Has your job played a part in your weight gain?

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  • janiecrake
    janiecrake Posts: 60 Member
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    My job was a massive factor! It's difficult to diet when you work at a veterinary surgery, and you get clients giving you chocolate and biscuits and (on occasion) even a bottle of wine or two, to say thank you for saving their pet. And especially when it's someone's Birthday, all the client's seem to know too and they all make cake (this generally happens for the vets rather than the vet nurses, but still means there's at least 5 birthday cakes in the practice at once!). Easter and Christmas boxes of Celebrations/ Heros/ Roses etc are also not uncommon.

    And there's Tesco Friday - the once a month lunch where everyone puts in a fiver and someone goes to Tesco and comes back with a few cooked chickens/ bacon joints, fresh bread and pastries from the bakery, and lots of cookies and crisps and dips with bread
    Sounds like you work at a great clinic Laura! I worked as a vet nurse for 15 years and was always busy on my feet, never fat! Then I took a job teaching vet nursing, mainly online learning so spend most of my life at a desk. Have gradually accrued weight over the last 6 years and completely identify with what others are saying, you know lunchtimes should be for walking and stretching but you end up on Facebook or MFP!! I was so concerned about the risks to my health (especially the increased risk of bowel cancers) that I thought of giving the job up. Instead I have started making a real effort to walk round the block at lunchtimes or to go swimming a couple of times a week, I have the mindset now that I have to earn my breakfast dinner and tea and I just can't afford to snack with my job.
  • emsicle_o
    emsicle_o Posts: 162 Member
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    Definitely! Office job + boredom eating.

    This too
  • MsPudding
    MsPudding Posts: 562 Member
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    Oh I can certainly relate - not only do I have a desk job, but it's from home so my daily commute is 'down the stairs'. Also I work pretty long hours - quite often 50+ because part of my job is account management of clients who are often West Coast US, therefore 8 hours behind me and just getting to work as I'm finishing. Also as it's the games industry a fair amount of my time *not* working is spent on our clients' Betas getting to know the product well.

    So I have a job that teenage boys salivate over....but it's massively bad for being sedentary and gaining weight!
  • icmuse
    icmuse Posts: 263 Member
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    Yes! But due to stress, not lack of movement.

    ^^^ YES! Exactly this!

    My former employer was a devil incarnate, working for her was hell :devil: hence stress eating = 35 pound weight gain.

    Once I quit and opened up my own business, new stresses emerged at first, but after the first year I started losing all the weight. Now over 2 years later 23 pounds gone, 7 to go :love:
  • gingabebe
    gingabebe Posts: 165 Member
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    I have an office job and most people gain weight due to sitting and people bringing in tempting treats. We call it the "secretary spread". I walk around the building 9 to 12 x's a day, it is massive- 3 x's around = 1 mile. My husband has a physically demanding job and he needs his meat and potatoes supper to refuel so it is hard to cook for both our needs.
  • splucy
    splucy Posts: 353
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    It certainly has. I work as a Night Audit. I have about 2 hours of work to do on my 8 hour shift so the other 6 hours is down time.

    We have a 24 hour McDonalds and convenience store only steps away from my building.

    You can figure the rest out lol
  • ajfc1971
    ajfc1971 Posts: 258 Member
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    Definately... office job nightmare, I try and walk around and get out as much as possible.. but it's not only that its the birthday cakes everytime it's somebodies birthday, the office buffet lunches for meetings.... all very nice but all have added over the years.
    Since joining MFP I have moved the munchies away from my desk to the other side of the office, this way if I really want one I have to make an effort to get up and get it. Which means most of the time I don't have any. A desk full of fruit is my other saviour.
  • savithny
    savithny Posts: 1,200 Member
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    my first "growth spurt" of my adult life was when I got the earlier version of my current job, where the coffee break area had inexpensive donuts and cookies for sale. At the same time, moving here and taking this job meant that I wasn't as active as I used to be - I didn't have time, and my life wasn't set up for some of the activity I used to have.
  • splucy
    splucy Posts: 353
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    It certainly has. I work as a Night Audit. I have about 2 hours of work to do on my 8 hour shift so the other 6 hours is down time.

    We have a 24 hour McDonalds and convenience store only steps away from my building.

