The sedentary job conundrum

[SoCalDem]

We keep reading about employers who are going to impose "fat-fees" for insurance they offer employees, BUT is that "fair" if the job itself contributes to obesity?

If a company makes people sit on their asses all day, staring at a computer screen or hooked to a headset, and they give people only enough time for lunch at their vending machines (stocked by Frito-Lay/Pepsi), can they really force overweight people to pay extra premiums? I can foresee someone using this study to fight it in court..especially if they can prove that they once were NOT overweight at that job:evilgrin:


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/health/nutrition/26fat.html

By TARA PARKER-POPE
Published: May 26, 2011

Looking beyond poor eating habits and a couch-potato lifestyle, a group of researchers has found a new culprit in the obesity epidemic: the American workplace. A sweeping review of shifts in the labor force since 1960 suggests that a sizable portion of the national weight gain can be explained by declining physical activity during the workday. Jobs requiring moderate physical activity, which accounted for 50 percent of the labor market in 1960, have plummeted to just 20 percent.

The remaining 80 percent of jobs, the researchers report, are sedentary or require only light activity. The shift translates to an average decline of 120 to 140 calories a day in physical activity, closely matching the nation’s steady weight gain over the past five decades, according to the report, published Wednesday in the journal PLoS One. Today, an estimated one in three Americans are obese. Researchers caution that workplace physical activity most likely accounts for only one piece of the obesity puzzle, and that diet, lifestyle and genetics all play important roles.

But the new emphasis on declining workplace activity also represents a major shift in thinking, and it suggests that health care professionals and others on the front lines against obesity, who for years have focused primarily on eating habits and physical activity at home and during leisure time, have missed a key contributor to America’s weight problem. The findings also put pressure on employers to step up workplace heath initiatives and pay more attention to physical activity at work.


snip

[flamingdem]

1. I say get up and boogie for 10 minutes once per hour

that will show them!

[Hannah Bell]

10. That's 80 minutes of break (in addition to whatever lunch break is provided).

stealing time from the company.

[Skittles]

2. I work 12 hours a night sitting on my ass (no lunch break)

I also manage to walk over 10,000 steps a day - don't blame your job on your weight woes

[SoCalDem]

3. Not my job.. I don't work.. haven't for a decade

:rofl:

[Obamanaut]

4. The 120 tp 140 calories mentioned in the OP article can easily be offset

by less than 20 minutes on a bicycle. It is SO easy to blame everything in the world except what goes down our throats while we sit around a complain about getting large.

Eat less, move more.

Sit all day? Walk an hour in the evening. Go dancing. Get a stationary or a real bicycle.

[Hannah Bell]

8. lol. an hour-long walk doesn't make up for sitting all day.

[Obamanaut]

11. lol back. Just sit at home also after sitting at the office all day..

Why even bother to try. Makes sense to me.


Walking at a brisk pace (roughly 120 steps per minute - a simple marching music cadence) uses up about 6 calories per minute.

Do that for one hour (60 minutes) and one can burn 360 calories.

The OP talked about sitting all day causing a gain equivalent to up to 140 calories.

It isn't that hard to figure that one out.

I'm sure you will disagree, but I can live with that.

[Hannah Bell]

14. the 120-140 "average" kcal cited in the op = bs.

difference just between sitting v. standing for 8 hours = about 110 calories for a 150 lb woman.

the difference between sitting for 8 hours v. standing doing light activity for 8 hours = over 700 kcal.

yes, i disagree, & i have the credentials/background to do so with some authority.

better check into the derivation of that 120-140 before you assume you know what it means.

[Obamanaut]

15. There are people who post here who are experts, or purport to be,

on every single subject that is ever brought up.

I am not one of them. I did not even get the 'milk in a box' when it was advised to do so by the 'other expert'.

Additionally, by virtue of not being one of the resident 'experts', I cannot say with authority that information in a post is bullshit just because I happen to disagree. I can disagree until the cows come home, but that doesn't make the information bullshit.

Most people who put vast quantities of various food products down their throats without regard to the consequences generally end up with a greater surface area (they are fat.)

Eating less and moving more will usually reverse that. Sometimes it is necessary to move a lot more, and it is always wise to check with their health care provider.

Oh, and have a 'great' day.

[Bravo Zulu]

5. Can’t Stand to Sit Too Long? There’s a Desk for That!

people who stand at work tend to be much healthier than those who sit!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/technology/personaltech/22basics.html

[Skittles]

6. I love that adjustable desktop idea

my legs hurt if I sit to long so I very often stand and lean over a chair to type

[Hannah Bell]

7. kr. society-wide changes in activity level, not diet, = #1 cause. & #1 reason for changes

in activity level = changes in organization of productive labor -- how we work, how we transport ourselves to work, how we transport & consume production.

and the "average" change of 120-140 calories a day = bs as well.

The difference just between sitting quietly for 8 hours and standing quietly for 8 hours = about 110 calories for a 150-lb woman.

The difference between sitting quietly for 8 hours and standing doing light work for 8 hours = about 710 calories for a 150-lb woman.

An hour's walk at a moderate pace (3 mph) burns about 225 kcal.

[Obamanaut]

12. If one cosiders 'diet' as everything one puts into face-hole and NOT

something with a famous fad label on it, the amount of that ingestion is a large cause of, well, getting large.

Eating more combined with moving less causes growth in girth.

Reverse those to 'eat less, move more' and one can become lighter.

[themadstork]

9. Standing desk with a treadmill under it set to a slow mosey

Standing desks are the answer. Most work can be done standing with the right desk.

Fighting general sedentariness should have always been the main focus of the antiobesity movement.

[supernova]

13. I want one of these

http://www.treadmill-desk.com/

[gkhouston]

16. So do I. If I ever have another job, that's what I'd love to have for a desk. n/t

[Codeine]

17. Then we should put less food in our pieholes.

Food is fuel. If you ain't burning it quit filling the tank.

[Obamanaut]

18. A voice of reason. nt