IT Workers Are Getting Fatter

buzzardsbay writes "While technologies such as virtualization, multi-threading, and blade servers have made the data center leaner, those who work there are getting... well... not leaner. According to a new study by CareerBuilder.com, 34 percent of IT workers say they have gained more than ten pounds in their current jobs. And 16 percent say they've gained at least twice that. The culprits seem to be the stressful-yet-sedentary nature of tech work coupled with our famously poor eating habits. According to the survey, some 41 percent of IT workers eat out for lunch twice or more per week, making portion and calorie control difficult. Eleven percent buy their lunch out of a vending machine at least once a week."

Not just IT workers

From TFA:

... IT workers [in the United States] can take heart in another CareerBuilder finding: They are less chubby than financial services and government workers. Fifty-three percent of financial workers said they have gained weight at their current jobs, while the number for government workers is 52 percent.

I guess if you're a sysadmin for the Internal Revenue Service then you're really screwed.

Re:Not just IT workers

I guess if you're a sysadmin for the Internal Revenue Service then you're really screwed.

No, you're just fat. All those people who call you "tubby"? THEY are screwed. FEAR [e-mail]!

Re:Not just IT workers

I don't fear [e-mail] as much as I fear [e-mail]........

Re:Not just IT workers

And nobody modded up a "Bastard Operator From Hell" joke?

This is supposed to be news for nerds. Come on. What next? Will we start ignoring naked petrified Natalee Portman?

On to serious matters. This report is really just fudging numbers. Government and financial workers gain more weight at the current job because, surprise. They have been there longer.

IT geeks count the time we stay at a job we like in months. Government and financial workers typically start a job straight out of collage and stay there ontil middle age turns them into blimps.

So basicaly it's "Did you gain more than 10 lbs between age 21 and age 42?" vs "have you gained more than 10 lbs so far this year?"

iMac vs Sunfire V240. Not a fair (or reasonable) comparison.

Only PC is getting fat...

...Mac is still skinny. He better watch out; PC may get peckish, and eat him.

Re:Only PC is getting fat...

Wouldn't be the first time. A while back, Windows XP got really hungry on his way to the store and he ate the resident hobo, Windows ME. He got really sick afterwards, went into a coma, and once he woke up, he ran away and changed his name. We now call him Windows Vista.

Get out more

IT jobs like to hand you infinite snacks these days, there's a load of chips and such in the break room. Company culture tends to gravitate towards dubbing a measure of weight gain "The ACME Corp 20" or such nonsense, to which newbies gain some 20 pounds or so and then start limiting snack room visits.

Me, I use the stairs to get to floor 5. I have leg weights. I was in a martial arts class but a shift change took that off my plate, damn. Need to get back to the dojo. Diet? Exercise? Screw that, my entertainment and normal transportation (that is, without elevators) keeps me from being a fat ass.

Re:Get out more

I don't think most IT workers have seen infinite snacks since the dot com days... These days you're lucky to get free coffee.

Re:Get out more

When I've started my new job I started hitting the gym. At first it was mostly an hour of cardio, perhaps something like every day for about 3 months. Began moving up to more intensive exercises gradually, starting with the elliptical, then moving to exercise bike, then eventually hitting up the treadmill. Nothing too intensive, just consistent, even if it's a weaksauce 'performance' compared to the other members. (I've eventually worked up to roughly 5 miles in an hour)

I try not to hit the gym during peak hours - that's when all the muscleheads and casual gym attendees show up, trying to out-do each other. Sometimes I get caught up in the act too - cranking out heavier weights than the next guy out of sheer ego - but that's just a waste of time and excessive strain on the body without much improvement. Dumb dumb dumb. I've noticed the biggest improvements when doing consistent exercises with very small, gradual increments. So it's best to keep your ego in check and just keep on trucking at a casual pace. You don't want to damage something that may potentially put you out of commission out for a few weeks at the gym.

It's been about 6 months now and I've been bored strictly with the cardio, so I've been lifting weights more - again gradually increasing intensity. When I don't feel like hitting the weights, I just get back on the treadmill, usually around once a week. The rest of the week is on the weights rotating different muscle groups each day. Nothing too serious, just doing various exercises to keep my heartbeat up.

I started at 210lbs, now I'm at 176lbs. Not too shabby. I've been trying to drop a pound a week, but now that I'm lifting heavier weights I've been focusing less on the scale.

Now it's become such a routine that even if I don't feel like going to the gym, I just go in to get my heartbeat up.

I think the biggest factor to the weight loss itself wasn't the gym, but more the portion control. I try not to eat these humongous single meals anymore. What I do notice is that I have less cravings for specific fatty foods, I have no idea how that change has come about - I still love to eat burgers and fries, I just don't crave it like I used to. Maybe the cardio affected my physiology, *shrug* who knows. Too bad it hasn't affected by nicotine cravings :(

What's pretty funny was when I started seriously playing World of Warcraft as soon as I get home from work. I would log on immediately when I got home, play straight thru the night, then go to bed around 2am because I was tired from raiding, skipping dinner entirely. I think I lost the majority of my weight during that span of time - talk about ironic.

This became such a regular occurrence that I've noticed I was less hungry in the morning when I went to bed hungry, and whenever I went to bed on a full stomach I would wake up starving looking to eat anything - and eating a little too much in the morning. Because of that I've tried to make it a habit not to eat so much at night. Maybe that helps? Probably not :-) *shrug*

Meeting with food...

I didn't RTFA, but one thing to mention is a lot of companies these days have lots of food just laying around.

Where I work there is always a meeting with food somewhere in the building, and they always order more than they can eat. So of course as soon as the meeting is over, everyone goes and gets the leftovers. Next thing you know, you've had two lunches, two cookies and a bunch of soda you don't need.

