Lose Weight While You Work: 6 Expert Tips

The sedentary lifestyle and lifestyle of Western societies are one of the leading causes of overweight and obesity. If we add a bad diet to this, we have a cocktail that is not exactly good for our health.

And it is that the change in life habits related to the "industrial revolution" first and the "technological revolution" second, it has caused many individuals to have a sedentary job, which affects their health and general well-being.

• Related article: “Sedentary lifestyle causes changes in the brain”

The problems of sedentary work

The both physical and psychological benefits of physical exercise and physical activity are numerous, but there are many people who do not do any sport and, furthermore, have worrying sedentary habits. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a sedentary lifestyle is among the four factors with the highest risk of death. This same body states that between 1980 and 2008 obesity rates in the world have doubled due to this factor.

• Related article: “Types of obesity: characteristics and risks”

In Europe, the European Heart Network (EHN) has made a list of countries with the highest rate of sedentary lifestyle, and Spain is in fourth place with 42% of the population that does not practice physical exercise. People with a sedentary job (for example, office work) spend 40 hours a week in front of the computer. But then they come home and use their leisure time to connect to the tablet, watch television, etc.

This behavior and these habits bring with them negative consequences such as diabetes, heart problems, back pain, vision problems or overweight and obesity.

• Recommended article: “Obesity: psychological factors involved in being overweight”

How to lose weight while you work

Luckily, to avoid being overweight (and other health problems) it is possible to modify a series of habits that minimize the negative impact of sedentary jobs.

So if you spend long hours sitting at work and want to avoid gaining weight and fat accumulation, you can follow these tips.

1. Increase your NEAT

One of the best ways to lose weight is by speeding up your metabolism.. This does not mean exercising only, which accounts for 15-30% of total caloric expenditure. But the basal metabolism, that is, the calories that are consumed when we are at rest (because the body needs energy to perform essential metabolic functions, for example, respiration), accounts for 50-70% of our expenditure caloric.

One of the best ways to increase basal metabolic rate is through NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), which are, simply, the daily activities that we carry out and that affect the amount of calories we burn For example, climbing stairs, or walking to work. Therefore, if your office is on the sixth floor, do not use the elevator. Likewise, if you can avoid the car and cycle to work, you will be increasing NEAT and, therefore, basal metabolism and calorie burning.

• Related article: “15 tips to speed up metabolism and lose weight comfortably”

2. Do high intensity exercise

As mentioned in the previous point, physical exercise accounts for 15-30% of total caloric expenditure. However, not all forms of exercise help us burn calories in the same way. Weight training helps build muscle, which means the more muscle mass, the more calories burned at rest.

In addition, intensity training also promotes post-exercise fat burning, so, after the training session, we continue to burn calories for the next 24 hours. This means that, while we are working sedentarily, our body takes the opportunity to recover, repair muscle tissue and burn calories.

3. Eat fat burning foods

To lose weight it is not necessary to live in "fasting mode" or eat only salads. Thermogenesis, that is, the caloric energy we use when we digest food, represents 10-15% of total caloric expenditure and helps us burn fat. The body must be well nourished because physical activity or work requires us to have enough energy to carry out our tasks.

That's why it is good to eat some natural foods that help us to be more satisfiedThey speed up metabolism and allow us to burn fat for different reasons.

• If you want to know what these foods are, you can read our article: “24 fat burning (and highly healthy) foods”

4. Do not consume sugary drinks

If there are foods that burn fat, there are also those that are the opposite, and sugary drinks are a case in point.

These types of drinks provide unnecessary calories and also cause the glycemic index to increase, causing what is known as hyperglycemia. an increase in blood glucose. This makes us have a greater need to eat when I spend a while favoring the carving, and makes us continue to eat foods rich in sugar and fat.

5. Take the food from home

A good way to avoid overeating is to take food from home. If we go to a restaurant at lunchtime with co-workers, we may exceed our daily calorie needs. In addition, we run the risk of having dessert, which, generally, will provide extra calories.

if you take a tupperware to work, you can consciously select what you are going to eat. If you don't want to gain weight, you may choose healthier foods.

6. eat five times a day

One of the keys to increasing thermogenesis is to eat five meals a day., which helps prevent excess calories from accumulating in a few meals. By eating five times during the day, the body will spend more time digesting food and therefore caloric expenditure will increase. That does not mean that it is necessary to eat five large meals, but rather that you have to distribute the calories of a day in 5 meals.

Breakfast has turned out to be essential to burn calories throughout the day, so skipping it is not a good alternative. If you want some healthy snack ideas, you can read our article: “7 healthy snacks (very easy to prepare)”