When Work And Health Collide

Working long hours and at times skipping meals and compensating these meals with high calorie junk food are some of the reasons that can lead to obesity in people working in a corporate environment. In fact, obesity is considered to be one of the major health disorders in individuals working in the corporate world. Obesity is a condition, whereby the body accumulates fat that have negative side effects on the health.

It is okay not to maintain a size zero and eat whatever you want but when you start to become overweight, it can be dangerous to your overall health. This is not because size zero is the definition of beauty but mainly because obesity is the root cause of many diseases. It is a major risk for the following:

Cardio vascular Disease: Involving the heart or the blocked blood vessels that causes stroke, heart attack and chest pain.

Sleep Apnoea: A condition that disturbs breathing when one is asleep.

Osteoarthritis: Disorder of the joints, which causes stiffness and pain in the knee, hip. and other joints.

Cancers: Such as colon, gall bladder, liver, pancreas and breast.

Asthma: Respiratory condition by which a person finds ¡t difficult to breathe.

Obesity may not be a direct result of working in a corporate environment but the work environment can effectively contribute to a person becoming overweight. It is not just because of the food habits, but the overall lifestyle of a person can be the cause. Therefore, it is important to have balanced energy levels, but when this is not accomplished, it can lead to overweight or obesity.

Obesity may not be a direct result of working ¡n a corporate environment but the work environment can effectively contribute to a person becoming overweight

Causes Of Weight Gain

Impact on behaviour due to work stress, including the consumption of alcohol and a sedentary lifestyle leading to excess weight gain.
Psychological tension leads to endocrine modification, which can cause overweight.
Working for extra hours and in shifts can result in fatigue and fats get accumulated in the abdomen.
When you spend more than half of the day in the office the work pressure and load can affect eating habits and activities.
The work timetable can deprive you of your sleep and lack of sleep increases the risk of obesity.
The energy reserved is transformed in to fats when one sits for hours in an office.
The consumption of fast food and junk foods from the office cafeteria piles on the calories.
Most employees smoke when stressed. Smoking too, can increase the cortisol levels, which leads to muscle burning and increased fat storage.

Some people tend to be obese due to their genes. Studies have shown that the labour market during the 1960’s accounted for 50 per cent jobs, which demanded physical activity, whereas. now it has come down to just 20 per cent labour jobs.

Balance Work And Health

Exercise either in the morning before work or in the evening.
Carry home food it healthy food is not available at your work space.
Replace junk food with nuts and fruits.
Make use of the extra curricular activities the office offers to help your body relax and de-stress.
Drink plenty of water.
Take the office stairs instead of the escalator or elevator if you have enough time.
Consider a walk and talk meeting if you have an informal meeting with colleagues.
Do some stretching exercises whenever possible, it will help you destress.
Stand up once every hour.

With technology replacing most manual work, no physical activity is required for jobs nowadays but instead, we just have to sit in front of the computer to work. Sitting down for almost the whole day doing work, can cause other serious problems which further leads to obesity.

Keeping all the above factors in mind, it is important for us to be attentive to the work environment we commit ourselves to. Employers should provide healthcare programs at the work space along with gym facilities and a healthy diet.

Also, what would be ideal, is an office space that is less convenient and which demands physical activity or has overweight management programs, as people with obesity also suffer from physical limitations which makes them prone to be absent from work a lot. Being active and obesity-free keeps many problems at bay, in the long run. Therefore, it’s best to stay active and be healthy!