Lose Weight at Work

Last week I mentioned that I wanted to post suggestions for how to lose weight at work. In my opinion, while this topic is written about frequently in a a lot of newspapers and magazines, the suggestions always sound ridiculously useless. Lets me honest, just taking the stairs twice per day is not going to keep you lean. That much said, it is definitely NOT a waste to time to think about ways to burn calories while you are at work. Everyone has to go to work, thus you have a greater chance of showing up at work than the gym. Plus, enough people truly dislike working out that this should be considered the best viable alternative.

Simple changes that can have big effects -

(In my opinion, anyone can make these changes without looking weird or breaking up their routine too much.)

Before: You drive to work, park in the closest spot possible, and then take the elevator up to your floor. (Calories burned: 15, 30 including round trip. Times five days = 150 calories.)

Move a little more: You drive to work and park as far away as practical (up to five blocks) or you get off your bus/train one stop earlier than before, walk to work, and take the stairs up to your floor. (Calories burned 80,  160 including the round trip. Times 5 days = 800 calories.)

Before: You sit in the cafeteria for your hour long lunch. (Calorie burn: 25. Weekly 125.)

Move a little more: You walk 30 minutes, then eat your lunch for the remainder of time. (Calorie burn: 70. Weekly: 350.)

Additional ways to increase you daily calorie burn:

Before: You sit at your desk. (Calories burned: 15 calories per hour. Times 8 hrs = 120. Times 5 days per week = 600.)

Move a little more: Essentially you want to get up and stand/walk around more often. Some suggestions include standing and pacing when you take calls and holding “walking” meetings. Honestly, some people may do this but I suspect I never will. I work in an open office and it would just look weird. Instead, what I do is try to schedule a reminder to get up every hour and do 5 minutes of stairwalking. That can burn about 35 calories. Anyways, you can burn about 150 calories for an hour spent strolling.

I think that for the type of work I do – I am really desk bound. Yes, I can get up a little here and there but really my job is to be at my computer. This leads me to be more interested in ways to burn more calories while at my desk.

In the next post I’ll talk about the new movement towards treadmill and bike desks.