Can a job be too strenuous and inhibit weight loss goals/cause weight retention?
justinejacksonm
Posts: 75 Member
Ok so this is the THIRD time I am attempting to create this post...they keep disappearing.
I started working at an Amazon fullfillment centre in October, psyched that the physical work will actually BOOST my weight loss efforts and have since gained about 15-20 lbs. That is not to say there hasn't been any slacking off or badness on account of holidays, travel, or lack of exercise. But it's definitely a thing and that is why I am here, hopefully for some feedback.
I work 10 hours 4 days a week and it-is-tough. Some days are easier than others but at Christmas mandatory overtime had me working from 7:30am-7pm 4 days a week. It isn't unusual to have stretches or time in my day when my Fitbit says I am in a heart rate zone of 95-115 while I am schlepping (or trying to) ridiculously big boxes in and out of my PIT (powered industrial truck) and into or out of really small bin spaces. Oftentimes the stress and pace kick into high gear if I have to pick and unbox say 30 items, break down the boxes, and do it fast cause there is someone behind me waiting to get by or work in that same spot.
We are monitored like germs under a microscope every minute of our day. There is always someone standing around watching us, waiting to catch people slip up and make a mistake so they can scan our badges and yell at us. If you make more than 2 mistakes per 1500 units, each one is flagged in the system and the manager gets a report and they will retrain you. There is little organization or communication so while we are being timed and tracked for time off task between scans, it is not unlikely that you are trying to stow items and have nowhere to go with them. Either you can't find available space or where you THINK it would go won't accept it, so you have to drive back to have someone look it up. Again, it's all pressure, all day, cause the system does not tell us where to stow items but it WILL tell us it won't go somewhere and then tell the manager every time we tried scanning to the wrong location or bins that have reached their maximum ASIN limit.
Diversion there, sorry, but it may not be clear what the nature of the work is or what kind of stress.
In short, I stand all day and do very physical work. I have bruises all over my legs on a weekly basis trying to handle boxes bigger than me, up to 50lbs. and move them in and out of really small, awkward spaces. On New Year's Eve I realized I was in trouble when I looked in the mirror at a party and saw *just* how much weight I had put on. I started fresh with a dedicated workout plan and eating right. Very right, Tracking EVERYTHING until about Valentine's Day when we went away on a trip. I kinda maintained some discipline but have fallen off track and gained back the 2 or so pounds it took almost 2 months to take off, plus some, I'm sure.
Here's the thing and what I am really here to ask. When I get done work, I am EXHAUSTED. My feet are killing me, my back is tight and sore, my legs ache from my ankles to my hips and now even when I try to force myself into working out when I get home at 7pm, I can barely muscle through. My muscles are so tight and weak from working all day I lack the flexibility and strength I used to have. I am absolutely fatigued and my body feels beat the hell up.
It seems, in theory, I would be getting in better shape doing this kind of work and I am wondering if it is possible that (like over training) it is just TOO MUCH hard work and it is putting a strain on my body. Could it so and if so, could that be causing my body to retain weight/water? Could the stress be a culprit maybe a combination of the above?
Is it too much on my body to push myself to force myself even when I am dead tired at night to work out, too, on top of my long day? My Fitbit and MFP are linked and it rarely shows an increased calorie need during my day although my body says the complete obvious. I try to listen to what they are telling my I need, calorie wise, but I am starving. By 9:30am I've burned off my breakfast and can't wait to eat. Headachey, etc. By lunch I am ravenous, I eat a small snack at 3:45 and by the time I leave I am starving for dinner and often jump right into working out THEN eating and showering and bed finally, by 10:30-11pm.
I do not just eat anything despite my hunger. I pack nutritious and portioned foods. I COULD eat more but I don't.
Could my job be killing my health and overworking my body??
I started working at an Amazon fullfillment centre in October, psyched that the physical work will actually BOOST my weight loss efforts and have since gained about 15-20 lbs. That is not to say there hasn't been any slacking off or badness on account of holidays, travel, or lack of exercise. But it's definitely a thing and that is why I am here, hopefully for some feedback.
