Losing weight with a sedentary life style?

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karelyvillanueva095
karelyvillanueva095 Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Has anyone lost weight while having an office job? I take very little steps at work im mostly sitting all day. And icome home and i get 30 mins of exercise, and i eat clean. Will this work with droppig weight? Or do i have to do more? How can i he more active at work?
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  • OldAssDude
    OldAssDude Posts: 1,436 Member
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    I am a computer programmer so I work at a computer all day as well. I turned my desk into a standing desk, and got a barstool to sit once in a while. I also use my lunch hour to walk 3 miles at a fast pace (bring a spare shirt to sweat in). When I get home I either kayak or ride my bike for a half hour to an hour. Then I eat dinner and chill for the evening until bed time. I also try to eat better foods.

    I have lost 45 lbs. in the last 8 to 9 months.

    So for me the answer is yes... :)
  • laur357
    laur357 Posts: 896 Member
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    I have a sedentary activity level and have lost 50 pounds so far. It's more about your caloric intake and staying in a deficit. I also like fresh vegetables and cook most of my own food, but I definitely don't follow a clean eating problem.
    I did increase my activity, but not to the point where I'd change my activity level. Get up and walk every hour or two - use a restroom on a different floor, run up a few flights of stairs, refill your water bottle. Set a phone or email reminder if you get really engrossed in what you're doing. I walk 20-30 minutes during my lunch too. (I just feel better when I get up and move instead of sitting for hours on end.) I also feel more like being active after work if I move around more doing the day.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Yes lots of people lose weight with office jobs. You have to be more deliberate about moving and getting steps Walk on breaks and lunch. I work from home at the computer and can easily have less than 1000 steps per day. But I maKe an effort to take walks and currently am at 9000+ steps plus workouts. Weight loss is more about calorie consumption anyway. You cannot out-exercise over-eating? Even if you are eating clean.
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    karelyvillanueva095 wrote: »
    Has anyone lost weight while having an office job? I take very little steps at work im mostly sitting all day. And icome home and i get 30 mins of exercise, and i eat clean. Will this work with droppig weight? Or do i have to do more? How can i he more active at work?

    Activity helps you lose weight but it's not as important as you think. History is littered with pictures of people chained to posts (the ultimate sedentary lifestyle) and haven't an ounce of fat on them. It's all about eating at a deficit and that is independent of your activity level.
  • 2snakeswoman
    2snakeswoman Posts: 655 Member
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    Yep. It's the calories.
  • Venus_Red
    Venus_Red Posts: 209 Member
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    I work remotely from home and do a job that keeps me from being able to work effectively from a standing desk (draw/sketch a lot that requires precision stability)...so I have to improvise, which means literally taking laps in my home while on conference calls, doing floor tours for the bathroom (never the same floor twice in row), etc. It can be tedious as all hell but every step really does count.
  • Edjeep
    Edjeep Posts: 65 Member
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    Office job here. Have a sit/stand desk and I stand about 2 hours a day. Exercise when I get home usually 40 minutes a day or so, eat at a deficit and get some good hike or something in on the weekends. I'm down 55 since May so I'd say yes. It has worked for me. I typically do sets of 50 wall pushups a couple times a day, for no real reason other than getting the blood pumping. Today I went for a 2.5 mile walk during lunch. I might make that more of a habit.
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
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    Accountant. On a average day I get 5k steps.

    I don't eat clean as far as I'm aware.
    I eat pizza, subway, sushi etc so I doubt they are clean.

    I eat the calories mfp gave me and so far I have lost... A fairly large number.

    Exercise wise I walk on a treadmill for 10-30 mins most days, this is normally while I'm cooking, in between stirs.

    I also do kick boxing twice a week, and lift weights.

    But ultimately my weightloss wouldn't be impacted much at all if I did none of the kick boxing or weights.

    It's mostly about the diet.
  • nitaleotta
    nitaleotta Posts: 24 Member
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    I have a sedentary job as well and was able to lose 10lbs initially by just eating at a deficit with no real increase in physical activity. It's definitely possible to do and I know people who maintain their weight loss through calories alone.

