How Working from Home Might Make You Gain Weight

29 Aug

Working from home sounds like a dream. No boss is breathing down your neck and no nosy co-workers trying to find out about your life. More, there are less politics and competition when you work remotely. As much as you love the competition, it’s stressful and tiring to be looking over your shoulder. Who’s going to get you this time? But there’s also a downside to working from home. You’ll gain more weight.

That being said, you have full control of how you manage your diet while working from home. You can even work with a weight management center to create a plan that will work for you. But another equally important thing is to understand why you are gaining weight in the first place.

Missing Out on Incidental Exercise

What’s incidental exercise? It’s the unintentional workout you get from commuting, walking, or driving to work. When you walk from your house to the train station, that’s a form of exercise. It’s also an exercise to stand on the train until you reach your destination. So does walking from the station to work. If you drive from home to work, the walk you take from the parking lot to your office chair is also a form of exercise.

In the office, you’ll move around a lot, too. You’ll move from your desk to the pantry to the printer station to your boss’ office. You’ll even walk to your colleague’s office or cubicle to have a chat. And when it’s time for a lunch break, you’ll most likely walk to the cafeteria or the nearest diner or café to eat lunch.

But when you work from home, there’s a decrease in physical activity. The farthest you’ll go to is from your desk to the bathroom. That’s less than 50 steps. That’s not enough movement to burn calories.

Availability of Your Favorite Food

Of course, there’s also the matter of all your favorite food being right in your pantry. Since you’re the one doing the grocery, it’s more likely that you’ll get your favorite candies, chips, and what-not. When there’s food right across you, there’s a temptation to munch on it while you’re working. Snacking is a primary culprit in gaining weight while working at home.

With food readily available at home, you’ll be eating more than you used to when you’re in the office. How can you resist that large chocolate fudge sundae when your sister is eating it right in front of you? It will take a whole new level of discipline to say no to your family when they’re snacking on popcorns, chips, mozzarella sticks, and jalapeño poppers.

Make a conscious effort to stay active when you’re working from home. Keep checking your weight, too, and stop binge-eating when you notice that you’re gaining more weight than you should. Also, try to buy healthier snacks. While it is stressful not to be able to eat the food you want when you want to, it’s better to be frustrated than watch that needle in the weighing scale go up.