I work 10 hours 4 days a week and it-is-tough. Some days are easier than others but at Christmas mandatory overtime had me working from 7:30am-7pm 4 days a week. It isn't unusual to have stretches or time in my day when my Fitbit says I am in a heart rate zone of 95-115 while I am schlepping (or trying to) ridiculously big boxes in and out of my PIT (powered industrial truck) and into or out of really small bin spaces. Oftentimes the stress and pace kick into high gear if I have to pick and unbox say 30 items, break down the boxes, and do it fast cause there is someone behind me waiting to get by or work in that same spot.
We are monitored like germs under a microscope every minute of our day. There is always someone standing around watching us, waiting to catch people slip up and make a mistake so they can scan our badges and yell at us. If you make more than 2 mistakes per 1500 units, each one is flagged in the system and the manager gets a report and they will retrain you. There is little organization or communication so while we are being timed and tracked for time off task between scans, it is not unlikely that you are trying to stow items and have nowhere to go with them. Either you can't find available space or where you THINK it would go won't accept it, so you have to drive back to have someone look it up. Again, it's all pressure, all day, cause the system does not tell us where to stow items but it WILL tell us it won't go somewhere and then tell the manager every time we tried scanning to the wrong location or bins that have reached their maximum ASIN limit.
Diversion there, sorry, but it may not be clear what the nature of the work is or what kind of stress.
In short, I stand all day and do very physical work. I have bruises all over my legs on a weekly basis trying to handle boxes bigger than me, up to 50lbs. and move them in and out of really small, awkward spaces. On New Year's Eve I realized I was in trouble when I looked in the mirror at a party and saw *just* how much weight I had put on. I started fresh with a dedicated workout plan and eating right. Very right, Tracking EVERYTHING until about Valentine's Day when we went away on a trip. I kinda maintained some discipline but have fallen off track and gained back the 2 or so pounds it took almost 2 months to take off, plus some, I'm sure.
Here's the thing and what I am really here to ask. When I get done work, I am EXHAUSTED. My feet are killing me, my back is tight and sore, my legs ache from my ankles to my hips and now even when I try to force myself into working out when I get home at 7pm, I can barely muscle through. My muscles are so tight and weak from working all day I lack the flexibility and strength I used to have. I am absolutely fatigued and my body feels beat the hell up.
It seems, in theory, I would be getting in better shape doing this kind of work and I am wondering if it is possible that (like over training) it is just TOO MUCH hard work and it is putting a strain on my body. Could it so and if so, could that be causing my body to retain weight/water? Could the stress be a culprit maybe a combination of the above?
Is it too much on my body to push myself to force myself even when I am dead tired at night to work out, too, on top of my long day? My Fitbit and MFP are linked and it rarely shows an increased calorie need during my day although my body says the complete obvious. I try to listen to what they are telling my I need, calorie wise, but I am starving. By 9:30am I've burned off my breakfast and can't wait to eat. Headachey, etc. By lunch I am ravenous, I eat a small snack at 3:45 and by the time I leave I am starving for dinner and often jump right into working out THEN eating and showering and bed finally, by 10:30-11pm.
I do not just eat anything despite my hunger. I pack nutritious and portioned foods. I COULD eat more but I don't.
Could my job be killing my health and overworking my body??
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Replies
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It should be noted that I used to be a night owl and get mad that my BF wants to go to bed so early. Most days I am dead to the world, now, and am ready to pass out if I am laying on the floor doing bridges or back bows or stretching. For me to be that tired, it's crazy.1
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It's all pretty irrelevant, what's your stats? Daily calories, how do you measure them, with a food scale, what's your current weight, what are your goals...15
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When you say you pack nutritious and portioned foods, are you logging your calorie intake accurately, choosing the correct entries in the database and measuring the foods out?
Gaining 15-20lbs over a period of 6 months is a gain of 0.5-0.75lbs per week, which roughly puts you around 250-375 calories over maintenance per day, that's very easy to do.
You could be retaining a little water but it's unlikely that accounts for all of your weight gain.
If you are logging, open up your diary (Privacy settings in app) to public and I am sure we can help with where you might be making common mistakes in accuracy.