It was the same at the last two companies I worked for and I asked a few friends and it's the same where they work.

If you work from home

Try some Ankle Weights [amazon.com]. Adding just 10 lbs extra to your weight you have to carry around burns calories and adds muscle tone. If you do not have a place you can walk to from your home, a coffee place, bar or the like...find one even if you have to drive to it. Walking around a museum or city park is still walking and you might find a new friend or more. An art museum in my town costs about 50 bucks a year for a year long membership, the natural history museum is almost 150 bucks and the parks are always free.

I have built in weights

around my belly mainly.

More than just IT

Never attribute this kind of stuff to your job unless other factors can be ruled out also. Lots of people without access to free snacks/pop put on weight starting about the age 25. For many, getting married seems to add a the pouch and love handles. Also, about age 25, you aren't as hyper as you were when you were 21, and so you are less anxious to run around. When I was 18-25, and in college, I ate like crap, out of vending machines and a quick pizza for lunch. Lots of un-diet sodas. I was still skinny as a rail. When I turned 25 and got married, then I started putting on weight.

Even with eating better, it still doesn't help because my activity levels are far lower than they were when I was younger.

IT and lights out management have nothing to do with it.

How many professions don't get fatter?

I have a hunch this isn't so much a function of IT specifically but of the fact that as people get older, they tend to put on weight. The article even indicated that this wasn't just an IT issue.

"But, hey, no matter the culprits, IT workers can take heart in another CareerBuilder finding: They are less chubby than financial services and government workers. Fifty-three percent of financial workers said they have gained weight at their current jobs, while the number for government workers is 52 percent."

I actually draw a different conclusion from the article, the fact that 34% of IT professionals have gained 10+ lbs in their current profession means they've been in that profession a few years (generally you don't gain that weight overnight).

I don't know about financial workers but this hypothesis is backed up by the growth of government workers who don't change jobs a lot.

One very workable solution...

...would be to have a treadmill or cross-trainer in every cubicle. The harder the worker exercises, the higher the priority his/her processes are given.

"Hey, Joe, you're covered in sweat!"

"Yeah, I know, those KDE apps take ages to compile!"

And this means?

I don't see any mention of a control group or comparison to other occupations.

Maybe 34% of all people gain 10 pounds anyway regardless of their profession or even whether or not they're employed. A lot of people gain weight over time irrespective. What phenomena is being described here?

Re:Eating out

Actually, I have found that just smoking more crack on the days that I eat McDonalds solves the problem~

Re:Eating out

OR you could move about occasionally at work. I know that I don't *have* to sit and stare at my happy little green on black terminal all day- though I sometimes do. Little stuff like kicking your legs (Pretend that someone cares, you are alone in that dark room and you know it) can help lots. I personally have a set of 15lb dumbbells under the desk. Good for passing time, or threatening that damned mail room guy who vehemently claims that I slow down his machines on purpose. Despite his nice habit of subconsciously closing out ads as they open.

Anger in the workplace has done nothing but good for my health. Sitting there shaking in rage at the Pointy-hairs burns calories like no other! The same can be said about the ten minutes of heart pounding after I am 'surprise' visited by my uppers.

Sometimes I wish that I had a bowflex down here just to toy with them. Make them think that I actually DO have time to work out. Even better would be the questions as to how it GOT there in the first place. Piece by piece, just like I learned from MASH.

Oh, and working out. Moving around. Sex. Eat whatever you want, just move about some more to compensate!

Re:Eating out

While I agree with much of what you say (I walk to lunch if I'm going out to eat, and I take the stairs all day), I've found that stress alone can actually cause me to *gain* weight. A study in a recent volume of Men's Health (can't find the link right now) also pointed to a link between high stress and weight gain.

The caveat is that for me, high stress can be the motivation I need for an extra-hard workout at the gym or an extra 2 miles on my run that day. Recently, after a manager whose job title could officially be "chief roadblock" sent me an email (CC'ing my boss) accusing me of being a "PowerPoint Engineer" (because he couldn't understand my UML diagram since he has no background in software), I hit the gym for 2 hours and took a 15 mile run in the same day. I definitely felt a lot better after that.

Re:Eating out

Eating out at work can have other benefits too.. such as escaping the office environment for some mental recovery. Complaining about the bureaucracy with co-workers can be very therapeutic. ;)

Re:Even more?

Um, hate to break this to you, but everyone already has a gravity field.

Getting more massive would indeed make that gravity field more intense.

Re:Maybe if they went vegan they wouldn't be so fa

because if the food sucks, you are less likely to overeat?

Re:I gained weight because I quit smoking...

weird hours

This is actually probably a major part of IT weight gain. I was going to the gym and working out (actually working out, not standing around watching everyone else work out) for a long time, and my weight and my pants size just kept creeping up. Went to the doctor because I figured something must be wrong, and long story short, the problem was getting home at 8-9pm, making dinner, eating dinner, and going to bed. Doc told me to take my dinner to work and eat it at 6pm every day.

In the past 5 months since I got that advice, I've lost almost 40 pounds, putting me at the lowest weight I've been since sometime in the middle of college. Can't say it's made my life great (food is so boring now, since I pretty much have to make the entire week's dinner on Sunday, by Friday dinner is just depressing, and I have to spend the weekend to figure out what dish I'll hate next week...) but I'm sure I'm healthier for it.

Re:I gained weight because I quit smoking...

Never mind. For anyone interested, look here [intelihealth.com] and here [nih.gov] . Both seem to be pretty reputable sources.

Re:I gained weight because I quit smoking...

You actually burn about 60 per hour.

Your body's doing a lot while sleeping. Your heart's beating, your core body temperature is maintained (this takes a reasonable amount of energy just by itself), systemic repair mechanisms are working, you're tossing and turning, etc.