CNN.com has an article today stating that 45% of workers have reported a weight gain since starting their current job, with 12% gaining more than 20 pounds and 26% gaining more than 10 pounds. I still don’t understand why they have tied weight gain to a person’s current job, but regardless, it certainly speaks to the obesity problem in this country. I would have liked to have seen some statistics around job duration, as I suspect that job duration is directly tied to overall weight gain.
The one set of statistics that I found compelling was that while 28% of companies offer some form of a fitness benefit, only 9% of employees make it to the gym during the workday. YIKES!
The benefits of training go far beyond the calories burned. Most training (particularly ones of a duration that you could go over lunch) actually burns surprisingly few calories, but offers other health benefits that make it worthwhile:
- If your training doesn’t include weight training, it should. Weight training has oodles of benefits, some of which I will get in to when I discuss the recent 9S Z-Health certification, but you should think of it as increasing lean body mass, which means you continue to burn more calories even when not training.
- Reduces stress (when done in appropriate volumes). The effects of reduced stress should NOT be underestimated — lower stress levels lead to lower cortisol levels (not to mention reduced blood pressure, lower heart rate, and other health markers). Anyone who has watched late-night TV has invariably seen the ads for the cortisol-busting drugs. While I don’t buy in to what the drug does, there is something to cortisol and weight gain/lack of weight loss.
- Movement makes you smarter. I fully expect this to be controversial, but there is compelling neuroscience to indicate that movement literally makes you smarter, something about how/when/why neurons are created. My highly-unscientific sample of one also indicates that it is true — I know that I do my best problem-solving when I’m out walking the dog. I almost always need to pace, or draw, or do something physical when faced with a particularly vexing problem.
So, get out there and move!
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