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Stress increases cortisol, which can lead to water retention. However, there's a limit to how much water you will retain (i.e., not all gained weight is going to be water.) Being tired and stress is going to make you feel hungry and make you less inhibited about eating. In other words, you are likely eating more than you realize simply because your defenses are down a bit.
In my experience, fighting to stay in a sizable deficit while active and having a lot of stress is a recipe for frustration and burn out. It's worth considering giving yourself outright permission to take a break from losing weight for awhile (a few weeks or a month) before then going back to a smaller deficit. That mental break can be really refreshing. Small deficits can be a bit annoying because it's easy to see that weight loss will take longer but in practice they speed up weight loss for people who tend to crash/go off diet under the pressure of a larger diet.11 -
I think to some degree, stress can impede our progress, but ultimately CICO will prevail. Therefore, my first question is more about you:
What is your current weight?
What is your goal weight?
What weight loss rate (lbs per week) do you have set with MFP?
How are you tracking your calorie intake (are you using a kitchen scale whenever possible to measure portions)?
Are you using accurate entries from the database?
What is your activity profile set to (I'm guessing active because of your job which explains why your steps aren't seemingly syncing with your activity).
For now, let's figure out your calorie issues, then we can figure out exercise. Ultimately, calories management will hep the weight come off. Then you can figure out exercise.
Take a breath. We'll figure it out.4 -
Stress induced constantly elevated cortisol can increase water retention for upwards of 20 lbs it's been found.
Sounds pretty stressful.
Body seems to be only able to handle so much stress.
Diet is a stress too.
Lack of sleep is a stress.
Poor nutrition is a stress.
Control what you can, and hope it's below the line where the body responds negatively with above effect.
So for diet - an extreme deficit - if that's being done - could be a big backfire as far as weight - even if fat is being lost.
But measurements should show this up.
But with that active a job, and perhaps decent workout at same time - you probably don't need extra exercise.
Hope you were honest with MFP settings to Active or actually Very Active it sounds like.
If 15 or over lbs to lose to healthy weight - 1 lb deficit weekly would be reasonable in a normal stressed life.
With yours - 1/2 lb weekly might be smarter and more successful.6 -
You may not be in shape for the work, but the weight gain is due to more calories in vs calories burned.6
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No. My job is very physical and it affords me ALOT of calories to eat. I eat 2500 and lose a lb a week. I do know that when I first started the job i put on about 10 lbs because I could easily eat more without realizing it if I wasn't logging. Logging had kept me on track and I can eat a sizeable amount of food to lose weight. I could NOT work the job I do and eat 1200 or 1500 calories a day.
Also you can't use any emojis on your phone or it will automatically delete everything you type before the emoji. (that might be what happened )4 -
Too much stress for too long can most definitely affect your body, your defenses, your hormones, and a variety of other things. A number of years ago (when I first put on most of the weight I'm now working to lose), I went through adrenal exhaustion. It's not fun, and yes, it can mess with your body, but mentally you will probably be breaking down as well. This is something your doctor would diagnose, however, as it's not as common as some would like to think/wish.
Everyone processes stress differently, so I can't say if your job is putting you into that kind of position or if you're just tired and worn out. Your doctor can diagnose more serious issues (such as I experienced). Oh, and to be fair, I did NOT try to restrict my eating anywhere near what I should have been.
If that's not the case, and it's just extra stress, then there are a few things you can do. Tighten up your logging, and take a look at your macros. You may need to play around with them a bit to see what your body needs. Are you giving your body the proper fuel to get through your days? Are you eating enough fats, proteins, carbs to fuel your workdays? How are you adjusting your meals the other 3 days of the week? You don't mention those days at all, and they could be having a MAJOR impact on your weight.
Exercise is great and all, but if you're that tired after a day at work, then save the workouts for your days off. Adjust your calories accordingly. Weight loss has a heck of a lot more to do with what we put in our mouths than it does with our activity level. Were you in an active job before this? Is your body still adjusting to the new workload/activity level? These are also things to consider.1 -
I have my calories set to 1500/day. I'll eat like 2 baked turkey bacon wrapped egg cups for breakfast, an apple with all natural peanut butter for snack, and I dunno, 2 cups of home made lentil soup or something for lunch, and a lil bag of mixed nuts for my 3:45 snack. Just for an example. I had had my cals set to 1200 and upped it, my other thought was maybe I was eating TOO LITTLE during my work/workout days?