    I started exercising regularly once I realized I didn't want to have to eat 1000-1200 calories indefinitely. That kind of calorie restriction wouldn't work for me for the long term.
  • MysticRealm
    MysticRealm Posts: 1,264 Member
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    I have a standing job, but even when I try hard to walk as much as possible I'm lucky if I can get close to 1500 steps by the end of the work day. I only take as long of a lunch break as it takes to eat my food so I can't do a 30 min walk at lunch.
    So to make it to 10,000+ steps a day I have to do almost all of them after work. When I was training for my half marathon length obstacle course run that was easy to do. Getting less than 20,000 steps a day was unusual. Now that I have completed that run I'm easing back on the cardio. Today I got in my 10,000 steps just from the few steps I get from work, the few steps I take when getting my horse ready to ride (I remove my fitbit for the ride as I feel it's inaccurate then just log riding as exercise after), then the steps I take on my 'rests' during my weight lifting, then about 25 min on the treadmill (only 5 of those running because my body didn't 'agree' with running today, well, I should really say that my mind told my body to not 'agree' with running today)

    Losing weight is about cals in and out so no matter how active you are (or aren't) as long as you eat below your TDEE with will lose weight.
  • pchivvy1
    pchivvy1 Posts: 4 Member
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    I sit at a desk all day too and when I got my fitbit I realised I was only doing 1.5k steps a day. I have a long commute to work so would drive home and then flip out on the couch. I decided to do more and now Go for a short 20 minute walk in my lunchbreak if I can, watch tv in the evening whilst walking on my treadmill, take the dog out for a long walk rather than allowing someone else to do it where I can....I can't exercise every day but I do what I can. And that's the key.... Do what you can when you can and don't worry about what you can't do. Just remember that you can't eat for an exercising person without the exercise....I was just over eating before with no realisation of how few calories I was actually earning and entitled to.
  • azulvioleta6
    azulvioleta6 Posts: 4,195 Member
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    I have an office job and mostly work from home. My morning commute is about 5 steps. A lot of my exercise comes from swimming--no steps earned.

    I still average about 12,000 steps/day. There is no reason why desk job has to equal sedentary. Even if you walk a mile on each of three 15-minute breaks, you could easily hit about 7000 steps.

    Weight loss aside, sitting too much and being sedentary are horrible for your long-term health.
  • ericGold15
    ericGold15 Posts: 318 Member
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    karelyvillanueva095 wrote: »
    Has anyone lost weight while having an office job? I take very little steps at work im mostly sitting all day. And icome home and i get 30 mins of exercise, and i eat clean. Will this work with droppig weight? Or do i have to do more? How can i he more active at work?
    How *much* clean eating ?

  • 47Jacqueline
    47Jacqueline Posts: 6,993 Member
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    You don't need to be active to lose weight. You only need to eat at a deficit.

    On the other hand a sedentary lifestyle, coupled with obesity, is a prescription for a shortened life.
  • PinkPixiexox
    PinkPixiexox Posts: 4,142 Member
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    I have an office job and I am literally sitting for 8 hours solid (apart from bathroom breaks). I've lost 30lbs.

    For me, BECAUSE of my sedentary job, It was vital for me to get to the gym when I finished for the day to get some movement in. The way I saw it, I spent 8 hours sitting down so I can easily spend 1 hour of my evening moving around and getting my heart racing. You *CAN* lose weight without exercise but personally, I couldn't justify being able-bodied with free evenings and simply going home to more sitting!

    I'd say if you're sitting all day and not working out in the evenings, make sure your food logging is very, very tight. Weigh what you can and track every thing! Stick to that deficit and you'll be fine :)
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    you lose weight in the kitchen and gain fitness in the gym

    that said, i bet most of us have sedentary jobs. I spend anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half in the gym 5-6 days a week. its not an option for me- its a priority. 1- it gives me more calories to pay with and 2- its good for my overall health (which has improved TREMENDOUSLY in the past 9 months!)
  • Dutchy_77
    Dutchy_77 Posts: 1,695 Member
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    its a real simple puzzle

    if you burn more than you eat then you will lose weight.

    i have done so, but with any exercise you will burn more calories so it wil be quicker and you can eat a little bit more.

    so if you have a choice go exercise, but if you cant you need to make sure you're eating less then you burn.
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
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    FWIW, even if you have a desk job and don't really do formal exercise, you can still be simply more active overall and burn more calories than before. I'd have a hard time understanding the difference between my more active life days and my less active life days without my FitBit. Just grocery shopping and taking the stairs at work burns calories.
  • misterdale67
    misterdale67 Posts: 171 Member
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    I have a sedentary job and have lost 178 pounds in the last 20 months. It is definitely possible.
  • duddysdad
    duddysdad Posts: 403 Member
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    I don't work, I am disabled so I am pretty sedentary. I've lost 152 pounds in 8 months without exercise eating whatever I want as long as it fits in my calories. I did try to eat lots of protein though.

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