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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.
...Mac is still skinny. He better watch out; PC may get peckish, and eat him.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
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 don't think most IT workers have seen infinite snacks since the dot com days... These days you're lucky to get free coffee.
If you had super powers, would you use them for good, or for awesome?
Actually, I have found that just smoking more crack on the days that I eat McDonalds solves the problem~
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Um, hate to break this to you, but everyone already has a gravity field.
Getting more massive would indeed make that gravity field more intense.
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
because if the food sucks, you are less likely to overeat?
OR you could move about occasionally at work. I know that I don't *have* to sit and stare at my happy little green on black terminal all day- though I sometimes do. Little stuff like kicking your legs (Pretend that someone cares, you are alone in that dark room and you know it) can help lots. I personally have a set of 15lb dumbbells under the desk. Good for passing time, or threatening that damned mail room guy who vehemently claims that I slow down his machines on purpose. Despite his nice habit of subconsciously closing out ads as they open.
Anger in the workplace has done nothing but good for my health. Sitting there shaking in rage at the Pointy-hairs burns calories like no other! The same can be said about the ten minutes of heart pounding after I am 'surprise' visited by my uppers.
Sometimes I wish that I had a bowflex down here just to toy with them. Make them think that I actually DO have time to work out. Even better would be the questions as to how it GOT there in the first place. Piece by piece, just like I learned from MASH.
Oh, and working out. Moving around. Sex. Eat whatever you want, just move about some more to compensate!
weird hours
This is actually probably a major part of IT weight gain. I was going to the gym and working out (actually working out, not standing around watching everyone else work out) for a long time, and my weight and my pants size just kept creeping up. Went to the doctor because I figured something must be wrong, and long story short, the problem was getting home at 8-9pm, making dinner, eating dinner, and going to bed. Doc told me to take my dinner to work and eat it at 6pm every day.
In the past 5 months since I got that advice, I've lost almost 40 pounds, putting me at the lowest weight I've been since sometime in the middle of college. Can't say it's made my life great (food is so boring now, since I pretty much have to make the entire week's dinner on Sunday, by Friday dinner is just depressing, and I have to spend the weekend to figure out what dish I'll hate next week...) but I'm sure I'm healthier for it.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Eating out at work can have other benefits too.. such as escaping the office environment for some mental recovery. Complaining about the bureaucracy with co-workers can be very therapeutic. ;)
While I agree with much of what you say (I walk to lunch if I'm going out to eat, and I take the stairs all day), I've found that stress alone can actually cause me to *gain* weight. A study in a recent volume of Men's Health (can't find the link right now) also pointed to a link between high stress and weight gain.
The caveat is that for me, high stress can be the motivation I need for an extra-hard workout at the gym or an extra 2 miles on my run that day. Recently, after a manager whose job title could officially be "chief roadblock" sent me an email (CC'ing my boss) accusing me of being a "PowerPoint Engineer" (because he couldn't understand my UML diagram since he has no background in software), I hit the gym for 2 hours and took a 15 mile run in the same day. I definitely felt a lot better after that.
It's not a bug, it's a feature
If you'd ever been depressed (or fat or a smoker, etc.), you know that "knowing how" and "being able to execute" are totally unrelated.
And some sort-term advise for the grandparent: Hard liquor. Fewer calories. Less filling. Better drunk/dollar value, particularly if you don't make "tastes great" a requirement.