), generally meaning people are less physical.
Reason 4: Education
For example people still think Chicken and Turkey are much lower in fat. However in the mass farmed markets of today, breeds are selected for high speed growth and size...meaning more fat. Most of the popular data is based on 30-40 year old studies, where as todays meats have much more fat then they did 30-40 years ago.
Also lots of low fat, diet, etc foods really trade one bad thing for another (fats for sugars, sugars for carbs, carbs for fat, sugars for fat, etc). So you be processing less fat in your food, but since sugar levels are up you create more fat internally; or you trade carbs for fat and store the fat instead of generating it yourself.
Reason 5: Habit/Upbringing
I was brought up with the rule of one soda/pop each day, you could buy lunch once a week, and going out -or take out- was an rare privilege for dinner. My younger sister (by 9 years) no longer has that rule, they ate out often, ate lots of pre-made stuff, and had lots of sugar. Low and behold my parents and sister became more overweight. Schools are now littered with cheaper food, vending machines, etc....no wonder they might be fatter/unhealthy as adults.
Reason 6: Chemicals
Plastics, Pesticides, Drugs, etc can change hormone levels (its insane how much estrogen-like chemicals are found in drinking water now...and BTW studies have started to show that in many parts of the world they have been seeing higher rates of males born with more feminine features and estrogen production; leading to more developmental issues). These things change metabolism (usually for the worse). Also a lot of pesticides and plastics can manifest changes in genetic expression that get passed for as much as 3-4 generations in some cases. Many of these could be responsible for attention disorders, depression, bi-polar, etc frequency in the population which can not only directly change exercise and eating habits, but many of the drugs can also slow the metabolism and/or cause weight gain.
Of course there are probably another 50-100 reasons too that you can find by picking up any science or medical journal these days.
OP states the expected and obvious - we're Net-using nerds.
More at 5.