I was doing Fitness Blender's programmes so like a combo of cardio/HIIT and strength usually, 45-60 mins.5 -
and I had met with a dietician to go over my goals and needs and as far as *what* I am eating, she really didn't have much else to suggest cause I do pretty good on my own, just maybe eat a bigger snack before I leave work and eat a little after my workout/before bed, to not eat dinner so late.3
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justinejacksonm wrote: »I have my calories set to 1500/day. I'll eat like 2 baked turkey bacon wrapped egg cups for breakfast, an apple with all natural peanut butter for snack, and I dunno, 2 cups of home made lentil soup or something for lunch, and a lil bag of mixed nuts for my 3:45 snack. Just for an example. I had had my cals set to 1200 and upped it, my other thought was maybe I was eating TOO LITTLE during my work/workout days?
I was doing Fitness Blender's programmes so like a combo of cardio/HIIT and strength usually, 45-60 mins.
If you are not using a food scale to measure all of these things then you are eating more than you think and that is where your issues lie.12 -
I was not working til Oct, from April-Oct cause I broke my foot JUST as I started to try to get back into shape. I did pretty well, walking on crutches proved a great workout and despite my inactivity I was starting to look very svelt just by doing upper body cardio stuff from bed every day and crutching around. Before that I worked at a desk job in customer service. I was inactive mostly but had the time to wake up with my BF (as I have to do now to get ready for work) and go for a jog or do a quick workout and shower BEFORE work and maybe do another after work at 6ish. I just don't have that time anymore. I just feel like my body is worn out. And I admit ,like I said, I was already getting in bad shape and on top of that before I could undo it we had a trip to San Diego in November and lunged right into those long long brutal days during peak season at work, NO workouts, a couple drinks after work to destress, than the holidays, my bday in January which is when I officially started over again an was doing good. I went to Atlanta in mid February and that threw me off a lil but when i got back and weighed myself, I was still a little lighter than when I started in January.4
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Whilst I sympathise with your situation, you’re saying a lot of things that are irrelevant to weight loss. If you are gaining weight at then you are eating more than you think. Use a scale to measure everything, maybe you’ll be surprised.19
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most days I'll actually finish about 200-300 under my budget, at least according to Fitbit.3
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justinejacksonm wrote: »
Clue #1 "I dunno two cups of lentil soup for dinner"
Clue #2 You've been asked numerous times if you use a scale and you haven't answered.23 -
Okay. Can you please open your Food Diary so we may be better able to help you?
Go to Food >Settings and scroll to the bottom and click "Public."5 -
Pretty much what others have said above. I’m not saying it to be rude to you, or do devalue your experiences, but the fact is that weightloss is pretty simple and if you’re not losing weight there really aren’t many other options beyond ‘it’s because you’re eating too much’. So if you’re telling me you’re only eating 1,500 calories a day then I’m telling you you’re probably miscalculating.justinejacksonm wrote: »
Of course you can request a full blood count from your doctor to rule out any medical conditions, but that’s your call.
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justinejacksonm wrote: »most days I'll actually finish about 200-300 under my budget, at least according to Fitbit.
For your type of work, Fitbit could be off decently.
If HR model, and your HR goes up high enough, it'll start using HR-based calorie burn.
Which won't be accurate for slightly more active daily movement. So you could have hours if decently inflated calorie burn.
If HR model and it's correctly using the step-based calorie burn, your stride length could be wrong and it has you walking much more than you really do. So again inflated calorie burn for hours could be a decent amount.
Have you ever gone and walked a known 1 mile at your average daily pace (not exercise pace, not grocery store shuffle, in between) and confirmed Fitbit had the distance correct?
With so much feet time, this is important stat for you if you want to use that tool well.
And if it's slipping into HR-based calorie burn formula - it may be best to turn that off during the work day, leave it for sleep and workouts.
