Adjusting to desk job life

I had a desk job for many years and I was actually pretty fit. You don't have to be completely sedentary unless you are required to stay seated at your desk for the full 8-10 hours.

Some ways to stay moving with a desk job:

Take frequent bathroom breaks. Take the long way around. Squats in the bathroom stall. (Sounds silly, but why not?)

Walk on breaks and lunch as much as possible. If you're allowed to eat at your desk then use your lunch break to exercise and then eat when you get back.

Take the stairs, always take the stairs whenever possible. Imagine you will get stuck on the elevator and avoid it at all costs. (Happened to me and I was in a 5 story bldg, so ended up being a blessing in disguise. I never took the elevator again.)

Keep dumbbells at your desk. If you're on a conference call or reading a long email, use the dumbbells. Stand up if you can. All kinds of arm workouts. Squat, glute squeeze, mini leg lifts, calf raises, shoulder rolls, chair crunches, lots of yoga poses you can do. I used to be on these super long conference calls where all I had to do was listen. I mostly worked out (silently) while everyone was droning on and I didn't care who walked by and saw me. LOL

You can figure out ways to stay active. Just be creative!

I work a desk job from home so I have the luxury of looking weird for no one to notice I purchased a Veridesk (one of my best investments yet!) and I walk during daily meetings for 30 mins to earn about 4,000 steps. I agree with frequent bathroom breaks and refills of water (which can be a vicious cycle) and use your lunch for other than eating, if able. You can do it!

This is going to come across maybe a little blunter than intended to but, the desk job didn't make you gain the pounds, not adjusting your eating accordingly is what caused it.

You are less active than you were before, so therefore you either have to adjust to eating less than you were when you were more active or start doing more intentional activity to be able to eat the same.

There are some great suggestions above for increasing your activity, if you're in a healthy weight range or a little over it set yourself to lose 0.5lbs-lb per week max and log your food accurately, you'll lose weight just fine.