    You can figure the rest out lol

    Am trying to find ways of avoiding temptation though. I keep chewing gum with me always, I drink lots of tea, diet soda...

    and the most helpful of ideas has been this one - leaving my money at home. No money = no buying crap food!
  • yamsteroo
    yamsteroo Posts: 480 Member
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    Yep!

    I used to be at the more technical end so was always moving around, lifting, bending all day long.

    Then they promoted me so I spend most of my day in the office which is right next to the coffee machine and cakes! I know no one forced me to eat them but the temptation was always there (still is, I just don't give in unless I have room in that day's count) and add to that the lovely Italian deli across the road from one of the dealerships I cover and you can see it was inevitable for a weak-willed woman with a fondness for mozzarella and jaffa cakes.

    I've got it under control now and even when I hit goal, I'll use the deli and the cakes as an occasional treat rather than an everyday occurance as I don't ever want to end up fat again!
  • rduhlir
    rduhlir Posts: 3,550 Member
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    I work a desk job, and am behind a desk for 12 hours a day. But, I don't blame my job, at all, for contributing to my weight gain. It was all me. I was the one who after going home came up with the excuses of why not to exercise. I was the one who did pay attention to what I ate, and I am the one who just flat out was lazy. Don't blame your job for contributing to your weight problems. You can create a standing work station, or get up early and exercise (or after work for that matter). Saying "my job contributed to my weight gain" is just another excuse and something to blame other than ourselves.
  • Missjulesdid
    Missjulesdid Posts: 1,444 Member
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    I worked in a call center and was fat before... and even fatter after. Yes LOTS of slim folks gained weight there too. Part of the problem was sitting all day and not moving at all except for during your assigned break times....and the other part was all the snacks EVERYWHERE. We had a kitchen and there were always donuts or birthday cake, or left over sandwiches from a business meeting.. OH, and we were in an office park and we had a "lunch truck" that would come and park outside for half an hour and we could run out and get yummy high calorie meals from there.
  • zillah73
    zillah73 Posts: 505 Member
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    I blamed my job for a long time – 9-hour days at a desk job, eating lunch at the computer because I was under deadline. But I have lost the weight and I didn't change jobs. Blaming the job is like blaming the food. The job didn't force me to make poor food choices, it didn't hold a gun to my head and force me to go home afterwards and flop down on the couch and watch TV. It was easy for me to use the job as a scapegoat but, in hindsight, I just didn't want to make the changes I needed to and I would have found any seemingly plausible excuse.
  • tzig00
    tzig00 Posts: 875 Member
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    Oh no doubt. I work in an office at a car dealership and we bake fresh Otis Spunkmeyer cookies. Have you ever smelled Otis cookies baking??? Omg! Within the first 2 years, boom, 45 pounds on. Then you have Christmas when all the vendors bring in goodies and you have random stops by other vendors bringing in doughnuts or bagels and a boss who's overweight and sends you on bagel runs or coffee runs or doughnut runs every now and then. It's constant junk food in here.
  • Angel37615
    Angel37615 Posts: 87 Member
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    I work in an office, which is inside a huge kitchen. (I am a healthcare food service manager) Soooooo yes, indeed.
  • danimalkeys
    danimalkeys Posts: 982 Member
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    While I'd like to blame my desk job as an IT tech for my gain, I'd have to say it's more to do with eating too much and not exercising for 25 years.
  • Carolannb1986
    Carolannb1986 Posts: 91
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    I work in Gregg's the baker's....... it hasn't helped thats for sure! :laugh:
  • hlandry6
    hlandry6 Posts: 230
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    Nurse+Nights 7a-7p+ bored eating/eating to stay awake=I think so
  • JulieBGoood
    JulieBGoood Posts: 120 Member
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    My old job waiting tables did, so much high calorie food around for free or discounted! Now I'm at a greenhouse doing a lot of hard labor & it has been helping me lose :)
  • MsDaraElaina
    MsDaraElaina Posts: 25 Member
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    OMG!! the answer is Hell YES! I sit down ALL day researching, and analyzing medical records for hearings!! I have to make myself get up... I love my job but I hate that it's not as active as I normally am... Usually I love the outdoors and just moving around doing stuff, but it feels like I'm stuck sometimes, yes doing a job I love but that has ultimately taken it's toll on my health and weight : (

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