How To Stay Slender At A Sedentary Job

July 24, 2018 Ashley 0 Comments

I’ve had all kinds of jobs in my life.

(“I see here you worked both the pole and the IT department at the ‘Pink Kitty’…”)

Secretary at a modeling agency. Server to terrible tippers. Physical Therapy tech, while working my way through school. And it probably comes as no surprise that the more active jobs always kept me at a low weight, rather effortlessly. It’s pretty simple. Ya move more, and you’ll burn more calories. But the disparity between the actual numbers is pretty astounding. In fact, after a study done on the tally of caloric burns by career, it was shown that secretarial type jobs burned 102.5 per hour, moderately active jobs (like my teching gig) burned 127.5 calories per hour, and construction type jobs burn a nice 175. (Which may be even more, as their tasks and and environmental conditions vary so much.)

Now, this must sound super sucky for you office manager types. You walk into the office and you can visibly witness the booty groove in that swivel seat you bought not long ago. It’s a perfect mold of your rear meat. You know you’re on the low end of that 102 stat. So what’s this all mean? You should quit in the middle of your shift, knock over a file cabinet on the way out (for dramatic effect), don a hard hat, make your way to the nearest construction site, and start a new life? Change your whole identity and job?

Hey, maybe.

(Although you may wanna change your shoes first…)

But not necessarily. If switching your professional focus is an option, why not do it for the sake of your body? However, if it’s not, and you’re stuck in a gig where your bum’s stuck to a chair, there are workarounds. All you’ve gotta do is make sure your food quality is clean, your calories meet your needs, and that you’re injecting a little extra movement into the bits of your day bordering work. Maybe it’s waking up earlier to get in some extra exercise. Maybe it’s a lunch spent walking. Maybe it’s hitting up that hatha yoga class after work. It might sound like a burden and extra work, but as someone who’s done it for years now, I can promise two things. First is that the movement helps you make those better, low cal, quality food choices. And second is that movement is medicine; it’s a stress relief.

Which is something all of us can use by the end of our days.

No matter what our job is.