Which actually - your interval style workouts are still incorrect usage, but it doesn't sound like that much time weekly.
And it appears half the responses to you forget that increased water weight does NOT mean increased calories.
Some of your increased water weight at start of job could have been just increased blood volume to deal with getting oxygen to the muscles better for use, and mainly for cooling - unless your workouts were already at the same level. In which case, no.4 -
This sounds very high stress - yikes!
I agree with much of what others have said, but wanted to add something I didn't see in a skim-through: Especially If your fitbit model is one that uses heart rate in estimating calorie burn, and you're using it to guide calorie intake, it's just possible that the device is overestimating calorie burn. Stress can noticeably increase your heart rate, but the stress per se doesn't burn extra calories.
Best wishes as you work to adapt to your very demanding job, and find a weight loss formula that works for you!4 -
This sounds very high stress - yikes!
I agree with much of what others have said, but wanted to add something I didn't see in a skim-through: Especially If your fitbit model is one that uses heart rate in estimating calorie burn, and you're using it to guide calorie intake, it's just possible that the device is overestimating calorie burn. Stress can noticeably increase your heart rate, but the stress per se doesn't burn extra calories.
Best wishes as you work to adapt to your very demanding job, and find a weight loss formula that works for you!
THIS. I work an office job with very little physical movement, and my primary role is deal negotiation. During two very intense negotiations earlier this year, my deal phone calls registered as exercise on my FitBit due to elevated heartrate during the calls - I assure you, I was not doing lunges during my calls, LOL. You have to take your FitBit calculations with a grain of salt.6 -
cmriverside wrote: »Okay. Can you please open your Food Diary so we may be better able to help you?
Go to Food >Settings and scroll to the bottom and click "Public."
^This^
Also, are you using a food scale to measure your intake? If you are absolutely certain that you are intaking fewer calories than you are outputting, get thee to a doctor because there could be something wrong with you.
OR... You could be totally accidentally and good naturedly miscalculating your calorie inputs and outputs.3 -
You won't see much recently but if you look in January and Feb you'll see entries. I haven't been logging anything lately cause I haven't been tracking it, too much travel and such but it must be noted the point of discussion is about previous months and the whether or not my job could be physically demanding enough that maybe I am not eating *enough* calories compared to what I am burning in a day and/or possibly doing enough, especially with exercise, that I am over working my body thus not seeing any advances.13
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justinejacksonm wrote: »You won't see much recently but if you look in January and Feb you'll see entries. I haven't been logging anything lately cause I haven't been tracking it, too much travel and such but it must be noted the point of discussion is about previous months and the whether or not my job could be physically demanding enough that maybe I am not eating *enough* calories compared to what I am burning in a day and/or possibly doing enough, especially with exercise, that I am over working my body thus not seeing any advances.
Honestly, I'm not really sure how to help you if you're not logging because we have no way of really knowing how much you are or aren't eating. Probably you're eating too much to lose weight because that's how it must be if you're not losing weight--barring having some undiagnosed medical condition that would cause this.
I understand that some people bandy about the term "starvation mode" as some kind of... magical... science-confounding *thing* that would cause someone to gain weight despite CI<CO... but it's simply not the case. Again, barring a legitimate medical condition, if you are burning more calories than you are consuming, you will lose weight. If you are not losing weight in the face of so much activity, it must be because you are eating more than you are burning OR you have a medical condition that's not been diagnosed.
I'm sorry. I know that's probably not what you want to hear.
ETA
So I did go back to January and February in your diary to see what was there. I see a lot of "Quick Add" calorie entries that I'm assuming are rough estimates you've done mentally. Also a lot of perfectly single-serving entries--exactly four ounces of chicken breast or exactly two tablespoons of peanut butter, etc. There's a few entries that look like maybe you put them in the recipe builder... or maybe you just searched for "tea with milk and sugar" and picked the first one... And, as you've mentioned, intermittent and inconsistent logging from day to day.
Regarding "quick add" calories and perfect serving sizes... There's a lot of room for error in those logs. The difference between a true single serving of peanut butter and what most people--not necessarily you--consider a single serving can be hundreds of calories. You could really tighten up your logging on these items with a food scale and "gram" entries in the database. Using volumetric measurements like cups for things like cottage cheese or oatmeal will surely result in errors, as well.
As for the entries that look like someone built them in the recipe builder--did you build those and log them? Is your "savory oatmeal bowl with egg" something you built for yourself.. or something you searched for and thought it seemed close enough? If it's someone else's entry and you can't see exactly how much of what was put in it, I would not recommend using it on a regular basis. If it's YOUR entry, I would recommend that you are making your foods consistently and measuring them with a food scale. It does no good to log a "cup of coffee" today that isn't the same as yesterday's entry.
I hope this helps. When I first started logging, I made a lot of the same mistakes until someone else pointed out that it did me no good to count calories if the calories I was counting weren't accurate.14 -
I found some entries in January. The first one that jumped out at me was the potato. You logged a medium potato three days in a row. They do vary in size.
Lots of unweighed items. You need to use a food scale. That will help nail down your actual intake.8 -
justinejacksonm wrote: »it must be noted the point of discussion is about previous months and the whether or not my job could be physically demanding enough that maybe I am not eating *enough* calories compared to what I am burning in a day and/or possibly doing enough, especially with exercise, that I am over working my body thus not seeing any advances.
No. You can’t gain weight from eating too few calories.
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Definitely get a food scale (lots of decent ones for fairly cheap on Amazon) and start weighing things to the gram, or at least the tenth of an oz if there's not a gram entry.
I finally got a food scale this past winter - some of the things were really revealing. What I thought of as a TBS of butter, was often quite a bit more once I weighed it. Some things I could eat a lot more of (veggies especially, but even some meats), but a lot of the higher-calorie dense foods I was finding were waaaay off.
Also, don't forget to add in any extras such as a sauce, or dressing, perhaps a glass of wine, etc. Packages are a nice guideline, but if you're using portions of a package, without weighing them yourself, you may be very off - that was another one that kind of blew me away when I started weighing foods!4 -
you dont gain weight from not eating enough. stress can hinder weight loss to a point but you still need a calorie deficit. and yes its easy to eat more than you think when you dont log and weigh. I learned that the hard way. I started gaining the weight I lost back. once I started weighing all my food I realized I was eating more than a serving of most foods.
I also learned anything packaged can be off by up to 20% per serving. its eye opening for sure when you weigh what you are currently eating and its more than you thought you were. If you are burning more than you are taking in you would be in a deficit and you would be losing no doubt about it. sure being stressed and increased cortisol could make it a little harder to lose at a rate than if you werent stressed maybe, but its not going to cause you to gain weight.4 -
Stuff like cup of tea, are recipes I created that I prepare in consistently the same way, and yes I do measure specifically with tsp, tbsp, etc. Stuff like chicken and meat I put on my food scale, the same for when I portion out my snack baggies of nuts. With those I scan the bar codes on the package and measure out to the serving sizes on them.
As for the imported recipes, should it make a difference if they were prepared and portioned out exactly as the recipe describes? If a recipe called for a certain list of ingredients and they were measured out per directions how would that change an entry if I plugged in the exact portion/serving size that I ate of that meal?
I just don't understand. If I am already with a goal of 1500 cals per day and that's probably not enough with my level of activity and then often a few calories below that how much SHOULD I eat? 800 calories a day? Not to mention it is helpful in the beginning for beginners who have no idea about portion sizes to measure every thing but it is not a sustainable lifestyle. Not to compare though I will... if you watch the Fitness Blender videos, Kelli emphasizes how much she eats a day (granted I am sure she is more active making workout videos all day) she also states how the goal is to eat healthily.
SO yes, some things are estimated like if I go out to eat and I do not know the exact weight of the piece of chicken, etc. But many things I use, I make one time entries for that I can go back to and make them the same way, when I do. If I add something or leave something out, I make a new one differentiating. I need to go back and look cause I don't see myself as eating a potato 3 days in a row. I may eat a breakfast bowl that used a potato as one of the ingredients... which date specifically did you see that?8
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